Flag of Vietnam with Bảo Đại as emperor. The "Quẻ Ly" Flag, also a red trigram on a yellow background, was adopted in June. Among other things, "Quẻ Ly" symbolizes the direction south. Bảo Đại abdicated in August when Japan surrendered. The French returned in October 1945, but were challenged by the Vietminh, especially in the North. The French proclaimed Cochinchina a republic in June 1946. This puppet state adopted a "Quẻ Càn" flag with blue stripes on a yellow background. In May 1948, the name of the Cochinchina government was changed to "Provisional Central Government of Vietnam" in preparation for a merger
Flag of Iraq which abolished the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq and turned the country into a republic, Iraq adopted a new flag (Law 102 of 1959) that consisted of a black-white-green vertical tricolour, with a red eight-pointed star with a yellow circle at its centre. The black, white, green, and red are the pan-Arab colours, representing pan-Arabism, while the yellow sun represented the Kurdish minority. In addition, the red star of Ishtar was used to represent Iraq's ancient heritage, as well as its minority Assyrian population. This version of the Iraqi national flag is currently allowed to be flown in the Kurdish minority