Post by Moses on Dec 17, 2004 5:53:09 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/international/asia/16tokyo.html?pagewanted=print&position=
December 16, 2004
Tokyo's Flag Law: Proud Patriotism, or Indoctrination?
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
TOKYO - Toru Kondo, an English teacher at a public high school here, had never before been reprimanded in his 32-year career. But he was recently required to take a two-hour "special retraining course," lectured on his mistaken ways and given a sheet of paper on which to engage in half an hour of written self-examination.
His offense was to defy the Tokyo Board of Education's new regulation requiring teachers to sing the national anthem while standing and facing the national flag. He and scores of colleagues refused, because for them the rising-sun flag and the anthem, "Kimigayo," or "His Majesty's Reign," are symbols of imperialism.
"When the Japanese military invaded Asia, the rising-sun flag led the corps and the 'Kimigayo' was sung when Japanese soldiers won a battle," Mr. Kondo said. "I've been telling students that the two are linked to Japan's militarism."
Many Japanese felt the same way for decades after World War II. But perhaps because they are now more comfortable with their history, or perhaps because Japanese society has moved right, the authorities here have made respect for the flag and anthem mandatory for teachers and students. To supporters, the move is a step to make Japan into a so-called normal country that can be patriotic and proud of itself. To critics, it is dangerous indoctrination that has no place in a democracy.
In a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, education officials conducted a survey this year on how loud students sang the anthem at graduation and enrollment ceremonies, classifying each school as "high," "medium" or "low." In Tokyo, 243 teachers have been punished this year because they did not stand before the rising-sun flag and sing the anthem; 67 more have been warned because they did not instruct their students to do so. The police raided the home of one former teacher here who handed out copies of a magazine article about the issue at a graduation ceremony.
In Tokyo, the only municipality to have meted out broad punishments, the authorities were hoping to use the capital's influence to make respect for the flag and anthem compulsory nationwide. While newspaper polls show voters here opposing such a movement, voters have still remained firmly behind its leader, Shintaro Ishihara, the rightist governor of Tokyo.
The movement suffered a setback recently, from an unexpected corner: Emperor Akihito, who stated his opposition to the regulation. The Imperial Household Agency, some politicians and newspapers played down the comment by the emperor, who, according to the Constitution, is forbidden from interfering in political matters. But others saw in his rare political utterance a sign that he was worried about Japan's direction.
After Japan's defeat in World War II, the rising-sun flag was banned for more than three years under the American occupation. Asian neighbors remain suspicious of Japanese nationalism and of the country's new assertiveness overseas, including sending 550 troops to Iraq. The young in Seoul or Shanghai may consume Pokémon or other symbols of the new Japan. But since they are thoroughly taught about the brutalities of Japanese colonialism, unlike their Japanese counterparts, their often visceral reactions to symbols of the old Japan lie near the surface.
Japan long was ambivalent toward its flag and anthem, and it was only in 1999 that the government made them legal national symbols. Since 1990, public school teachers have been told they "should instruct" students to pay respect to both. But in October 2003, Tokyo made respect compulsory at graduation and enrollment ceremonies in public schools, and disobedience punishable.
The regulation states that the national flag must be raised in front of the stage, with the Tokyo government flag to the right. An official will cry out, "Singing of the national anthem," then teachers and students must rise, face the flag and sing. Board or school officials instruct sitting teachers to stand and sing - and take the names of those who refuse.
"The deputy principal walked down the aisle between the wall and the teachers' seats and approached me and said, 'Please stand up and sing,' " said Mitsuo Kondo, 61, a martial arts teacher, who is not related to the English teacher. "So I said: 'I won't stand up. I won't sing.' "
Mr. Kondo, whose teaching contract was canceled as a result and who now is a part-time carpenter, said he had not opposed the anthem and flag until showing respect was required. He said he used to sing the anthem at the top of his voice.
"Patriotic feelings can't grow by force," he said. Takayuki Tsuchiya, a Tokyo assemblyman, said the new regulation was necessary to counterbalance decades of leftist lectures by teachers, especially members of the Japan Teachers' Union. For decades, he said, the teachers have led a campaign to denigrate the nation's symbols, placing the flag next to toilets.
"The Japan Teachers' Union has been teaching students that the white of the rising-sun flag is the color of bone and red is the color of people's blood," he said. "They are depriving students of the freedom to stand up. They hate the emperor and they hate Japan. Would American kids stand up if you teach them America did terrible things in Vietnam?"
The teachers' union, considered one of Japan's largest left-leaning organizations, has been losing membership and influence in keeping with Japan's overall political shift.
Yuzuru Nakamura, the union's secretary general, said the group did not oppose the flag or anthem, but rejected the Tokyo government's regulation. Mr. Nakamura said he saw it as part of a rising nationalism in a Japan made increasingly insecure by its generation-long economic malaise and China's ascendancy.
"The government needs symbols of unity for the country," he said. "I think the national flag and anthem are being used to establish Japanese ethnicity or identity."
Tokyo officials clearly hoped they could spur the stand-and-sing movement to grow nationwide by drawing the emperor to their side.
In October, Kunio Yonenaga, an education board member who oversees the new regulation in Tokyo but evidently wants his influence to reach beyond, told the emperor: "Making sure that students and teachers raise the rising-sun flag and sing the national anthem at schools across the country is my job. I'm doing my best."
Mr. Yonenaga, who had expected encouragement, was instead rebuked by the emperor, who said, "It's not desirable to do it by force." Taken aback, Mr. Yonenaga, who declined to be interviewed for this article, interrupted the emperor and blurted out, "Thank you for your wonderful words."
Mr. Tsuchiya, the Tokyo assemblyman, could barely disguise his disappointment. Asked why he thought the emperor held such a view, Mr. Tsuchiya mentioned the influence of Elizabeth Vining, a Quaker schoolteacher from Philadelphia, who tutored Akihito, then the crown prince, from 1946 to 1950, and even gave him a nickname. "The emperor was raised by Mrs. Vining, who called him Jimmy," he said.
December 16, 2004
Tokyo's Flag Law: Proud Patriotism, or Indoctrination?
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
TOKYO - Toru Kondo, an English teacher at a public high school here, had never before been reprimanded in his 32-year career. But he was recently required to take a two-hour "special retraining course," lectured on his mistaken ways and given a sheet of paper on which to engage in half an hour of written self-examination.
His offense was to defy the Tokyo Board of Education's new regulation requiring teachers to sing the national anthem while standing and facing the national flag. He and scores of colleagues refused, because for them the rising-sun flag and the anthem, "Kimigayo," or "His Majesty's Reign," are symbols of imperialism.
"When the Japanese military invaded Asia, the rising-sun flag led the corps and the 'Kimigayo' was sung when Japanese soldiers won a battle," Mr. Kondo said. "I've been telling students that the two are linked to Japan's militarism."
Many Japanese felt the same way for decades after World War II. But perhaps because they are now more comfortable with their history, or perhaps because Japanese society has moved right, the authorities here have made respect for the flag and anthem mandatory for teachers and students. To supporters, the move is a step to make Japan into a so-called normal country that can be patriotic and proud of itself. To critics, it is dangerous indoctrination that has no place in a democracy.
In a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, education officials conducted a survey this year on how loud students sang the anthem at graduation and enrollment ceremonies, classifying each school as "high," "medium" or "low." In Tokyo, 243 teachers have been punished this year because they did not stand before the rising-sun flag and sing the anthem; 67 more have been warned because they did not instruct their students to do so. The police raided the home of one former teacher here who handed out copies of a magazine article about the issue at a graduation ceremony.
In Tokyo, the only municipality to have meted out broad punishments, the authorities were hoping to use the capital's influence to make respect for the flag and anthem compulsory nationwide. While newspaper polls show voters here opposing such a movement, voters have still remained firmly behind its leader, Shintaro Ishihara, the rightist governor of Tokyo.
The movement suffered a setback recently, from an unexpected corner: Emperor Akihito, who stated his opposition to the regulation. The Imperial Household Agency, some politicians and newspapers played down the comment by the emperor, who, according to the Constitution, is forbidden from interfering in political matters. But others saw in his rare political utterance a sign that he was worried about Japan's direction.
After Japan's defeat in World War II, the rising-sun flag was banned for more than three years under the American occupation. Asian neighbors remain suspicious of Japanese nationalism and of the country's new assertiveness overseas, including sending 550 troops to Iraq. The young in Seoul or Shanghai may consume Pokémon or other symbols of the new Japan. But since they are thoroughly taught about the brutalities of Japanese colonialism, unlike their Japanese counterparts, their often visceral reactions to symbols of the old Japan lie near the surface.
Japan long was ambivalent toward its flag and anthem, and it was only in 1999 that the government made them legal national symbols. Since 1990, public school teachers have been told they "should instruct" students to pay respect to both. But in October 2003, Tokyo made respect compulsory at graduation and enrollment ceremonies in public schools, and disobedience punishable.
The regulation states that the national flag must be raised in front of the stage, with the Tokyo government flag to the right. An official will cry out, "Singing of the national anthem," then teachers and students must rise, face the flag and sing. Board or school officials instruct sitting teachers to stand and sing - and take the names of those who refuse.
"The deputy principal walked down the aisle between the wall and the teachers' seats and approached me and said, 'Please stand up and sing,' " said Mitsuo Kondo, 61, a martial arts teacher, who is not related to the English teacher. "So I said: 'I won't stand up. I won't sing.' "
Mr. Kondo, whose teaching contract was canceled as a result and who now is a part-time carpenter, said he had not opposed the anthem and flag until showing respect was required. He said he used to sing the anthem at the top of his voice.
"Patriotic feelings can't grow by force," he said. Takayuki Tsuchiya, a Tokyo assemblyman, said the new regulation was necessary to counterbalance decades of leftist lectures by teachers, especially members of the Japan Teachers' Union. For decades, he said, the teachers have led a campaign to denigrate the nation's symbols, placing the flag next to toilets.
"The Japan Teachers' Union has been teaching students that the white of the rising-sun flag is the color of bone and red is the color of people's blood," he said. "They are depriving students of the freedom to stand up. They hate the emperor and they hate Japan. Would American kids stand up if you teach them America did terrible things in Vietnam?"
The teachers' union, considered one of Japan's largest left-leaning organizations, has been losing membership and influence in keeping with Japan's overall political shift.
Yuzuru Nakamura, the union's secretary general, said the group did not oppose the flag or anthem, but rejected the Tokyo government's regulation. Mr. Nakamura said he saw it as part of a rising nationalism in a Japan made increasingly insecure by its generation-long economic malaise and China's ascendancy.
"The government needs symbols of unity for the country," he said. "I think the national flag and anthem are being used to establish Japanese ethnicity or identity."
Tokyo officials clearly hoped they could spur the stand-and-sing movement to grow nationwide by drawing the emperor to their side.
In October, Kunio Yonenaga, an education board member who oversees the new regulation in Tokyo but evidently wants his influence to reach beyond, told the emperor: "Making sure that students and teachers raise the rising-sun flag and sing the national anthem at schools across the country is my job. I'm doing my best."
Mr. Yonenaga, who had expected encouragement, was instead rebuked by the emperor, who said, "It's not desirable to do it by force." Taken aback, Mr. Yonenaga, who declined to be interviewed for this article, interrupted the emperor and blurted out, "Thank you for your wonderful words."
Mr. Tsuchiya, the Tokyo assemblyman, could barely disguise his disappointment. Asked why he thought the emperor held such a view, Mr. Tsuchiya mentioned the influence of Elizabeth Vining, a Quaker schoolteacher from Philadelphia, who tutored Akihito, then the crown prince, from 1946 to 1950, and even gave him a nickname. "The emperor was raised by Mrs. Vining, who called him Jimmy," he said.