Statement for "National flag of the Artificial Rising Sun"

 We are now living in the post-national era which means we recognize the concept of “nation” and under this influence we can talk about it without placing absolute trust. The nation is an artificial result in the modern period. The creation of nationality demands the people the national uniformity and it can be done by the education, not only by the government but also by the people in the society who had been already educated so or “One is not born, but rather becomes, a national”.

 A national flag symbolizes a nation which is determined by the governing people and recognized by other nations later. It indicates the history and the mind which had been created in that area. We can see a nation through its national flag.

 For Japan, the symbol of their national flag is the red sun. The basic reason of this symbol depends on the goddess of the sun, Amaterasu, who is in their myth, depicted as the ancestor of the Japanese emperor. Cleary, this knowledge is one of the reasons which leaded the authority to change the name of the nation to Nihon (Land of the rising sun) at the end of 7th century. This sort of mind had been being also widely accepted by the ordinary people with much literacy rate thanks to the published matters or through the existence of each local shrine before it came the nation-state period in the world. When this period came, the governing people utilized it for creating Japanese nationals; an imagined Japanese history was born and shared within their territory.

 After the Second World War, the myth was eliminated from the textbook and Japanese people had educations from America. The kids who have no knowledge about Amaterasu but the atomic bombings made a new generation. And this generation naturally made a next generation. As the result, these generations range from the aged to the youth. Nowadays, it can be said that the Japanese history is under the influence of the new myth with America as a deity since it can be also analyzed that there is a big contradiction in the Japanese main discourse about the topics of atomic weapons. They criticize other nations trying to possess atomic weapons, but never the US who actually used it. It means they protect the privilege of America or the permanent members of the UN as refusing the demands of other nations for the equality with them. The Japanese consider the atomic bombings by the US as the sacred action because the deed of the god is always unjudged and thus it can be said that the America takes the position of Amaterasu now.

 The US and its historical symbol for Japan, atomic-bombing are suitable for the new image of their national flag for the new era. This red image of the explosion of atomic bombing in the center of white square utilizes the exactly same structure of the present Japanese flag, firstly the concept of the diety of the sun, Amaterasu and secondly the symbol of it, the sunrise. On this work, these elements take the shape of America and the artificial atomic sunrise to show a possibility of a new type of national flag to fit into the post-national era. Furthermore, the catastrophes at Fukushima’s nuclear reactors enforce it as for the other side of the utility of the national flag; other nations also could recognize it and the events of a nation can be seen through it.