Comments on: Lost in Translation Alright!

By: Kayte

Kayte — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:53:55 +0000

@Aunt D That's interesting! I have only ever known it as a hippie symbol but I guess it is much like the swastika, we remember it as a Nazi symbol but it originally was an Indian peace symbol. The last group to use a symbol is usually what we associate the symbol with. Learn something everyday.

By: Aunt D

Aunt D — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:26:03 +0000

@Aunt D
You can actually google “v for victory” and you will get WWII photos of Winston Churchill flashing it……..

By: Aunt D

Aunt D — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:22:10 +0000

Actually guys you are all in a generation gap here…. in the 60s and 70s it became the symbol for peace as a way to peacefully protest the Vietnam War. But where did it originally come from?? It became a popular sign, V for Victory! during WWII (maybe even before…) If you look back at VE-Day photos you can spot the V for Victory salute. The Hippie movement took a popular salute that was already well known and changed into one of peace instead of war which is what their whole movement was about in the first place. Now you have been enlightened. It doesn’t surprise me that in China they would use the V for Victory salute having learned it from the Japanese after all the years of American occupation in Japan following WWII.

By: Tenika Dennis

Tenika Dennis — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:25:51 +0000

I was talking to my husband and he said the soldiers in WWII did it to represent “V-Day” for when they got “Victory.” There’s actually pictures of Gen. Eisenhower flashing it in a parade in Kansas City. Here’s a link to a website all about some of Gen. Eisenhower’s stuff…I didn’t read it all…but about a quarter of the way down the page, you’ll see the picture. One can only conjecture when and why it became “peace” rather than “victory.” Apparently that’s something the Asians held on to though!

http://www.kshs.org/publicat/khq/1945/45_7_eisenhower.htm

By: Alicia

Alicia — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:42:03 +0000

Thats funny. All my Asian passengers flash the “victory sign!”

By: Christina West

Christina West — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:38:46 +0000

Ha! That’s too funny!

By: Megan Mattingly-Arthur

Megan Mattingly-Arthur — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:32:25 +0000

That same sign, with the hand turned the other way, is the British “middle finger”, isn’t it? Funny how such similar signs can mean such different things to different cultures.

By: Skye

Skye — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:28:46 +0000

OK.. that is just too awesome! I just assumed they liked the “peace” sign. Hahahaha