4 ms·

A line has to be drawn somewhere. The swastika was a very popular symbol, and remains popular outside nazis. The swastika shouldn't (and really can't) be banne

A line has to be drawn somewhere. The swastika was a very popular symbol, and remains popular outside nazis. The swastika shouldn't (and really can't) be banned, but the Nazi usage of it should be. The confederate flag had a bunch of variants and the popular version seen today was only used after as a symbol of hate. Should be banned. The rising sun flag is just one variation of a couple themes used throughout Japanese history and it was used in a non-imperialist setting for hundreds of years since the Edo period. Its in the fuzzy place where most flags lie. You can argue for the banning of that flag for those atrocities, but why stop there? Are you going to ignore the countless indigenous peoples who suffered under the American flag or all the colonialism done under the union jack? What about the Turkish flag which flew during the genocide they committed and still flies today. What you're essentially arguing for is banning all flags related to some kind of atrocity. That's most flags.

andrewzah 6y ago
At the end of the day it's going to be arbitrary. If you take a group of people and ask them what the rising sun flag represents, the majority response will be about WWII imperialist Japan. Which makes sense as they changed it immediately after their surrender in WWII. It legitimately is viewed like the nazi flag by the various Korean people I've talked to in Korea. The context also matters. Korea has plenty of swastikas. Specifically at shrines/temples and on the ground; not being flown as part of flags. "What about Y" is a weak argument to keep X flag. You could make that argument for basically any flag. To answer though, it's likely the US flag will be seen in a similar light once it's no longer a powerful hegemony. If the US had a flag that was only used during its "imperialist era" and a different modern one, one would have a stronger argument.
ThrowawayR2 6y ago
Seems rather disrespectful to be making this kind of argument considering the scale involved. Roughly 22 million people died in Asia as a result of the Japanese occupation preceding and during the Second World War. That's just shy of triple the dead of the Holocaust and 4.5 times the number of slaves in the US in 1860.

andrewzah 6y ago

At the end of the day it's going to be arbitrary. If you take a group of people and ask them what the rising sun flag represents, the majority response will be about WWII imperialist Japan. Which makes sense as they changed it immediately after their surrender in WWII. It legitimately is viewed like the nazi flag by the various Korean people I've talked to in Korea. The context also matters. Korea has plenty of swastikas. Specifically at shrines/temples and on the ground; not being flown as part of flags. "What about Y" is a weak argument to keep X flag. You could make that argument for basically any flag. To answer though, it's likely the US flag will be seen in a similar light once it's no longer a powerful hegemony. If the US had a flag that was only used during its "imperialist era" and a different modern one, one would have a stronger argument.

ThrowawayR2 6y ago

Seems rather disrespectful to be making this kind of argument considering the scale involved. Roughly 22 million people died in Asia as a result of the Japanese occupation preceding and during the Second World War. That's just shy of triple the dead of the Holocaust and 4.5 times the number of slaves in the US in 1860.