Japan's Rising Sun flag removed from Canadian classroom following student petition

NEW YORK - The Rising Sun flag has been removed from a classroom at a school on the outskirts of Vancouver after students started an online petition, according to the local school board.

The Rising Sun flag was used by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy during World War II, and is thus regarded in South Korea and China as a symbol of Japan’s wartime aggression.

B. J. Moon, a Canadian student of Korean descent, and his friends collected over 9,500 names by Monday for his “Take off the Sun Rise Flag in an Educational Environment” petition hosted by the Change.org website

He was not a student in the history class of Walnut Grove Secondary School where the flag was used as a teaching tool, but observed it from the hallway, according to the school board.

Moon refused to comment on the decision to remove the flag after being contacted by Kyodo News.

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