One rather striking image that seems to be appearing in graphic designs all over the place all of the sudden — on clothing and in brand logos and so forth — is the Japanese "rising sun" emblem.
A quick check on Wikipedia reveals the origins of the symbol: historically associated with the Japanese military, it was first adopted as the official naval ensign in 1889 (the flag is still in use for that purpose to this very day). Here's a t-shirt I found on a simple Google search featuring the symbol, similar to one I saw today:
Now I admit it does look cool. There's no denying that. But I am disturbed by the fact that it's being absorbed into popular culture in this way. I wonder: how is wearing this any different to wearing a Swastika? This is a flag against which a generation of Australians were called to fight. It's the flag waved by Japanese Imperialists as they conquered and subjugated the people of South East Asia. Horrific atrocities like the Rape of Nanking were carried out under this flag. It was a rallying symbol for Tojo's militarist thugs. In short, it is a flag of fascists.
As I mentioned earlier, this flag is still in official use. We could get into a whole sideline debate as to why that is and whether or not it should be disassociated completely from the modern Japanese military, but that's an entirely different discussion. The question is, where do we draw the line on political correctness in pop-culture iconography?
3 comments:
I realise this is a pretty broad debate. You could ask the very same questions about the ever-popular Confederate "Stars and Bars" battle flag. I think this one seems more topical for us as Australians though -- most people in this country probably tend to associate the Confederate flag more with bikee gangs than with slavery.
Anyway the floor is open. I'm interested to hear other views on this.
People have totally forgot the political implications of symbols and just wear these kind of things because they're popular.
I'm sure half the people wearing those Che Guevara shirts don't actually know or care who he was or what he did.
You could probably get away with wearing just about any tyrant on your shirt, as long as it's not Hitler, Saddam or OBL. Unless of course the shirt was mocking them somehow.
It's like any issue of free speech. In a free society you can't stop people from expressing themselves. Everyone has the right to wear offensive shirts. The onus is on the people who make them I guess.
Post a Comment