Rising Sun flag is intolerable symbol
.jpg?w=728)
By Lee Jin-pyuo
Founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin, one of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States, the University of Pennsylvania (also known as UPenn) is one of the eight Ivy League schools with leading research facilities such as business and medical schools.
Located in the city of Philadelphia, the university has many facilities, one of which is the Arts, Research and Culture House (ARCH) building.
The ARCH building was built in 1928 by an outside group, the Christian Association, which owned the building until 1999. Since then, ownership of the building was handed to the university.
The building has been renovated with an investment of $24.5 million, and reopened in early February this year. The goal of the renovation was to transform the historic building into a center for campus life that builds on the cultural diversity of Penn students and offers an intellectual and social experience for the entire university community.
Soon after the building reopened, it was found that a stained-glass on one of the windows of the building held the image of the Japanese Rising Sun flag.
According to a statement from the university’s Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Access William Gipson, the image of the flag “has been in that spot since 1928,” and is one of the symbols that “appear to represent the international outreach of that time, as the Christian Association had missions around the world and worked closely with international students.”
After the Rising Sun stained-glass was found, many Korean students sent letters and petitions about the problem to the university.
Two undergraduate Korean students also talked with university officials, and came up with potential solutions, which are to put educational signs around the room explaining the historical significance of the stained-glass, to make a brochure at the front desk of the building and to include information about the stained-glass windows as part of a “Discover Penn” cell phone tour.
The University made a statement that it is open to discussion and engagement with students. According to the university’s newspaper the Daily Pennsylvanian, Gipson said “the University is listening and is concerned,” and “hopefully, we will come up with a solution that will take all thoughts into consideration.”
As a senior undergraduate, I appreciate the school’s efforts to listen to students’ concerns and come up with potential solutions.
However, at the same time, when I talked with other undergraduate students or read the comments on the article about the Rising Sun flag stained-glass covered by the Daily Pennsylvanian, I was also truly shocked to learn that most of the students do not know the history and meaning behind the flag. The lack of awareness of this intolerable flag was beyond my imagination.
To explain the brief history of the Rising Sun flag, it is a symbol of Japanese Imperialism and colonialism that came into use from the late 19th century. It was adopted as the national flag in 1870 during the Meiji Restoration. Since then, the flag was used in actions overseas until the end of World War II for Japan under imperialism.
Some of Japan’s wartime atrocities include but are not limited to: a massacre of over 200,000 Chinese civilians in just six weeks during the Nanjing Massacre of 1937; lethal human experimentation in Unit 731 that tortured and killed countless people from Korea, China, Russia and Southeast Asian countries; abduction of more than 300,000 women, including those of Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Burmese, Filipino, and Dutch origin, into sexual slavery.
While the flag is associated with the cruel actions and atrocities that Imperial Japan committed in Asia and the rest of the world, the flag is used not only by Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, but also by right-wing Japanese groups.
A recent use of the flag can be found at the Saitama Stadium in Japan, where fans of the Japanese Soccer Club Urawa Red Diamonds used the Rising Sun flag along with a sign stating “Japanese Only” in English to show hatred of a Japanese soccer player of a Korean descent, who is considered by some to be a “fake" Japanese.
Americans are also impacted by the cruel actions and atrocities that Imperial Japan committed, let alone its attack on Pearl Harbor under the Rising Sun flag. They must be aware that the crimes that Imperial Japan perpetrated against humanity under the Rising Sun flag parallels Nazi Germany’s crime against humanity done under the Swastika.
They must learn that the flag is not a controversial symbol among Koreans, but an intolerable symbol that has been used as an excuse to inflict mayhem on humanity.
The university, as one of the leading educational institutions, must make a firm decision to remove the Rising Sun flag stained-glass immediately. After the removal, the university must also meet the challenge to see how best the flag can be used to teach the students lessons from history.
The university must also be aware that many eyes are fixed on the school to see how wisely this serious issue will be resolved. As it always has done, the university must take strong initiatives to teach students and visitors that the Rising Sun flag is regarded as an equivalent to the Nazi flag because it represents Japan’s notorious imperialist past.
Before it is too late, the University of Pennsylvania must act now.
The author is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Penn., majoring in finance and environmental studies. He is also an ICAS intern in the U.S.