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| Japan's 'Rising Sun' flag in the classroom. Many people in Korea and other Asian countries think it is equivalent to the Nazi flag. Change.org |
By Jung Min-ho
Korean students in Canada are demanding that their teacher remove Japan's "Rising Sun" flag ― a symbol of the country's wartime aggression ― from their classroom wall.
According to the Columbia Valley Pioneer, a local paper, Monday (KST), a ninth-grade student at Walnut Grove Secondary School in Langley, British Columbia, is leading a campaign against a history teacher's decision to put up the flag for "educational purposes."
Since the student, surnamed Moon, posted a petition on the website Change.org on Sunday, it has garnered more than 8,500 signatures.
"Thinking of the tragedies my grandparents went through, we cannot imagine how someone wouldn't find this symbol inhumane and unethical," Moon said. "This is also an issue that matters to everyone who believes in the sacredness of fundamental human rights built upon the sacrifices of those fallen in battlefields during World War II."
He said the flag was "extremely offensive" to students from Asian countries as it reminded them of Japan's horrific war crimes, such as the sexual enslavement of tens of thousands of young women.
"Everyone knows that Adolf Hitler and his administration committed atrocities against humanity. But 'comfort women,' maruta (live human experiments), and the Rape of Nanking (Nanjing Massacre) are historic events that aren't taught in (Canadian) schools ― at least not with the same degree of importance as that of the Holocaust," Moon said.
"(That's because) more Canadians were directly affected by Nazis than the Japanese. However, if we were to live with the idea that human rights are important, that we must uphold them, and that we must be true to these higher ideals, then it is absolutely necessary to remember the atrocities that the Japanese committed during the World War II as much as we remember those of Nazi Germany."
Since its defeat in WWII, Germany has strictly banned the use of any patterns or designs that invoke the swastika flag, a symbol of Hitler's Nazi era.
Moon asked, "If that specific flag is allowed in the school, why isn't racism and sexism allowed? Are we allowed to wear clothes with a huge Nazi Germany symbol?"
School board spokesperson Ken Hoff said the flag was meant to serve as a "talking point" for the history class and was "not meant or intended to give offense" to anyone.
Hoff said school officials would talk more about the issue with students.
