Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Japan's 'Rising Sun' flag in a classroom. Many people in Korea and other Asian countries think it is equivalent to the Nazi flag. Change.org |
By Jung Min-ho
A Canadian school has removed a "Rising Sun" flag ― an emblem seen by many Asians as a symbol of the country's wartime aggression ― from a history classroom after students complained about it.
Walnut Grove Secondary School in Langley, British Columbia, reportedly took down the flag on Tuesday (KST) after an online petition against it garnered nearly 10,000 signatures.
A Korean student, surnamed Moon, who posted the petition on the website Change.org, Sunday, said the flag was "extremely offensive" to many students from Asian countries as it reminded them of Japan's war crimes, such as the sexual enslavement of tens of thousands of young women.
School board spokesman Ken Hoff said officials decided to take down the flag temporarily ahead of a discussion between them and the students who found it offensive.
"It's a little unfortunate that this was taken out of context," Hoff was quoted as saying. "The flag is being actively used as a teaching tool … you can't start editing and censoring history."
Hoff said the person who pinned the flag to the classroom wall is a "well-respected history teacher" and he only did so for educational purposes.
Since its defeat in WWII, Germany has strictly banned the use of any patterns or designs that invoke the swastika flag, the symbol of Hitler's Nazi era.
