The Japanese V peace sign
Extended version of an article by Sean Michael Wilson that appeared in THE JAPAN TIMES newspaper, May 2016.
The V peace sign. pīsu sain (ピースサイン). It’s almost mandatory for photos in Japan - the fingers jump up, sometimes both hands… and out spreads the V peace sign. An interesting thing about the Japanese V peace sign in photos is that almost no one knows WHY they do it, when it started or where it came from. But there are some clues and theories and evidence, littered throughout history, possibly taking us as far back as medieval Europe. So let’s pursue this case, detective style rain coat firmly wrapped around our inquisitive frames, brows tightened in thought, and if you like, Sherlock Holmes pipe in mouth. or, if you prefer, a disheveled Lieutenant Columbo – and in this maze of a cultural mystery there are plenty of chances to say: ‘Ah, just one more thing’.
Theory 1: It’s from manga.
In late 1960s in Japan there was a baseball manga and anime Kyojin no Hoshi 『巨人の星』 (“Star of the Giants”, 1968 by writer Kajiwara Ikki ). The main character, Hyūma is sad because he thinks his father, who he has had trouble with, hasn’t come to say goodbye at train station (he’s going of to an important baseball game). But, of course, suddenly Dad does appear, just in time, and in a typical ‘I’m silent and unexpressive but my heart is bursting’ macho gesture he gives his son a big V sign, meaning his wishes him victory (“Shōri no V-sain!”). Heartened and moved, Hyuma determines to do his best in the big game. Ganbaru! Touching father and son stuff.
But let us not get sidetracked by emotion in our investigation, because another manga may cast further light on the scene. A girl’s volleyball manga Sain wa V! 『サインはV』 (“The Sign is V”) also came out in 1968 by creators Mochizuki Akira and Jonbo/Jimbo Shiro. My investigation show me that the Japanese women’s volleyball team, “Toyo-no Majo (Witches of the Orient)” had conjoured up a magical victory by winning a Gold Medal in Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and this inspired a craze for volleyball. In a 1991 book by Inose Naoki, Mikado no kuni no kigōron (“Semiotics in the land of the Mikado”), Shirō notes that the Kyojin no Hoshi manga inspired him: “The scene…when the father appears and thrusts out that V-sign made a big impression. In a meeting with the editors, I suggested that we call our new story V Mexico, since the Mexico Olympics were coming up… After a lot of debate, we decided that Sain wa V was more straightforward and worked better.” The manga was later adapted into a television series with a theme tune which includes the lines
“V, I, C, T, O, R, Y/ Sain wa V!”
I wonder if there are any Japanese people reading this now who read these manga in the late 60s or watched the TV series in the early 70s. If so, can you recall if this was the first time you started making the V sign? Did you do it for photographs taken after volleyball or baseball games perhaps? If so, let me know. This mystery needs to be solved.
Theory 2: Careful on the ice!
This is probably the best known theory, though there are various points against it. The 1972 winter olympics was held in Japan, the first Winter Olympics to be held outside Europe or North America. Janet Lynn was an small (1.58 m) boyishly cute 18 year old US figure skater, hot to take a gold on the ice. She had come 4th in the world championships the year before and was winner of the US championships five times in a row. But - horror, the horror!- during a spin around 2 minutes into her graceful, impressive performance she fell over on her, eh, bottom. The gold medal chance slid away from her. But, to the surprise of the Japanese watching, who may have expected her to be heart-broken or dutifully ashamed she just smiled charmingly, got up and soldiered on. Even at the end her smile seemed genuine and endearing. This mixture of brave charm, beaming smiles and positive attitude despite disaster touched and impressed the Japanese, and gained for Janet, in lieu of a gold medal, a golden horde of fans, especially females.
She toured round Japan, appearing in magazines, including several dedicated just to her. It was her habit to sign these magazines and slips of paper to fans with the words ‘Peace and Love’, it being the late hippie era and the Vietnam war still raging on. Rumour has it, she also habitually flashed up the peace V sign, which was - this much is clear - a common gesture associated with peace and love in the US and UK at that time. Therefore, it become associated, in the minds of her fans with that mixture of smiles, charm and a positive can do attitude. Laura Miller, a professor of Japanese studies and anthropology at the University of Missouri claims that she remembers this habit of Japanese girls saying piisu (peace) and making the V sign in the early 1970s. In an article that TIME magazine journalist Stephanie Burnett made on the V sign Miller stressed that the gender element was important: “Like so much else in Japanese culture, the creative agents in Japan are often young women, but they are rarely recognized for their cultural innovations.”
One disappointing thing in this line of investigation: a lack of evidence. Contrary to some theories, Janet Lynn did not make the V sign at the end of her performance or when she received the bronze medal on the podium. A video of the performance is online to prove this. Also, despite her supposedly making the V sign on regular occasions as she toured round Japan, I can not find a single photo of her doing so, even though a very large amount of magazines photos from that time exist, including of her visiting castles, taking tea, visiting shrines, shopping, etc. Rather suspicious that in all those photos she is not once seen making the V sign that she supposedly popularised. Have any readers seen any such prove? But we do at least have this charming little ditty:
She fell down did Janet Lynn,
Oh dear, oh dear - what a sin.
But she smiled and flashed a V sign,
So everything will be just fine.
This is probably the best known theory, though there are various points against it. The 1972 winter olympics was held in Japan, the first Winter Olympics to be held outside Europe or North America. Janet Lynn was an small (1.58 m) boyishly cute 18 year old US figure skater, hot to take a gold on the ice. She had come 4th in the world championships the year before and was winner of the US championships five times in a row. But - horror, the horror!- during a spin around 2 minutes into her graceful, impressive performance she fell over on her, eh, bottom. The gold medal chance slid away from her. But, to the surprise of the Japanese watching, who may have expected her to be heart-broken or dutifully ashamed she just smiled charmingly, got up and soldiered on. Even at the end her smile seemed genuine and endearing. This mixture of brave charm, beaming smiles and positive attitude despite disaster touched and impressed the Japanese, and gained for Janet, in lieu of a gold medal, a golden horde of fans, especially females.
She toured round Japan, appearing in magazines, including several dedicated just to her. It was her habit to sign these magazines and slips of paper to fans with the words ‘Peace and Love’, it being the late hippie era and the Vietnam war still raging on. Rumour has it, she also habitually flashed up the peace V sign, which was - this much is clear - a common gesture associated with peace and love in the US and UK at that time. Therefore, it become associated, in the minds of her fans with that mixture of smiles, charm and a positive can do attitude. Laura Miller, a professor of Japanese studies and anthropology at the University of Missouri claims that she remembers this habit of Japanese girls saying piisu (peace) and making the V sign in the early 1970s. In an article that TIME magazine journalist Stephanie Burnett made on the V sign Miller stressed that the gender element was important: “Like so much else in Japanese culture, the creative agents in Japan are often young women, but they are rarely recognized for their cultural innovations.”
One disappointing thing in this line of investigation: a lack of evidence. Contrary to some theories, Janet Lynn did not make the V sign at the end of her performance or when she received the bronze medal on the podium. A video of the performance is online to prove this. Also, despite her supposedly making the V sign on regular occasions as she toured round Japan, I can not find a single photo of her doing so, even though a very large amount of magazines photos from that time exist, including of her visiting castles, taking tea, visiting shrines, shopping, etc. Rather suspicious that in all those photos she is not once seen making the V sign that she supposedly popularised. Have any readers seen any such prove? But we do at least have this charming little ditty:
She fell down did Janet Lynn,
Oh dear, oh dear - what a sin.
But she smiled and flashed a V sign,
So everything will be just fine.
Theory 3. Konica Spiders.
In line with what Miller noted about female innovation being neglected in Japan this 3rd theory claims that a famous male actually spread the use of the V sign. Japanese entertainment show Downtown DX delved into this mystery several years ago and found that it may spring mainly from a series of commercials featuring Jun Inoue, the singer with a very popular band in the 60s and 70s, The Spiders. He became a celebrity spokesperson for Konica cameras, and during the filming of a commercial for them, also in 1972, he beamed into a V sign adorned smile, camera in hand. Why did he do that? Was he copying Lynn? I’ve read that he did so because he thought the V sign was a common and trendy sign used in the west, and he just wanted to look cool. Or, since the Spiders had been to London int he 60s, and made a film there, he may have seen people like John Lennon making the peace sign there? Or, yet again, it may have been the director of the commercials who asked Inoue to make that sign, as rumour has it that all of the personalities used in the Konica commercials then also made the V sign. Or possibly Inoue made the sign without thinking, the director liked it and kept it as a feature of later promotions. In any case the V sign and the associated mouthing out of “pissu” became Inoue’s regular trademark and, it seems clear this did help promote the tendency among Japanese in general, beyond the mostly female fan base of Janet Lynn. This was aided by the substantial growth in people who had camera’s - according to Fujifilm by 1973 around 70% of Japanese people had a camera. And therefore the amount of photos taken also rose.
In line with what Miller noted about female innovation being neglected in Japan this 3rd theory claims that a famous male actually spread the use of the V sign. Japanese entertainment show Downtown DX delved into this mystery several years ago and found that it may spring mainly from a series of commercials featuring Jun Inoue, the singer with a very popular band in the 60s and 70s, The Spiders. He became a celebrity spokesperson for Konica cameras, and during the filming of a commercial for them, also in 1972, he beamed into a V sign adorned smile, camera in hand. Why did he do that? Was he copying Lynn? I’ve read that he did so because he thought the V sign was a common and trendy sign used in the west, and he just wanted to look cool. Or, since the Spiders had been to London int he 60s, and made a film there, he may have seen people like John Lennon making the peace sign there? Or, yet again, it may have been the director of the commercials who asked Inoue to make that sign, as rumour has it that all of the personalities used in the Konica commercials then also made the V sign. Or possibly Inoue made the sign without thinking, the director liked it and kept it as a feature of later promotions. In any case the V sign and the associated mouthing out of “pissu” became Inoue’s regular trademark and, it seems clear this did help promote the tendency among Japanese in general, beyond the mostly female fan base of Janet Lynn. This was aided by the substantial growth in people who had camera’s - according to Fujifilm by 1973 around 70% of Japanese people had a camera. And therefore the amount of photos taken also rose.
Now, these are the 3 main theories I have discovered in my investigation. But there are several more. A possible photo link being the idea that two in Japanese is “ni” and that saying “ni” produces a mouth movement that results in a nice smile for the camera. So that over time people in photos started imitating the photographer’s 2-finger gesture made to trigger the “ni” sound-smile. I can’t resist saying that it would be something of a disappointment if the origin was so mundane! So let’s take it even further back to something more exciting: another idea is that it was originally a grand scheme by US occupiers in the late 40s to make the Japanese more peaceful minded, after the long years of military dominance. This is possibly connected to rumours that when the Allied troops entered Japan after surrender, some Japanese, not being able to speak English or communicate to the troops in Japanese used crude sign language instead. One of which was the V sign - in this case possibly meaning something like ‘It was a victory for you, but let’s have peace now’. And we can bring the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill into this now. It is well known that he used it used a V for victory sign in WW11. He encouraged the use of the symbol throughout Europe, with V standing for victoire (“victory” in French) and vrijheid (“freedom” in Dutch). His July 19, 1941 radio speech proclaimed:
“The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories and a portent of the fate awaiting Nazi tyranny. So long as the peoples continue to refuse all collaboration with the invader it is sure his cause will perish and that Europe will be liberated.”
But after the war ended he increasingly turned his attention to concern over the atomic bomb and deep reflection about the decision to drop the two bombs on Japan. Writing in 1953 to Lord Beaverbrook, the newspaper publisher, he ended by saying:" …I must place on record my regret that the human race ever learned to fly. " According to some sources he later stressed that the two fingers of the V sign should now mean the two towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and become a symbol for peace. Japanese were moved by this sentiment from a man who had recently been their enemy and took to the V sign.
But, again, what evidence is there was this? I can find none, can you? Japanese people in their 70s that i have talked to have no memory of this, and I can find no visual evidence either. One piece of visual evidence that I have dug up though, is a poster for a film in 1960, a long time before the main theories above. The Japanese movie poster for The Millionaire, with Nakahara Hitomi, clearly shows an woman making the peace sign. If it was not popularised until 1972, why is she doing it 12 years before? And 6 or 7 years before it became a popular hippie sign in the USA! Where did she get it from? Churchill? Americans soldiers? Something else? The mystery deepens...
We also need to distinguish between two forms of the V sign. The palm held inwards style, which just for fun I will now christen the ‘PHI style’, and the palm held outwards style that is used in Japan now - which I will call the ‘PHO style’. In the UK, the PHI style is an abusive sign, meaning F**K OFF! and therefore very far from the peaceful meaning of the PHO style. Apparently when Churchill first starting making the V victory sign he did not know, toff that he was, that the PHI style had that abusive meaning among ordinary British people. He can be seen in the early period of the war using the sign that way, only changing it to the PHO style when a more worldly advisor pointed out the abusive meaning of the PHI version to him. The origin of the sign in the UK is a whole other investigation, but it may go as far back as English soldiers using it against the French enemies in the wars of 1415. There is documented footage of a British man using it in 1901, so its at least 115 years old in the UK.
In my increasingly confusing investigations I have also uncovered an image of the band, The Walker Brothers, who visited Japan in 1968 and were massively popular. In a publicity photo Scott Walker makes the finger V sign, but the wrong way around. That is to say he is making the PHI style sign, rather then the PHO style that become common in Japan. Therefore, Scott is making an abusive version of the sign (the Walker brothers, though Americans, lived in the UK). It’s possible, then, that Scott Walker was making a cheeky insult to the Japanese press, since they were hugely famous then, followed around by screaming fans tearing at their clothes and felt understandably sick of the constant media intrusion.
Then, how it became the PHO style peace sign is yet another branch in this long mystery! To answer that we would need to launch a whole new case file going beyond the current line of enquiry, which would cross examine 60s hippies and peace campaigners, including a conspiracy type theory involving the fact that the 2 upright fingers + the 3 bent in fingers equals 5, which in roman numerals is, of course “V”, and also in combination it's “23” - both of which are apparently secret illuminati symbols. You knew there would be a conspiracy theory here somewhere, didn’t you?
“The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories and a portent of the fate awaiting Nazi tyranny. So long as the peoples continue to refuse all collaboration with the invader it is sure his cause will perish and that Europe will be liberated.”
But after the war ended he increasingly turned his attention to concern over the atomic bomb and deep reflection about the decision to drop the two bombs on Japan. Writing in 1953 to Lord Beaverbrook, the newspaper publisher, he ended by saying:" …I must place on record my regret that the human race ever learned to fly. " According to some sources he later stressed that the two fingers of the V sign should now mean the two towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and become a symbol for peace. Japanese were moved by this sentiment from a man who had recently been their enemy and took to the V sign.
But, again, what evidence is there was this? I can find none, can you? Japanese people in their 70s that i have talked to have no memory of this, and I can find no visual evidence either. One piece of visual evidence that I have dug up though, is a poster for a film in 1960, a long time before the main theories above. The Japanese movie poster for The Millionaire, with Nakahara Hitomi, clearly shows an woman making the peace sign. If it was not popularised until 1972, why is she doing it 12 years before? And 6 or 7 years before it became a popular hippie sign in the USA! Where did she get it from? Churchill? Americans soldiers? Something else? The mystery deepens...
We also need to distinguish between two forms of the V sign. The palm held inwards style, which just for fun I will now christen the ‘PHI style’, and the palm held outwards style that is used in Japan now - which I will call the ‘PHO style’. In the UK, the PHI style is an abusive sign, meaning F**K OFF! and therefore very far from the peaceful meaning of the PHO style. Apparently when Churchill first starting making the V victory sign he did not know, toff that he was, that the PHI style had that abusive meaning among ordinary British people. He can be seen in the early period of the war using the sign that way, only changing it to the PHO style when a more worldly advisor pointed out the abusive meaning of the PHI version to him. The origin of the sign in the UK is a whole other investigation, but it may go as far back as English soldiers using it against the French enemies in the wars of 1415. There is documented footage of a British man using it in 1901, so its at least 115 years old in the UK.
In my increasingly confusing investigations I have also uncovered an image of the band, The Walker Brothers, who visited Japan in 1968 and were massively popular. In a publicity photo Scott Walker makes the finger V sign, but the wrong way around. That is to say he is making the PHI style sign, rather then the PHO style that become common in Japan. Therefore, Scott is making an abusive version of the sign (the Walker brothers, though Americans, lived in the UK). It’s possible, then, that Scott Walker was making a cheeky insult to the Japanese press, since they were hugely famous then, followed around by screaming fans tearing at their clothes and felt understandably sick of the constant media intrusion.
Then, how it became the PHO style peace sign is yet another branch in this long mystery! To answer that we would need to launch a whole new case file going beyond the current line of enquiry, which would cross examine 60s hippies and peace campaigners, including a conspiracy type theory involving the fact that the 2 upright fingers + the 3 bent in fingers equals 5, which in roman numerals is, of course “V”, and also in combination it's “23” - both of which are apparently secret illuminati symbols. You knew there would be a conspiracy theory here somewhere, didn’t you?
But let’s close this investigation on an interesting sociological point: how is it that we have such short memories - culturally speaking? This V sign in photos habit is not something that goes back to the Heian era, or ancient Greece, lost in the mists of time - it’s only from about 50 years ago! How quickly the origins of objects and habits that are almost universal become forgotten, as one generation robotically copies the habits of the previous one without asking why. I wonder what stuff we all do now will be forgotten in the near future? In the year 2066 will people have forgotten what a keitai phone was? Or swear that hip hop originated in Tokyo? Will they think that AKB48 was a type of machine gun?
Hmm, perhaps we should start recording this stuff. It might even require a new branch of government to keep the records. I hereby suggest it be called 'The Ministry of the Mundane'.