Do you think Japan should change the swastika temple icon to please tourists?

[biginjapan2]

Do you think Japan should change the swastika temple icon to please tourists?

I think it is bit of an overkill, education would be better.
Interesting take on it here:
Japan To Change Temple Swastika Icon If The West Takes Back Richard Magarey | TheRisingWasabi

 

[thomas]

I also opted for education. Let's not give in to ignorance!

Haven't read the article yet (still at work), but who for the sake of love raised this non-topic in the first place?

 

[WonkoTheSane]

The article appeared to be a joke.

@biginjapan2 is that your website?

 

[thomas]

Thanks Wonko, should have checked the website first.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

I'm pretty sure 'The Rising Wasabi' is like the Japanese edition of 'The Onion'. Only not very funny, IMO.

Because I don't find them very funny I don't read them and I'm not really sure if they ever mix real news into their humor. Pretty sure there's nothing factual in this article, except maybe the existence of this guy dressed in a maid's outfit.

 

[Lomaster]

While being a joke it still made me wonder why swastika is still so badly perceived? To the extent of facing legal action for displaying swastika (In Germany, Russia, probably other countries)

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

In the U.S., at least, and presumably in many other countries as well, the Nazi swastika is the only swastika people are familiar with. WWII documentaries are probably some of the most popular documentaries out there, and the Nazis are still villains in movies, books, and video games.

The memory of Nazi Germany is kept alive both purposefully by people saying 'never again', and incidentally just because they make such great fictional villains.

Meanwhile, there's really no other use of swastikas that Americans, at least, are knowledgeable about. Through my own independent reading I'm aware of some, but I don't believe it was ever covered in class. A fair number of well-read Americans do know that the Nazis took the symbol, reversed the 'spin' of it to make it their own 'unique' symbol. (Of course it turns out there are also reverse-swastikas unrelated to the Nazi swastika, but they are fairly rare. I'm not sure if they always were or if they've fallen out of use to avoid being mistaken for a Nazi symbol.)

I think I've come across non-Nazi swastikas maybe two or three times in novels and adventure movies, and pretty much not at all in documentaries, news accounts, or non-fiction books except when I specifically looked information up on the swastika.

I actually have no idea why you have a swastika on your user icon, I just saw that it was the reverse of the Nazi swastika and wondered a bit.

Edit: There is a swastika that is a kanji, but it's reverse of the Nazi one and doesn't mean 'temple', of course. 卍 （まん） ; the only time I've seen it used in the wild was in the manga Bleach.

 

[Lomaster]

A fair number of well-read Americans do know that the Nazis took the symbol, reversed the 'spin' of it to make it their own 'unique' symbol.

Now i'm puzzled whether displaying reversed swastika is also liable to punishment in Russia/Germany or not. 気になります。

I actually have no idea why you have a swastika on your user icon, I just saw that it was the reverse of the Nazi swastika and wondered a bit.

Just a miniature flag of Hirosaki city, Aomori.
Flag of Hirosaki:

seal of Hirosaki:

 

[WonkoTheSane]

As a Jew, I'd be more offended if someone changed an age old symbol just because some rabid lunatic adopted it for use in his whacked out plan for world domination.

Let's say someone used the Star of David to symbolize a cult of mayhem. I wouldn't want my mother to stop wearing hers out of some weird sense of political correctness.

I think nazis ought to be able to display the swastika in Germany and anywhere else. I'm not some sensitive kitten who can't bear someone hating me. It bothers me a hell of a lot more that those people don't have the right to express their views, regardless of the repugnance I might feel.

 

[BillMad]

In some countries the swasthika is actually regarded as a religious symbol associated with piety. Its the damn nazis who took inspiration from it and dessecrated to oblivion.

 

[Davey]

Don't think they should change it at all, but some more education to it in the western world would be good for sure.

When I first came to Japan and saw the mark I got confused as well.

 

[rosensfole]

I agree Davey. If tourists don't do the research then they shouldn't be offended.

Perhaps I'm a one off [ it *has* been said ;-) ] because I saw a lot of these symbols and understood straight away that the symbols were a local thing rather than some neo-nazi symbolism. It's all about context.

 

[UniformGuy]

My view is that the symbol that's being changed should stay. Well for one its a symbol of religious and that it stays like that. Obviously some people are butt hurt since it's very similar to the swastika the nazis used. The worse thing is that in ww2 Japan was allied with the Germans so it means more arguments and more people take the side of taking the symbol off temples. Temples are historical buildings and are to be taken care with great dedication. So what if some dictator managed to use that symbol for war. The Chinese have a flag that's still used today that was similar to the flag of Russia which Stalin had ruled, and he killed far more of his own people. So shut up about symbols being used by other nations that was doing something bad. It's history and it stays like that. Temple symbols are to stay as they are, no matter what symbol, it means something to the temples and it's monks.

 

[Zelkova Ki]

It should stay. People need to get educated and stop being butt hurt. Those symbols have been there before the nazis existed. (To my knowledge correct me if I'm run)

 

[UniformGuy]

Your not run there. It's was a Very religious symbol from many years ago. Dating to ancient times I believe.

 

[Timelyn]

If each culture had to change whatever is offensive to other people who don't bother asking before getting offended there wouldn't be anything left standing.

 

[RolandtheHeadless]

Since everyone agrees, I'll be ornery and take the opposite position.

For the WW II generation (people now in their 80s and 90s) and their children, the Baby Boom generation, the swastika is a symbol so evil that seeing it provokes a visceral, emotional reaction. We recoil in hate mixed with horror.

Any evil that one might imagine is associated with that symbol. It is not a thing of movies and video games to us. Education about the historical use of the swastika (and to a lesser extent, the reverse swastika) is probably wasted on us. It does not matter who invented the symbol. The Nazis stole and perverted it, and immortalized it in the memories of at least two generations of the war.

I'm sure that people of any age may be educated on the history of that temple's use of the symbol, perhaps with a plaque on-site. That would probably diminish the recoil factor. I'd be against the government of Japan requiring the change, but if the temple wants' to change it to attract more tourists, that would be their own business decision.

But that article looks like a spoof, so I suspect the OP was tongue-in-cheek after all.