What's with the "V"?

All of the girls in Japan love the "V" hand sign, which is typically thought of as a "peace sign". I get it from pre-teen girls, but I get it from 35-year old women, too. Oddly enough, I've been using it as a friendly greeting/gesture myself for many years, and don't know where I picked up the habit. However, I was told by a co-worker that she "heard" that the two fingers stood for Nagasaki and Hiroshima when in Japan, which made no sense to me. So, being curious, I checked around to see if I could find out what the "V" means in Japan and where it came from.

Old School:

The fingers are used to pull and release a bow, and English longbowmen (archers) held them up to taunt the French, as the French had vowed to chop off the fingers of any captured English longbowmen at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The French got their butts whipped, primarily by longbowmen, so I doubt they did much finger cutting though. Apparently it was quite a scalding gesture between the rivals from then on. Somehow I doubt this has anything to do with the gesture I've seen here. But, if you want to know more about the Battle of Agincourt anyway, click here.

Later:

Quite a few years later Winston Churchill used it to signify victory during World War II, after which it seems that it was transformed from meaning victory to meaning peace by American hippies in the 60's. From what I gather, total victory over the Germans meant peacetime would return, so somehow this transformation of meaning occured. It isn't really clearly spelled out anywhere that I can find though. Seems there are no records of the change, but what could you expect from a bunch of hippies?

Now in America:

From some ass' website that came up on a search engine: ..."Ah the peace sign. It went out with polyester and muttonchop sideburns. Only retrograde "Ben and Jerry's" burned out hippy's and their cultural offspring still think it's meaningful of anything other than sappy emotionalism. When it was the Victory sign, before it's blatent theft as an anti-war symbol, it was kinda corny. Now it's just sad, like the overaged nerds who give the Vulcan greeting, "Live long and prosper". The only hand sign I ever use only envolves one finger."

This guy was probably one of my apartment neighbors in Tampa that didn't have the ability to smile, wave, or say hello when passing on the sidewalk, even when I did all three.
What a wanker. Take a chill pill dude.

Now in Japan:

Well, I found nothing to indicate that it has anything whatsoever to do with the cities, and I asked several people. Everyone other than the person that came up with the original (apparently bogus) idea says it's a peace sign, just like anywhere else today. So, I guess I can continue to use it here and not wonder if I'm making some idiotic statement about the cities "the bombs" fell on.

As a last note:

If you ever do it backwards (with the palm in rather than out) it is considered to be an obscene gesture in the U.K. and English-speaking Canadians may also be offended. I can't find out specifically where this came from either...

New stuff from my mother: "We had a block party yesterday and I met a young man who just moved here from Japan to attend UC. I asked him about the victory/peace sign deal, demonstrating as in your photo of the girls. He said it's the equivalent of the American "thumbs-up"...with a way-to-go, A-OK sort of meaning...no secret implications about bomb-dropping Americans."

back to the home