http://www.refuseandresist.org/war/art.php?aid=1668
NYT: Tokyo's Flag Law: Proud Patriotism, or Indoctrination?
December 16, 2004
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.
