Japanese and the peace sign

Reading the funny images thread and talk about the middle finger prompted me to ask a similar question, why do japs do the peace sign in every photo?

I've been traveling around Japan for the last 2 weeks and every time they take a photo they do the peace sign, even in Australia every time I see them posing for photos they do it.

My first thought was it had something to do with Hiroshima/Nagasaki etc but thought I'd pose the question and see why the wealth of seabreeze knowledge produces.

Either way having great time over here enjoying the sights, sounds and food!

I've had chicken liver, fatty tuna sushi, 7/11 dumplings and heaps of beer.

I read in the news that they can't sell the research whale meat cause they don't like it.

I didn't see any whales at the fish markets either, only some western tourists that look similar to whales

carefull, you don't want to go up a couple of kite sizes

I asked a bunch of young school girls who wanted a photo with us back in Japan a few years back. She told us it's not the peace sign it's actually bunny ears.

If you know anything about Japanese culture this makes perfect sense - in the fact that it makes no sense at all.

edit: after a quick wikipedia search, I don't think they actually know what it means themselves...

V sign in photographs of Japanese
The palm-outwards V sign is very commonly made by Japanese people, especially younger people, when posing for informal photographs. One account of this practice claims that during the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, American figure skater Janet Lynn stumbled into Japanese pop culture when she fell during a free-skate period, but continued to smile even as she sat on the ice. Though she placed only third in the competition, her cheerful diligence and persistence resonated with many Japanese viewers, making her an overnight foreign celebrity in Japan. Lynn, a peace activist, was repeatedly seen flashing the V sign in the Japanese media thereafter. Though the V sign was known of in Japan before Lynn used it there (from the post-World War II Allied occupation of Japan), she is credited by some Japanese for having popularized its use in amateur photographs.[33]

V sign in Korea and Taiwan
In South Korea and in Taiwan, the V sign is the most popular pose in photographs. It is used in both casual and formal settings.[34][35] It is not widely known to Koreans or Taiwanese that the V sign can mean "peace" or used as an insult; some may believe that the meaning of the sign is "victory". They use it both ways (palm facing the signer and palm facing forward)

I guess for a similar reason why we smile in a photo even if we aren't smiling before or after the photo is taken. Why do that?! It's just automatic / conditioned / expected / cultural norm... ??? I'd be surprised if they connected it with the "peace sign" given how insular most Japanese are (which ain't a whole lot different to the average Aussie either). For example, the symbol used in Japan at shrines would raise a few eyebrows in the West but they had the symbol hundreds of years before Hitler picked it up and it has none of the connotations that we attribute to it in the West.

That Janet Lynn explanation sounds like it fits perfectly...which probably means it's wrong.

To young people today it means nothing more than we are happy and having a good time.I am sure none of them know it's roots or care. Happy! V

You can never be sure what your eating over here.

The best thing is that I haven't been arse pissing out my mud c$&t like I was in Vietnam from eating dodgy food.

I can't upload pics from iPad but at the fish markets I found whole dried squid.

Pretty much anything that can be found in the ocean was at the fish markets.

Lucky bastard