Investigation of items that were stolen during the Okinawa battle began after family discovered them in late father’s belongings

The FBI has returned 22 centuries-old artifacts to Okinawa, Japan, after a family discovered them in their late father’s attic in Massachusetts.

Agents with the FBI’s Boston division on Friday announced that the return of the looted items followed a lengthy investigation that began when they received a call from a family who came across the items while sorting through their dead dad’s belongings.

The father was a second world war veteran but had not served in the Pacific theater, according to the FBI.

Art crime coordinator Geoffrey Kelly of the FBI’s Boston field office said the man’s children nonetheless then “came across some [of] what appeared to be very valuable Asian art”.

“There were some scrolls, there were some pottery pieces, there was an ancient map. They looked old and valuable. And because of this, they did a little research and they determined that at least the scrolls had been entered about 20 years ago in the FBI’s National Stolen Art File,” Kelly said.