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The use of the rising sun long predates japanese imperialism and wasn't created as a symbol to represent it. Plain and simple. There's nothing more to this.
Similar to the first name "Adolf/Adolph," yet still parents rarely choose to give that name...wonder why?
Is there anything inherently wrong with using the name though? There isn't. So should Japan also change its national flag because it was flown in countries that Japan took over? Is the Union Jack a symbol of hate since it also represents the British empire and all that they have done? What are we really attempting to do in this thread besides complain?
Sure name your kid Adolph. Nothing in a name at all. No problem at all for his Jewish teacher whose grandparents were gassed.
Fly through Rising Sun, isn’t disrespectful at all to people who lost family under Japanese occupation.
I’m sure you have no problem just wearing a Nazi swastika, because it’s just some lines.
If people want to associate with a regime that did terrible shit, that’s their problem, right?
And yeah, I actually do think in the future, if we make it through the next 50, will look back and see the US and UK flags with more objective eyes, and see that they were also responsible for horrendous crimes.
This is where you're mixing it up; The NAZI swastika is NOT THE swastika. One was been used for centuries and is still widely used while the other is a perversion of it and is only used by hate groups. They are two different images even though they may be similar. The union jack has been in use since the 1800's. Do you feel that the united states should change its flag due to the imposing nature it may have on people of other nations? You don't need another 50 years to think about this.
No, I’m not mixing it up, I’m using your logic.
You say what’s the big deal, the rising Sun has been around since before Japan’s imperialism, wasn’t created as a symbol to represent it.
But it WAS the symbol chosen to represent it, and still is. It retains that history and meaning.
Likewise the swastika wasn’t created by the Nazis (there is one THE swastika, by the way, it’s increasingly varied, just as rising Sun depictions are across cultures) but they used it, and now for much of the world that’s the only meaning it has. Especially as people who idolize the Nazis still use it (just as the Japanese ultra-right still uses it and other imperial symbols).
However Japan has largely reduced its Imperial tradition to the Emperor being a non-political symbol, and has a pacifist constitution.
The US is still functionally an empire, with bases all over the world, and has not made amends to the genocide of the native population of its own country, nor it’s attacks on other countries and the damage it caused, Afghanistan being only a very recent example. That’s why much of the world no longer sees the US positively, and often burns the flag.
So should the US change its flag?
I’m less concerned about the flag that the actions that lead to people hating the flag, it should stop oppressing people, killing other countries for oil, stop fucking with other countries’ democratic elections, and stop destroying our common environment for money.
When a country uses a symbol, it is a symbol not just for bullshit patriotic sentiments (as seen by its citizens),it’s a symbol of the evils (as seen by victims and outside observers).
Personally I hate the US government and economic/political system, so I’d rather see that change before the flag. Just changing the flag without addressing the problems that make the flag a symbol for those problems is just branding.