I don’t know how it became a thing, but when I lived in Japan it was quite common for people to make a ‘peace’ sign when photographed. No one I asked seemed to know why, but I think it had something to do with the Beatles. Regardless, it was pretty ubiquitous. Especially for women.
Another thing worth knowing is that when you screw up in the Yakuza (Japanese organized crime) or screw up with the Yakuza (i.e. gambling debts) it’s customary to cut off one’s own pinkie finger as a means of atonement. I read somewhere that this was to permanently punish wrongdoers but not in a way that would render them unable to use a sword (and thus useless to their bosses). I have no idea what’s done with the finger once detached and presented.
One could make a case that in order to understand another society you should talk to its most conservative and right-wing element. Leftiness tends toward an international identity based on class identification, whereas rightiness is about the uniqueness (and perceived superiority) of a society and its culture. Lefties mythologize the future, righties mythologize the past. Neither side really has history on its side, and both will gleefully fill mass graves given the opportunity.
I was fascinated by the ultra-right (uyoku) and the trucks they rode around in. Every once in a while you’d see a converted bus or panel truck, military green or black usually, covered with patriotic slogans and loud PA systems (very loud – windows in my 3d floor English conversation classroom would vibrate) blaring military music. And flags. Lots of flags. (the national flag – Hi No Maru – is the red spot on a white field, the battle flag the spot is in the upper left and has rays coming out – some see it as patriotic but for many the battle flag is a reminder of fascism and the tremendous suffering it brought). The vehicles are designed for conflict and frequently had steel screens over the windows. I never saw a blade, and certainly no guns (very illegal in Japan) in any of the trucks I rode in, but there was always a small arsenal of golf-clubs, shinai (bamboo swords used in kendo) and baseball bats. Running afoul of the people in the trucks could get one put in the hospital. Or dead.
This all shifted into overdrive when the Japan Teachers Union had a national conference in Kochi. I’m hazy on specifics, but the gist I got was that they were considered unacceptably leftist by the ultra-right, and trucks from all over the country came in to disrupt their meeting. This meant that the streets were choked with dozens (hundreds?) of trucks slowly creeping down the main thoroughfare blasting music that made any form of conversation nearby flatly impossible.
This also meant that riot police were sent in to line the streets and act as a deterrent to confrontations and the inevitable violence that would follow.
Being so clearly an outsider in Japan, and thus a non-combatant in whatever cultural conflicts were going on, gave me a kind of social pass that allowed me into places that were inaccessible for most Japanese. When I told my Japanese friends that I was literally going up to the trucks and asking the drivers if I could ride along for a bit to take photos – because that was my hobby – (!) – and that they would often let me do this… They were stunned, horrified, and a little amused, as if I’d taken up lion-taming as a hobby.
All of this adds up to my completely misunderstanding what I was photographing when I shot this. It was another ‘parade’ – lots and lots of trucks slowly circling the area around Kochi Castle doing their very best to intimidate; I shot this and moved on to something else. I had assumed he was giving me another peace sign (many did). It wasn’t until the film was developed and I was examining the negative that I realized he was instead showing me his amputated fingers. It wasn’t a greeting, it was a warning to stay away.