Interesting Flag - Some characters I can't Find

[tbonesullivan]

Well, this did give me a chance to re-learn Katakana a bit, but some parts of this flag I can't get the right character for, and also the date at the bottom doesn't make any sense to me.

 

This is what I got from it:

禾国 マサツセッツ ? イーストハンプトン
 プリザント街 77 番 ?
 ライオネル エーラプレード
 
日本九 ?
 
年之十四百九千
日二 月 二

 

It gives an address 77 Pleasant St Easthampton Mass, and what I assume is a name, though I can't figure out what last name "エーラプレード" would be.  The characters I can't find anywhere are the ?s. It looks like the character in the first line is the same as the one after the KYU on the sun. I thought it was hiragana but definitely isn't any character I can find.

 

The date is also very confusing, as it reads 14 hundred 9 thousand? I'm assuming this is some flag brought home post war during the occupation.

 

Any help is appreciated!

[SteveM]

米国マサツセッツ洲・イーストハンプトン
プリザント街77番地
ライオネル　エー ラプレード  (Maybe Lionel A. Lapredo)

日本九洲

 

transposed from the original, which is written right-to-left

千九百四十六年
二月二日
 

[tbonesullivan]

21 hours ago, SteveM said:

米国マサツセッツ洲・イーストハンプトン
プリザント街77番地
ライオネル　エー ラプレード  (Maybe Lionel A. Lapredo)

日本九洲

 

transposed from the original, which is written right-to-left

千九百四十六年
二月二日
 

 

Ohhhhhhhh. Thanks so much!!! Now I get how the date works. I was reading it backwards, and reading the numbers backwards.

 

Looks like the last name is probably Laprade. Looks like he was in the 5th Marines and was at Iwo Jima. Lived his whole life in Easthampton.