For Japanese, Flag and Anthem Sometimes Divide (Published 1990)
- ️https://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/steven_r_weisman/index.html
- ️Sun Apr 29 1990
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
- April 29, 1990
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Graduation ceremonies at an elementary school were delayed the other day when a father ripped down the Japanese flag and hid it inside his clothes. Many other schools throughout the country refused to display the flag in the first place.
These and other incidents cast a shadow over what is supposed to be an uplifting time in the nation's schools. The protests arose when the Government required that the national flag, featuring a red sun on a white field, be displayed at all such ceremonies and that the national anthem be sung in praise of the Emperor.
Opinion surveys show that most Japanese favor displaying the flag and singing the anthem at official functions, but that they dislike coercion. Thus, many are watching to see whether the Government will punish the principals, teachers and students who recently defied its directive.
Undercurrent of Objections
The Asahi newspaper, for example, expressed ''our sense of misgiving and concern over schools being used as a loyalty test of sorts'' and urged Government authorities ''to take a second look at the fact that a large number of Japanese are indeed worried'' about its requirement.
On the surface, the long-running controversy over the Japanese flag and anthem may resemble the sharp disagreements in the United States over requirements to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and the Supreme Court's ban on prohibitions against desecration of the flag.
But the debate in Japan runs far deeper. Because both the flag and the anthem accompanied the brutal militarism of the first half of this century, some feel that reviving them as symbols would be like reviving the goose step and the raised-arm salute of the Nazis.