Japan has a flag problem, too

[Path_Finder]

Japan has a flag problem, too

As the debate about the use of the Confederate flag raged in the United States this week, many looked abroad for other symbol-based controversies. Germany, which had banned the swastika and other Nazi iconography after World War II, became an especially common reference: If the Germans had banned Nazi symbols, the logic went, why couldn’t the United States ban symbols of the Confederacy?

The German example is illuminating, if imperfect, but the swastika is not the only controversial symbol of World War II worth considering. The most infamous emblem of the horrors of wartime Japan, the Rising Sun flag, was never banned, and it still flies today.

Much like the Confederate battle flag, which was used by several Confederate army units, the Rising Sun flag was a flag of war. It was first used by warlords back in the Edo period between the 17th and 19th centuries and was officially made the war flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1870.

Despite its history, the Rising Sun flag remains in use. It is flown by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, which was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force uses a modified version, too, and you can spot the flag on cans of Asahi beer or in the flag of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper company. (Japan’s official national flag since 1999, which shows a sun disk and is known as the Hinomaru, also has links to Imperial Japan but is generally considered less provocative than the Rising Sun flag.)

washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/06/27/japan-has-a-flag-problem-too/

I think back in the '80s, with the “big hair” bands, it was common to see the flag used as a bandana headwrap or on shirts. In fact, such merchandise is available at amazon:

amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Arising%20sun%20bandana

 

[robertericleech]

That’s interesting! People forget that Japan committed unspeakable atrocities in the name of racial superiority…against the Chinese and Koreans particularly. The estimate is something like 3 to 10 million people between 1937 and 1945.

 

[BartholomewB]

There’s an important difference. The Rising Sun flag, in both forms (with and without the rays) is the historic, centuries-old national flag of Japan. Not so the swastika, which originated as the Nazi Party symbol and was adopted as the national flag of Germany only after the Nazis came to power.

 

[robertericleech]

That’s true, the flag Germany uses now is the Weimar flag.

 

[PJH_74]

That’s interesting! People forget that Japan committed unspeakable atrocities in the name of racial superiority…against the Chinese and Koreans particularly. The estimate is something like 3 to 10 million people between 1937 and 1945.

The Chinese certainly haven’t forgotten. Japan’s inability to apologize well about this time period is a major issue in their diplomacy.

 

[PJH_74]

TNot so the swastika, which originated as the Nazi Party symbol and was adopted as the national flag of Germany only after the Nazis came to power.

The swastika well predates the Nazis. It’s a symbol used both in Hinduism and Buddhism for centuries. I seem to remember it has also been used in some Native American cultures. I know for a fact there was a Swastika Railway in the US.

 

[BartholomewB]

The swastika well predates the Nazis. It’s a symbol used both in Hinduism and Buddhism for centuries. I seem to remember it has also been used in some Native American cultures. I know for a fact there was a Swastika Railway in the US.

Yes, the Nazis plagiarized it from India, but prior to that, it had never been used as a political or national symbol in Germany.

 

[captainrick]

The Chinese certainly haven’t forgotten. Japan’s inability to apologize well about this time period is a major issue in their diplomacy.

Filipinos haven’t forgotten either. I have Filipino relatives and friends who still despise that Japanese flag, rememberIng the atrocities committed against their parents and grandparents.

 

[Path_Finder]

Japan may have used it in the 1700s; but what happened in the '30s and '40s is too awful. Maybe that is Emperor Japan. I see it as objectionable. Whether people should not do it or not, I’m not sure about that issue. I can only speak for myself, I’d not wear such a shirt but I think at times, without knowing the background, I might have considered it.

 

[Path_Finder]

Filipinos haven’t forgotten either. I have Filipino relatives and friends who still despise that Japanese flag, rememberIng the atrocities committed against their parents and grandparents.

Exactly, China, Korea, Phillipines and probably active in the same way in Southeast Asia besides treating our own American servicemen badly as POWs. And in fact, there is a famous picture of a prisoner from the Allied countries waiting to be beheaded.

It’s difficult to say who was the most worse power but let’s not forget, Japan started their invasions well before the beginning of WWII.

Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Manchuria

The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, was a staged event engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the Japanese invasion in 1931 of northeastern China, known as Manchuria.[1][2][3]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident

So, many of us are not as familiar with this Theater of War but I have heard in the Far East, they often teach World War II beginning well before the 1939 invasion by Nazi Germany.

Japanese war atrocities are horrid, burying people alive and such.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

 

[Sarcelle]

That’s interesting! People forget that Japan committed unspeakable atrocities in the name of racial superiority…against the Chinese and Koreans particularly. The estimate is something like 3 to 10 million people between 1937 and 1945.

The Japanese committed atrocities so outrageous that the visiting Nazi advisors were shocked and horrified.

Nazis are now often regarded as the ultimate in cruelty and violence but in comparison to the Japanese, the Nazis were mere amateurs.

 

[Sarcelle]

Exactly, China, Korea, Phillipines and probably active in the same way in Southeast Asia besides treating our own American servicemen badly as POWs. And in fact, there is a famous picture of a prisoner from the Allied countries waiting to be beheaded.

It’s difficult to say who was the most worse power but let’s not forget, Japan started their invasions well before the beginning of WWII.

Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Manchuria

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident

So, many of us are not as familiar with this Theater of War but I have heard in the Far East, they often teach World War II beginning well before the 1939 invasion by Nazi Germany.

Japanese war atrocities are horrid, burying people alive and such.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

Yes, this prisoner of war to be beheaded was Australian.