Japanese children learn to make the V-sign at such a young age that it is as instinctive a reaction to a camera as smiling. A reporter for Japan Today asked some young Japanese why they made the sign, and got some interesting answers. Seiichi Igeta, aged 17, replied:

"I make the peace sign but I don't know why I do it, who invented it and when we started doing this. I think I've been doing it since I was born. The peace sign gesture must have been programmed in my DNA, or foreigners mind-controlled Japanese to make the peace sign subconsciously when we pose for a photo to keep the peace after the war."

There was also a discussion on the subject on Japan Forum, the online community dedicated to all things Japanese. Westerner Mike Cash, wrote:

"A really odd thing is that most Japanese don't even realize they're doing it, and furthermore seem not to even notice them in their pictures. I remember a high school girl showing me a group photo taken on a school trip. There were about 50 girls in the picture and about 70 or 80 peace signs. (We counted!) Though the photo looked like a huge mass of peace signs to me and it was the first thing that struck me, nobody else present who saw the picture (all Japanese) noticed them at all."

Spreading the word

The palm-forward V-sign was first used to represent peace in the US in the 1960s, by people campaigning against the war in Vietnam, such as Yoko Ono. Although she is Japanese, Ono probably learned to make the sign in America. How this gesture, previously standing for victory, came to mean "peace" is yet another mystery.

One theory is that the gesture was popularised in Japan by the US figure skater, Janet Lynn, during the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. Although she came third in the event, and fell over on the ice, she captured the hearts of the Japanese public with her constant cheerfulness - Japanese children are also encouraged to be cheerful at all times. A peace campaigner, Lynn was photographed many times making the peace sign, and people began to copy her.

The V-sign has now spread to young people in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, probably due to the Japanese influence. One reason for its popularity is that it is so easy to do. Seima Sekine, in Japan Today, said, "Even when I don't feel like I have to smile, I can easily make the V sign and show my desire for peace in a photo."