GSP and his "Rising Sun" Gi

[EdgeWalker]

For bullies who are not familiar with history, "Rising Sun" is the Japanese equivilant of the German Hakenkreuz. It is regarded as a symbol of Japanese Imperialism, yet somehow Hayabusa gets away with using it on their products.

I don't know about you guys, but I find this really offensive. Really destroyed my respect for GSP.

[Azatdawn]

For bullies who are not familiar with history, "Rising Sun" is the Japanese equivilant of the German Hakenkreuz.

I'll have to disagree. The Hakenkreuz was introduced as a symbol by a political party. It is seen as representing a pretty specific set of ideals and political views.

The rising sun was the Japanese military flag from the meiji period to the end of world war II. In its redesigned form, it is now used in the context of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

Also, it is used by some rather leftist Japanese newspaper, if I remember correctly.

The symbol itself seems to be a variation of the Japanese flag anyway.

That's pretty much all I remember from a seminar some time ago.

I don't know about you guys, but I find this really offensive. Really destroyed my respect for GSP.

Really? Well, first of all, I can understand that Korean and Chinese people might not like that flag a lot. I have to wonder, though... certainly people in certain countries would feel the same about the American flag or the Russian flag or whatever. I'm not sure if that is reason enough to ban companies from using those flags as their symbols.

Your location says Korea, so I can see how you see it in a very specific context and might feel offended by it (even more so if you're actually Korean). I'm pretty sure though that many people don't know about this context at all. They might just think "Oh well. Japan. Land of the rising sun. A symbol of a sun. Makes sense."


So, concluding my absolutely pointless post, if sporting this gi (that displays a symbol that Hayabusa has been using on a number of products which are worn by a number of people that are not Japanese imperialists) destroyed your respect for an athlete... well, it happens.


EDIT: Of course I could be wrong about pretty much everything I wrote about the rising sun flag/ symbol. As I wrote, I only heard about those things once some time ago. I'm very open to being corrected.

[Dr. Sleepless]

Gonna have to slightly agree with OP.

The whole Rising Sun thing was a flag of the Imperial Army. They redesigned the entire flag from that to what we know now because of how shitty they were.

It's pretty offensive to Korea and China. That's pretty shitty.

I don't blame GSP though. He is probably just ignorant of this as much as the people who made it. The thing is, racism amongst Asians doesn't really matter to the western world. The only racism that exists is racism against Latin folk and black folk.

[erezb]

Gonna have to slightly agree with OP.

The whole Rising Sun thing was a flag of the Imperial Army. They redesigned the entire flag from that to what we know now because of how shitty they were.

It's pretty offensive to Korea and China. That's pretty shitty.

I don't blame GSP though. He is probably just ignorant of this as much as the people who made it. The thing is, racism amongst Asians doesn't really matter to the western world. The only racism that exists is racism against Latin folk and black folk.

and jews.. Also if it is on par with the Swastika, it is extremely offensive to those that suffered the Japanese racist brutality and as such shouldn't be sold IMO.

[EdgeWalker]

I'll have to disagree. The Hakenkreuz was introduced as a symbol by a political party. It is seen as representing a pretty specific set of ideals and political views.

The rising sun was the Japanese military flag from the meiji period to the end of world war II. In its redesigned form, it is now used in the context of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

You just admitted yourself that the Hakenkreuz and the Rising Sun flag are similar. They both stand for a specific organization (the Imperial Japanese Military and the Nazi party) which both have a specific set of goals and ideology.

And you do know that the redesigned flag is pretty much the same design?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_Flag

[EdgeWalker]

I don't blame GSP though. He is probably just ignorant of this as much as the people who made it. The thing is, racism amongst Asians doesn't really matter to the western world. The only racism that exists is racism against Latin folk and black folk.

So it's ok to do whatever a person wants as long as he/she is ignorant? I don't think that's how it works. As for Hayabusa, how can they NOT know what this symbolizes?

[doofaloofa]

Cobra Kai

Fighting racism since 1984

[Dr. Sleepless]

So it's ok to do whatever a person wants as long as he/she is ignorant? I don't think that's how it works. As for Hayabusa, how can they NOT know what this symbolizes?

Chill out ******.

I'm not excusing him. I'm saying, he has no idea. It's shitty because racism only matters if it's black/latin/jew. That's it. Racism that revolves around Asians just doesn't count in western cultures. It's fucking shitty. Trust me, I get it. I deal with it every day but it's OK because it's just, "Asian jokes."

[Azatdawn]

You just admitted yourself that the Hakenkreuz and the Rising Sun flag are similar.

Maybe it's just semantics, but I don't think I did. Maybe similar in that they both represent an organisation, but not, as you put it, equivalent.

[erezb]

Chill out ******.

I'm not excusing him. I'm saying, he has no idea. It's shitty because racism only matters if it's black/latin/jew. That's it. Racism that revolves around Asians just doesn't count in western cultures. It's fucking shitty. Trust me, I get it. I deal with it every day but it's OK because it's just, "Asian jokes."

You do understand it is also your governments fault that they are "embarrassed" or what have you to talk about the monstrosities done to them by the Japanese. If they would release more data, and force Japan to own up to what it did, they will get the exposure they deserve.