Long live the emperor

So I was walking through Aix-en-Provence last month, and I noticed a neighborhood store, or cafe, or some business anyway, that was flying flags. On was the French flag, the other the EU flag, and the last one an Imperial Japanese flag.

We were just walking by on our way to somewhere, so I didn't bother to ask them why they were flying such a hateful piece of fabric. Some people are clueless.

When I was in Ann Arbor, I had a friend who displayed a Nazi flag as well as a sword with a swastica on it in one of the extra rooms of his house. Apparently his grandfather had taken them as a prize of battle.

I understand my friend's pride in his grandfather, and I know that he is not a Nazi. Still it is upsetting to walk into a room with a big Nazi flag on it.

I was not the same kind of upset when I walked past the Imperial Japanese flag in Aix-en-Provence. I chuckled when I realized that flag had probably been up for years, and that I might have been the only one to understand what it means.

Someday I hope a Japanese tourist will walk into that shop and berate them.