Some may have smiled at my little story and one kind person called me a geek not meant to hurt me ...

I started to write a sequel to my picture adventure ... and decided not to ..

You see ... I honestly believe that a 'peace' sign is not nearly as destructive (may not be effective in my mind either) as what happened on my way to work one day .. moons ago ... suns, too!

I was in a bit of a hurry .... and
as I seemingly ran in front of a group of elementary school boys dressed in shorts in mid winter ... (surely they are not cold?), I yelled 'Good Morning' and flashed by them like Spiderman
or my beloved Pepe ...

So how does this have to relate with the 'peace' sign ... and where are you going with this ... you may all ask ...

Well, I am not totally sure .. but
I am sure my eyes were clear that morning as I saw one boy flip me the magical middle digit ...

.... and I stopped in my tracks

I managed to find enough convincing power to call the boys over (they almost lined up in order by height in probably fear of this towering giant from 'gaikoku' land ....) and explain the meaning ... or at least what I thought it meant ....
It sure can mean other things for sure ...

So you see ... what I am driving at .. and in a less convincing fashion to all of you who have read to the end of my memory ..... I have decided that this 'peace' sign is a whole lot better than the sign the boy gave me that morning .. AND NOW you have the rest of the tale ....

Have a nice evening and PEACE not the BIRD ... LOL

 

I'm glad we have sorted out the origin of the British "sod off" sign. As so many people concurred with my original stab at answering the question of its origin, I am incluned to believe that the blok down the pub was right. It must indeed originate from wars with the French, and a gesture of defiance by British archers.

But I have two questions.

The first is to do with the Japanese peace sign. There have been many ideas floated, but no one seems to have answered satisfactorily where it first originated. Can we reach a consensus?

Also, the question struck me that, although we have sorted out the origins of the British "flipping the V", I am still in the dark about the origin of the American "bird", or middle finger. Where did that come from?

 

Question to you . How many fingers has a Bird?
Now you have the answer.And a downward backhander to you. Just joking "Bird"

 

..."The peace sign gesture must have been programmed in my DNA, or foreigners mind-controlled."

Oh yeah! You are all controlled now by Us ALIENS. DNA? All of Japanese are programmed like ROBOTS. No manuals, no confrontation = no brain
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

 

For some it represents peace or victory. For others it represents the number two. It could also represent a pair of spread legs. And in France it means "I'm gay."

But for Japanese it means, "Everyone else here does it so I better do it too if I want to look cool."

 

Have you ever seen lemmings jumping from cliffs?

Actually, I think lemmings should be made into Japan's national animal. Why not make a cartoon out of one, give him big round eyes, have him making the 'V' sign and slap him right there on the red splotch on the Hinomaru. I couldn't think of a better description of Japan today.

 

There was a commercial in Japanese TV a long long long LONG time ago (when the first easy-to-use cameras came out) where a Very Famous Tarento made the peace sign (for signifying something like "the easy-to-use cameras has came to win" = to stay).
Well, the cameras did stay and went easier and easier - and the then "cool and new" peace-sign stayd with them as a half-compulsory pose for snap-shot photos ...

Conclusion: all the young Japanese are just victims of a commercial their parents though to be cool ...

 

I think the V sign was made famous by Winston Churchill. V for Victory. In the 60's it became a symbol for peace. Now if you want a piece you should make V sign because it makes the sign for a great piece. I is also a great sign for one and it may be the only shot you get at having a piece if she knows your interest in her piece.

 

Yeah:

That 'V' sign,

Plus

pressing one's nose with the index finger when referring to oneself,

hiding one's teeth with the curbing palm of the hand when laughing,

the terebi hosts' obsession with those cooking programs (Oishiii!! Umai!!)

Banks that charge you to have your money deposited

the ladies' shopping obsession

the ojisan's passion for late escapades into Izakayas

the unsuitability of colour tones, food tastes, because it doesn't match the 'japanese taste'

I know what the 'older' James Bonds would say:

'Remarkable!'

Please don't censor me... it took me a long time to type!

 

...I reached for ohashi or something else to make it with! No one ever explained any deep meaning behind the gesture, so I personalised it rather than being robotic!

 

"One finger for Hiroshima, the other for Nagasaki."

 

I just thought that sh#t is funny, but it is cool I guess. It is just funny though that almost 9 times out of 10 pictures, there will always be a peace sign!

Keep peace'n

 

Once upon a time, there were two brothers. Both were small and weak, but one was very bossy and wanted to force his brother to be his servant. Since the two brothers were evenly matched, the bossy brother couldn't do it by himself, so he went and got two very big, very mean friends to help him beat up his brother.

The second brother knew he was doomed, so he asked another large man to be his friend and help him defend himself against his bossy brother and his two big friends.

All the friends of the bossy brother and his two friends were furious when they heard this. How dare anyone interfere with their friends, when all they wanted to do was to relegate the second brother to his rightful place?

They held many meetings and wrote many manifestos as they tried to decide what to do about the interference by the second brother's friend. They all wanted to bring public opinion into line behind their friends, the bossy brother and his two large friends, but they worried that the unenlightened, unwashed denizens of flyover country might mistakenly believe the bossy brother to be in the wrong, because he was the aggressor, and might sympathize with the second brother and his friend because it was three against two.

"Oh, oh," they cried. "What shall we do to bring the benighted of the world to see things the way we, the specially anointed, see them?"

"I know," piped up one of the anointed. "Let's keep repeating that the second brother's big friend is the actual aggressor."

"No, no, no," intoned a tenured Ivy League professor. "The benighted will just research the matter and see who is attacking whom. After all, all the fighting is in the second brother's yard, when the bossy brother attacks."

There was much consternation and stomping of Birkenstocks at this. All the friends were very upset. "Oh, oh," they cried. "Whatever shall we do?"

Suddenly, in their midst a spirit appeared. He was so nebulous that they could see right through him, but as he spoke he gradually began to take on the appearance of substance.

He was short, walked with a limp, and wore a really snazzy uniform with a leather belt and a brimmed cap. He called himself "Joe." As he spoke, the friends knew they had their plan.

"You amateurs," he said. "Have you learned nothing from history? Tell a bold enough lie often enough, and brazenly enough, and many people will come to believe it. Shout from the rooftops that the second brother and his big friend are to blame. In time, your claim will gain credibility simply through repetition."

"But surely that won't be enough," the friends whined, as they wrung their hands.

"If you claim that your only interest is ‘peace,' you yourselves will gain credibility. You will come to be seen as morally superior to those who fail to put ‘peace' above all else. People will forget who started this fight, and who refuses to let it drop. New generations will be born who will never even hear that it was the bossy brother who insisted on making a servant of his own brother. They will always ‘know' that the second brother and his big friend were in the wrong."

As the morning sun struck the spectral figure and he began to fade away, he spoke rapidly and forcefully, knowing that he had little time to impart his last bit of wisdom. "And remember—never, never, never admit that your real goal is to help the bossy brother and his friends. If that becomes known, the game is up. Your only goal, your only interest is peace. Those who oppose you, who oppose the bossy brother, are warmongers and imperialists. They don't want peace, because they are bad people. You are good people, because you want peace. Repeat it, and repeat it, and repeat it, again, and again, and again, and…"

Then the friends were alone again. They looked at each other hopefully.

"I will help," said the newspaper reporter.

"And I will help," said the television reporter.

"I will help, too," said the college professor.

"I will really help," said the congressman.

"We will all help," said all the friends of the bossy brother and his two big, mean friends.

"But wait," the cry went up. "We need a symbol, a sign of recognition, something that will rally us and unify us, and by which we will know each other."

There were many suggestions, but finally someone said, "Wait. Why invent a new symbol. This one," and he held up two fingers, "already has a good reputation. Let's take it for our own, and call it the ‘the peace sign.' When we make this sign, we will know that it really indicates our support for the bossy brother and his two big, mean friends, but we will tell everyone else that it shows how wonderful we are because of our love of peace."

And they did, and everything turned out just as they wanted.

Even today, 28 years after the bossy brother and his two big, mean friends made a servant of the second brother and did terrible things to him, many, many people still call that gesture "the peace sign," even though it always was a symbol of support for bad people who were attacking and doing terrible things to their brothers.

Millions of people died because of the people whose symbol that was, but it is still called "the peace sign," and it is taught to innocent children.

 

I agree with the lemming guy. every time I took a picture in Japan the japanese in the photo did it without being asked. srt of subconscious I guess. at any rate I think its cool so keep doing it

 

When the Swedish "Socialdemocrats" won the election there leader Göran Persson was doing the 'V'-sign with both hands... The problem was that he had his hands turned with the back of the hand to the camera. :-)

No one knows for sure if he just didnt know how to make the gesture or if he really wanted to say "F*ck you!" to the whole Swedish people!

Footnote:
Doing the 'V'-sign with the back of your hand forward means "F.U!" in most countrys. Just like the single finger version.