Reading the funny images thread and talk about the middle finger prompted me to ask a similar question, why do japs do the peace sign in every photo?

I've been traveling around Japan for the last 2 weeks and every time they take a photo they do the peace sign, even in Australia every time I see them posing for photos they do it.

My first thought was it had something to do with Hiroshima/Nagasaki etc but thought I'd pose the question and see why the wealth of seabreeze knowledge produces.

Either way having great time over here enjoying the sights, sounds and food!

I've had chicken liver, fatty tuna sushi, 7/11 dumplings and heaps of beer.

I read in the news that they can't sell the research whale meat cause they don't like it.

I didn't see any whales at the fish markets either, only some western tourists that look similar to whales

carefull, you don't want to go up a couple of kite sizes

I asked a bunch of young school girls who wanted a photo with us back in Japan a few years back. She told us it's not the peace sign it's actually bunny ears.

If you know anything about Japanese culture this makes perfect sense - in the fact that it makes no sense at all.

edit: after a quick wikipedia search, I don't think they actually know what it means themselves...

V sign in photographs of Japanese
The palm-outwards V sign is very commonly made by Japanese people, especially younger people, when posing for informal photographs. One account of this practice claims that during the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, American figure skater Janet Lynn stumbled into Japanese pop culture when she fell during a free-skate period, but continued to smile even as she sat on the ice. Though she placed only third in the competition, her cheerful diligence and persistence resonated with many Japanese viewers, making her an overnight foreign celebrity in Japan. Lynn, a peace activist, was repeatedly seen flashing the V sign in the Japanese media thereafter. Though the V sign was known of in Japan before Lynn used it there (from the post-World War II Allied occupation of Japan), she is credited by some Japanese for having popularized its use in amateur photographs.[33]

V sign in Korea and Taiwan
In South Korea and in Taiwan, the V sign is the most popular pose in photographs. It is used in both casual and formal settings.[34][35] It is not widely known to Koreans or Taiwanese that the V sign can mean "peace" or used as an insult; some may believe that the meaning of the sign is "victory". They use it both ways (palm facing the signer and palm facing forward)

I guess for a similar reason why we smile in a photo even if we aren't smiling before or after the photo is taken. Why do that?! It's just automatic / conditioned / expected / cultural norm... ??? I'd be surprised if they connected it with the "peace sign" given how insular most Japanese are (which ain't a whole lot different to the average Aussie either). For example, the symbol used in Japan at shrines would raise a few eyebrows in the West but they had the symbol hundreds of years before Hitler picked it up and it has none of the connotations that we attribute to it in the West.

That Janet Lynn explanation sounds like it fits perfectly...which probably means it's wrong.

Carantoc said...

theDoctor said...


Hope you remembered your geiger counter...

The two fingered peace sign is actually the churchill V for victory sign of the second world war, maybe the japs are taking it back with their world wide nuclear poisoning...

The peace symbol championed by smelly hippies everywhere is actually the broken cross of christ and rumored to be introduced into popular culture by none other than grand poobar satanist himself alister crowely, via the tavistoc institute, right around the time the genuine peaceful people revolution was cut to shreds with the introduction of hard drugs....

I would suspect that humanoid beings have been holding up two fingers, one finger a thumb and various other hand gestures ever since they evolved the hand.

Claiming that 1943 was the first time that anyone ever held up two fingers palm out in any sort of symbolic gesture seems a little unlikely to me.

Of course our reptillian overlords may have promoted the gesture amongst the enslaved masses as they only have 3 fingers and so doing anything else for them may be a little hard, and may show them up in a crowd.


I will now claim that the first time the V peace sign was used was actually 49,999 years BC when a neandathal wanted to subdue a giant wolly mammoth bull that was stood in the middle of the path. Some 51,997 years later Paul Hogan modified it for use with a water buffalo.

I thought mice ran the place.....

To young people today it means nothing more than we are happy and having a good time.I am sure none of them know it's roots or care. Happy! V

shannon8888 said...

carefull, you don't want to go up a couple of kite sizes

I've got 6 weeks before Mauritius to go back down to my normal kite size!

I did ask a few while in Tokyo and all they did was ask for a photo and did the bunny ears/peace sign.

You can never be sure what your eating over here.

The best thing is that I haven't been arse pissing out my mud c$&t like I was in Vietnam from eating dodgy food.

I can't upload pics from iPad but at the fish markets I found whole dried squid.

Pretty much anything that can be found in the ocean was at the fish markets.

Lucky bastard