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The V sign meant victory, and was shown whenever something was completed, or something good happened. After World War II in America, it was used as a symbol of pride symbolizing our victory. Later, in the Hippie era, the V sign was used to symbolize peace. Today, peace is the most common meaning of this symbol. It was widely used in America, but in recent years its popularity has drastically decreased. It’s not popular among American teens to form the peace sign in pictures. However, in Japan, that is not the case.
In Japan, teenagers and young people use the peace sign for pictures. Literally every single picture I took at the high school I went to had the peace sign in it. In Japanese the word for the peace sign is piisu sain (ピースサイン), or just piisu (ピース) for short. Many students think the peace sign is cool or cute, and even Japanese idols use it. In Japanese high schools, you don’t really fit in if you never do the peace sign in pictures. Similar to silly bands in America (for the one month they were popular), or that odd sock trend in Japan in the 90’s (which I’ll cover in a later post), it’s just a thing teenagers do as a fashion trend.
Here’s a picture of Japanese high schoolers showing the peace sign!
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I used the peace sign so much in Japan, I still use it in pictures when I’m not thinking about it. I don’t even realize it, and then I notice people are looking at me oddly, and I’m the only one doing a peace sign. Just because, here’s a picture of me and my Japan trip friends! This is the last picture we took together in Japan before we split up to go home (one person stayed behind for an extra week, so the group wasn’t the same). We are all making the peace sign, and it’s all become natural for us.
(No source for this image since I took it myself)
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