ICV 23 - Day 5

The last day of presentations began with a small announcement about cleanup of the hall and the giving away of pictures of Harry Oswald. The first presenter is Chris Maddish, who presented about the Symmetry of Flags in Japan. He explained about how some flags are symmetric, or one flag has a twin (like Gunma and Tokyo); the rules is that the flags must be in their own class (Japanese flags must pair with Japanese flags), only has one partner (like yin and yang, men or women) and the two rules can be broken if you can justify the relationship and the balance is present. Later, he showed a collage of photos from Saga and Kyoto prefectures showing a major contrast, but also how they compliment each other. Using Europe and Africa, he explained the location of Japan is an example of geographical harmony (half of Japan is below the 36 degrees and the other half is above 38 degrees, with an overlap in between). He also used cultural and historical ties for various other prefectures. He also had the various naval jacks of Japan and the United States paired up. He showed a video presentation that summarized what he talked about, which I believe he put on his personal myspace a year before this conference. But I think he took a while with his presentation.

Emil from Switzerland was up next, who gave a presentation about the sun symbols in flags. One of the things I noticed a lot during this conference is the presentations focused on having something about the sun or something to honor the host nation of Japan. Back to this presentation, Emil first mentioned when the sun was first used as just a general symbol, which later went onto early flags for areas or organizations. No matter the location, nor the organization, the sun was a major symbol either on flags, medals or statues. Even parts of the sun was used, either from just a disc on Russian and Spanish military flags or the sunrays itself in Italy and in Switzerland. The sun is seen as an all seeing eye or as a giver of life. Variants of the sun, such as the swastika, the Indian chakkra and the three legs, were also seen a lot on flags in many different areas. Even the three legged symbol of the Island of Man has been seen in other locations and modified to some extent, such as the flag and symbols of the Italian island of Sicily. Despite being bitter enemies, both the monarchs of the British and the French decided to use the sun symbol on their personal standards. Another enemy of the French, the Prussians, also used the sun symbol on the personal standards of their leaders. Later, he started to focus on Swiss flags that have the sun symbol, such as state flags and military flags. In the military banners, the sun is placed near the other modern symbols of liberty, such as the liberty cap and the liberty tree. Hopping over to the United States and Turkey, then police flags, keep on using the sun symbol until this very day. Another area he focused on was South America, where he focused on the sun flags of Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, among others. Later, he talked about the US state flags and flags used by Native American tribes and moved onto the British colonies, Canadian provinces and African flags that emerged from independence movements. He even had a section about Irish, Nordic, Macedonian and Latvian flags. Flags of the communist movements had various sun emblems on flags and coat of arms; the only modern USSR flag that even had a sun was that of the Georgia SSR and the Air Force flag. With the breakup of the USSR, several states such as Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, also the republics inside Russia, adopted various flags that use the sun. Asian flags were talked about, starting from Iran/Persia, Nepal, India and pointing to modern and historical flags of various current or former states. Later, Oceania where the flags of pacific islands and Australia are mentioned, along with China/Taiwan and other areas. The last area he talked about was Japan and the flags she used in history, then showed a photos of various flags of Switzerland and asked us to come to Switzerland.






During the break, Tanaka Flag Company showed up and sold the Safety flag (white flag with a green cross, 安全旗 or Anzenki in Japanese) and the Hinomaru. In a strange twist, the Hinomaru was 2000 yen and the Anzenki was 810 yen; both were made out of a cotton like cloth, almost like a yukata (summer dress). The next presenter was Marcel van Westerhoven of the Netherlands, who posed the question to us is the local flags of his country and are they declining from a local custom. Traditionally, the flags would be going from patterns with the coat of arms and a monocolor background to eventually designs that have many colors and/or placing items closer to the hoist. However, despite these changes, the flags are distinctive in nature and could be seen even in black and white rendering in laws and in books. The shapes stay uniform with the national flag (2x3 ratio) but a few flags are square or triangular in nature. The flag of cities being created in 1989, the flags being adopted by these new cities are choosing logo flags. He showed us examples of these logo flags and they just look very, very bad. Of the cities in the Netherlands that have flags, only 21 cities have these logos on a bedsheat, with most of the logo flags adopted on or after 1999. For some cities, there is an official flag that use a LOB for daily use. He gave a few reasons, mostly that cities act like companies, ignorance of many persons or other factors; but there are some countermeasures presented.

Next was Sanjeeva Rao of India, whose topic was Abomination of Desolation. While this was had some flag pictures on it, this was not about flags at all by the stretch of my imagination. It first had a definition about desolation, then later on, the presentation dissolved into a discussion about religion, mostly about the Jews. I was very confused by it and some of the folks behind me felt the same way. I know at least one person took offense at the presentation and others were not happy with either Sanjeeva for giving it and JAVA for accepting this for presentation at the ICV. You can ask me offlist of the whole story and my personal view on this, but lets just say that I was not a happy camper once I found out the whole story.

Next was Ted Kaye, who read a paper by Dr. Whitney Smith (he was ill, so he could not travel to Japan). The first part of the paper talked about how the science of vexillology is connected to the study of political science. This paper was up my alley because political science is my major in university (and I have an associates degree in it). Most of my peers in the political science realm do not know much about vexillology and, according to the paper, most vexillologists do not know or pay much attention to the world of politics. Dr. Smith later wrote in his paper 19 thesis that vexillologists must use in order to understand flags with a political mind, no matter if it is the art, use or symbolism of the flags. This makes good sense in Japan, where there is still a major debate about the use of the Hinomaru and the national anthem “Kimi ga Yo” by Japan and the constant tug of war over the feelings of these two symbols of Japan. Just yesterday, there was a forum in the hall next to us talking about the abandonment of the two symbols. We kindly just hid our flags, but my backpack kinda gave it away. I also ran into those guys that morning, and I just hope they didn't see my backpack. I personally agreed with a lot of the paper, but I just mentioned about the Hinomaru and “Kimi ga Yo” issue to the entire group. Ted pretty much told me in response that, as vexillologists, we should keep an eye on those issues, but Dr. Smith wrote that vexillologists should only focus on the study of flags and do not get into the realms of flag promotion or design.







Ted was up again, but with his presentation about ICV 24 in Washington D.C. In 2011. The general area will be Alexandria, Virginia around 1-5 August. The meeting is also connected with the local NAVA 45. The main hall will be the George Washington Masonic Memorial and there are plans for the Smithsonian and the US Naval Academy. The weather is about the same as Yokohama, which is very warm. Marcel was up again, this time giving us an invite to Rotterdam in 2013. Inside the city, it has one of the largest ports in the world, so Rotterdam has an international flare (like Yokohama). The congress site will be the Beurs-WTC and approximately be in August 2013. The three main hosts of ICV25 will be the SN, SVR and the NvvV. There will be museums and other locations we could see and special exhibits will be shown, like what we saw this year at Yasukuni Shrine this year and the final dinner will be on the ship “Amsterdam.” After Marcel was done, the presentations were done for ICV 23 and just needed the final dinner/closing ceremony.

The closing ceremony was held at the Yokohama Work PIA, about a 15 minute walk from the congress venue. Everyone managed to show up, including a few persons who joined us just for the closing dinner. The first surprise was that one of the Japanese, Mr. Murata, brought his daughter to the dinner. She was wearing a full kimono, which brought a sense of wonder to the ladies and a contest among the men to see who can get the most face time with this lovely maiden. We first started with a glass of either whiskey or ulong tea and tons of chatting. (Note, I have a copy of the menu, so others or myself can scan it for yall). Once we were told to take our seats by Tetsuo Kato, we listened to him saying how the ceremony will go. He handed the mic to Graham, who took command for the rest of the evening. The first order he had was to eat this one bite quiche thingie, so I did it in about 4 bites (ok, I suck at these things, so sue me). After having this and a glass of Asahi beer, the awards were passed out by JAVA, FIAV and NAVA. JAVA gave the best paper to Alian Raullet of Brittany, who gave his presentation about the Voice of Vexillology (his adventures with vexillology on the radio). He was given a Japanese type certificate and other goodies from the JAVA President, Nozomi Kariyasu. This was done in a Japanese style, so it was presented on a lacquer plate and was held by Ms. Murata. The NAVA best paper award went to JAVA member Akira Kumagai, who did his presentation about the flags and symbols of historical high schools in Japan. The next was the Vexllion, it was presented to SAVA in honor of one of their members who published an extensive book about the S. African flag, but passed away shortly thereafter (I know he was very active on this mailing list, but my mind cannot seem to remember the name; so Rob, if you or the other folks know his name, just alter the text please). The next awards was the FIAV Fellowships; it was presented to Nozomi Kariyasu (JAVA), Miru Takano (JAVA), Jan Osker Engene (NF), the late Harry Oswald (NAVA and the founder of JAVA), the recipient of this years Vexllion, and a few others (Rob; I need to get you the full list). No FIAV Laureates were awarded this meeting. After eating a full course meal (which looked like rabbit food, to be honest; Zeljko was asking the age old question “where's the beef?”), we had the second part of the ceremonies. First, Michelle Luppant read off a list of vexillologists who have passed away since the last meeting. The reading hit me hard because I worked with one of them, Dev Cannon, for several years. He was one of the first people who got me started on vexillology formally and I will never forget his kindness and his sincerity. The other name that hit me hard was Harry Oswald; I sadly never had a chance to get to know him. However, during this entire meeting, people saw that whatever Harry left behind, he left it for me to carry on towards the future, especially the NAVA/JAVA connection. This humbles me greatly, so this is the reason why I feel honored that if there was an ICV I was proud to call my first, it was this one. We all stood up for a moment of silence, then gave a sake toast to their memories and to our current friendships. Next, Michelle called for Nozomi to come up and grab the FIAV flag. The FIAV March played, so we all stood up to see the flag handed over to Ted Kaye of NAVA and to Gus Tracchia, the folks organizing ICV 24 in Washington. Tetsuo Kato took the mic again and said ICV 23 is done and a message of go home safely.

Some of the fun things at the dinner that I personally done; I had a chance to practice my Japanese with Ms. Murata. After taking photos with her, she tried to speak some English. I spoke in Japanese with her and she replied back in Japanese with the usual cutesy/surprised/shocked manner I get with most Japanese girls. I could tell she was shy and embarrassed, but that just made her that much cuter in my point of view. Earlier in the day, Jon Osker and I received posters from the Democratic Party of Japan with their leader Yukio Hatoyama on it. He gave me the poster at the dinner, so I showed the Japanese the poster. Laughs were heard from across the dinner hall, so people took photos of me with this poster. Mr. Koshikawa of JAVA gave me a document from the Ministry of Defense and it has the color specifications of the Hinomaru, current as of 3-21-2008 (Heisei 20). On page six of this document, titled DSP Z 8701E – Flag, National, the color of the national flag is given in Munsell for two different types of fabric. The first fabric given, akuriru (no idea what this is folks), has the red color as 5.7 R 3.7/15.5 and the white color as N9.4. The second fabric, nylon, has the red at 6.2 R 4/15.2 and the white at N9.2. These colors are mentioned in the document JIS Z 8721 (Japanese Industrial Standard). I wish I had software that can translate Munsell into something useful, but this might get us closer on what the actual color of the Japanese flag is. I showed this document to JAVA and they got excited about it. Once the awards and ceremony was done, it was a giant photo op for everyone around the FIAV flag. I got called for a photo for JAVA, so I stood with all of JAVA and Ms. Murata and have some photos. After I exchanged card with a few folks, and getting fashion tips from Michelle, I said my goodbyes and just waited for JAVA to finish up. I signed a fan using my Japanese name, Zakkari Ha-den, and we presented it to Nozomi for everything that he has done. I also began discussing about the preparations of the proceedings for this ICV, which I hope we could finish them soon. The last things I did was change into some street clothes, give Ms. Murata my email address and gave Victor Lomanstov a giant bear hug. I grabbed my Playstation Portable, found a song by the Japanese idol group “Morning Musume” and just walked my way back to my Internet-less “international youth” ( which is considered under 90 years old at this place and the occupants are over 90 percent Japanese) hostel to be greeted by an ambulance and cans of Coke.

For my personal plans, I will use the rest of the 17th to do some general clean up, 18th to wash clothes and more cleanup, 19th to Hakone and Tokyo, then fly back to the US on the 20th. I been here since June 2nd, so I feels like Japan has became my second home. I don't want to leave this place, but my visa is going to expire eventually, so I have to.

Now here comes the hard part; my overall reflection about this ICV, my very first ICV 23. Overall, this is my second flag conference that I ever been to in my life (Last year, NAVA 42 in Texas was my first) and I didn't know what to somewhat expect from this one. From the perspective of an attendee, I found it very interesting and almost like I am going to a classroom for the first time. Many people knew me because of either my interactions with them on Facebook, this very mailing list, or just seeing my name pop up on the FOTW website or at other locations (such as my personal blog). There was some I knew from NAVA 42, such as all of the FIAV board, Sanjeeva; there was some I just met for the very first time, such as many of the Dutch and Scandinavians folks. Others, like Victor and Zeljko, I can finally shake their hands and buy them a beer or five and just be able to relax with some of the best people I have gotten to know in my entire life. The amount of material present at this ICV was astounding; I managed to cart home flag books from Japan, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada, Croatia and other countless places. While I know my bags and wallet will not like it, but it will give me yet more stuff to put in my personal library when I set up my new place. The amount of freebies was also astounding; I got free books from Russia, Japan, Norway, Croatia and also free CD's from Russia and ICV 20 in Stockholm. I also received free flags from the Aussies (the pole broke, sorry Ralph), the Japanese (the JAVA flag from the late Harry Oswald), Russians (Orenburg City table flag), Brittany from Alian and the Dutch. Lapel pins were also handed out like candy, so I managed to fit my congress badge with 8 lapel pins I received either from JAVA, the ICV goody bags or from random folks at the conference. To me, the folks who gave out the most stuff seemed to be the Dutch and the Scandinavians. The Dutch handed out free table flags of the three organizations that will be hosting ICV 25 in Rotterdam, including a wooden pole and base. I also got a lot of stickers from the Aussies, so I placed one near the right click on my laptop (the left click area is occupied by the Hinomaru). The coffee break area was alright, but half of the machines didn't work or we ran of out stuff quickly. Most of the time, I opted for the green tea or just ran across the street to grab a 120 yen Coke can or bottle. Just not a big coffee guy, no matter how many times friends or ex-girlfriend keep dragging me to that bloody store. Food wise, the conference was pretty good on it. Most of the time, we got to choose where we want to eat and we stayed mostly close to the conference hall or to Navios Yokohama. The only out of the way place we went to was in Tokyo, but that was connected to our excursion. I mostly had curry, sushi, noodle bowls or some variant of the three. The only strange food I had during the events was with JAVA after the comedy show in Yokohama. The only part that I didn't like was the taking the photos from the dark and in the distance. Most of the other guys have photos of the speeches; I gave up after Victor. From the perspective of the workhorse, I can see it takes a lot of effort to just even to get folks moving in the right direction. From serving coffee to technical issues and everything in between, it is very tiring. Just today, I had to play hide and seek just to find the flag seller, then fielding ideas on what was good for this meeting and not. I also was one of the few folks that was willing to walk around and translate for folks, so this earned me a few things such as badges and free food/drinks. I also got to go places most folks could not go and meet some people that I would never have met in my wildest dreams. I cannot even count how much of the business cards I have received from just this meeting. I also wound up on TV due to this. For the pluses, I would have to say is that we had frequent breaks and also had long periods of time we could be with other attendees without having a rough schedule. Some said the schedule was too long on some days, but was glad we could have a lot of free time on Friday. Another plus for me is to convince JAVA to avoid some of the problems that the Berlin congress had, such as allowing time for flag shopping (but it took Yasukuni and the last day in order to pull it off, which dismayed a few folks and I personally do apologize for that). I do admit that book shopping outside of the congress (Yasukuni included) was a bit hard, despite telling them of several places I knew of in the area. But, you would not have found much flag materials anyways unless it was a kids book or a map. Trust me on this folks, I checked for weeks. The locations of the hotels was pretty good, but since I am staying at a different place than the others, I cannot really comment on how their stay was. But, if I had a choice, I would have done the Comfort Inn because of the free Internet. However, I am in Chinatown and the walk wasn't too bad at all, or if I don't feel arsed to walk, I pay 130 yen to get to the Kannai station and only walk for about 5 minutes. The venue was pretty good, but we were limited on how much time we could spend inside the hall due to things beyond our control. We also had to dismantle/set up the giant flags several times; so these telescopic poles we got was quite good, but frustrating to use. And, if you have a heavy flag like FIAV, it will always likely to tip over. We also ran out of bases at the very end, so we had to place flags against the wall or took some down early, like the Yokohama City flag that was sold at an auction. I think my only wish is we could have had a lot of the ceremonies close together in location, which I know NAVA will try and do for ICV 24 in 2011. With a few exceptions, I really liked the presentations given and was able to expand my flag knowledge by taking a lot of notes and sometimes photographs. I would personally need to dig through my files and see what I have about the Korean flags and see if I could pass it to Nozomi and perhaps compile everything I have about the Hinomaru and put it somewhere useful. The outside congress stuff was almost make it up on your own; I went to a baseball opening ceremony right before registration setup began for JAVA. I know the night of the closing ceremony, there was a local baseball game with the Bay Stars of Yokohama were playing against the Dragons of Chukoku; I personally like baseball but if I had a lot more money and time, I would have seen another game (already saw the Tokyo Swallows and the Tohoku Eagles in Tokyo around early June). Movies were out of the question since it was 1800 yen for a ticket for one (yet 2000 yen for a ticket for two, so punished for being single) and where I am staying at, you really do not want to be here after dark (especially if you happen to be a female). There was a theme park near the Navios Yokohama, but it was more of a place for couples or groups and it usually shuts down after 9ish or so at night. The overall shopping was OK, I managed to get Hello Kitty gifts for my Japanese professor, small items for friends back in the States (both American and Japanese) and a ton of stuff for myself. Overall, I really do not regret coming to ICV 23 or to Japan period. There would have been some things I would have done different, such as going to Japan closer to the start of ICV, bring less stuff to the country, chose a different hotel, saved up more cash and just spend less on other affairs. As I said before, I really love Japan and I do want to come back here later for another vacation, and this ICV has convinced me that these meetings every two years are special for many reasons that I cannot explain. The friendships I have created, solidified or took to another level was the biggest joy and pleasure I was able to experience during the ICV; not to mention the number of flags and books in my collection has grown higher. I just hope with my presence at this ICV, I was able to help you to not just find a way around Yokohama but just add my little flair to everything at the meeting. For those not with us, I wish you were here and I hope with everything I am typing, I am giving you a sense of what happened to make you feel like you were here.

I will close this with a thank you to everyone that I met during ICV and everyone I worked with from FIAV and JAVA. However, I give special thanks to the major people who made this ICV for me one of the best times of my life:

Victor, finally meeting you in person was one of the major things I was looking forward to at this ICV. Nozomi could tell you that my face lit up with joy once he said you received your visa from the Japanese embassy. No matter it was meeting you at Narita, sitting in the park near Yokohama Stadium, having drinks and sushi, to the final greeting, I enjoy every moment I spent with you. I wish my Russian was decent as my Japanese, but I am glad I was able to show you my Russian music collection

Zeljko, while I have gotten to known you because of Facebook, I found you to be very funny in person. Always asking the important questions of “where is the beer?” or “where is the beef?,” I think I drank more beer at ICV with thanks to you. It was an honor that I was able to buy the book from you during this ICV and I will take a very good look at it once I get back to the States.

Peter Orenski, you taught me a lot on this trip. From doing good artwork, when you see a good deal when it comes to flags and how to make speeches short and concise, everything you taught me during this ICV will be used to further my studies and any future endeavors that might/might not be related to flags.

Jan Osker, I am glad I had dinner and drinks with you on the night before registration. The best time I had with you was the last day when we both went to the DPJ building to get the Hatoyama posters. It fits in my luggage just fine.

Last, but not least, Nozomi. Ever since last year that I met you in person for the first time, I feel that we had a working chemistry that was destined to happen. With the assistance of Takano-san, Kato-san, Tanaka-san and Murata-san, it felt like the six of us were ready to tackle the problems of ICV 23 with that great spirit the Japanese are well known for. No matter it was dealing with presentations, figuring out who was going to sit next to who at the closing dinner, or dealing with FIAV to see what flag order is correct or what song to use for the opening ceremony, it was the guidance and knowledge from you that carried me through this entire process. I admit, it was hard; I spent many nights awake in the US and Japan figuring out exactly what to do for this conference. Part of the reason why I came to Japan this early is to do some scouting around for those coming to the ICV, so they don't have to bother you with questions like “I want okonomiyaki, where do I get this?” or “Where can I get some yen using this card?” I just pray I was successful in that department. I have also gone so far for you and JAVA that I went to Texas to act on your behalf to invite the attendees and the world to come to Yokohama this year. While the methods I used might not have been conventional, or we had to do some politicking to get what we needed, but everything fell into place once we began to get close to the conference. Even though I believe that some issues were not resolved until the congress was close to us, but I am very relieved that nothing seriously bad has happened and I feel that JAVA has put on one of the best programs I have read about in years. For this being the first ICV in Asia, we have set a benchmark that other nations can look up to and follow for future congresses. Everything fell into place because of you, Kariyasu-sensei. You were that glue that kept everything together, also acted as my medium if I could not get through to the other JAVA members due to the language barrier. You had a lot on your plate, but you did well Sensei. I was honored that I was able to be a part of the ICV 23 team and it was a great honor for you to allow me to become a JAVA member and keep it until the end of my life. It would be an honor to help you with the final acts of this congress, such as the publication of the proceedings and to lend any advice to NAVA, the Dutch and FSA to host their future congresses. Sensei, arigatou gozaimasu. ICV 23 to Nihon wa tanoshikatta. (Thank you very much Sensei. ICV 23 and Japan was very fun.)

I would like to thank Rob for letting me write everything that went on during this ICV and for letting me cart the FOTW flag back to the United States, where it will proudly fly in the halls of the George Washington Masonic Memorial at ICV 24/NAVA 45 in August of 2011. Since it is in my backyard, I am going to this. All NAVA and myself need now is just to ask you one small request; for you to do the same thing and join us in 2011. It was a blast here, and I expect it to be even better with the ICV in my home country. See yall in two years.