YANGON - Visitors to Myanmar these days often encounter young men in T-shirts
emblazoned with a red swastika in a circle and the word "Nazi"
written above. World War II-style motorcycle helmets decorated with the fascist
emblem are also en vogue on the streets of Yangon.
Myanmar's most popular rock band,
which has thousands of fans on Facebook and has toured the United States, is
named "The Iron Cross," in reference to a German military medal that
was bestowed by Adolf Hitler. The band's logo is a Nazi eagle holding an iron
cross instead of a swastika in its claws.
The popularity of Nazi symbolism
among Myanmar youth has raised questions among activists, academics and
travelers and is seemingly at odds with Myanmar's hopeful transition from
military to democratic rule. "I suspect (and hope) they are popular out of
ignorance rather than ideology," writes traveler Micah Rubin on his blog,
where he posted a photo of a teenager wearing a shirt with a big swastika on
the front.
"I imagine that people
wearing these T-shirts might see them as just cool things to wear," says
Sydney University anthropologist Jane Ferguson, who has done extensive research
in Myanmar. "Something that's foreign and exotic might just look cool
without going into the deep history. They might recognize the swastika as part
of Nazi regalia, but associate it with the Sanskrit symbol of
auspiciousness."
Ferguson compares the popularity
of Nazi shirts in Myanmar to Westerners placing Buddha statues inside bars and
night clubs, without realizing that this is offensive to Buddhists, or
tattooing Chinese characters on themselves without understanding what they
mean.
She says that people in Myanmar
wear other shirts with ridiculous messages because they don't know what the
English language slogans mean. "When something isn't intended as an
offense, it shouldn't be taken as such," she says.
Nonetheless, the pro-Nazi T-shirts
and other wears are beginning to cause an international stir. Rabbi Abraham
Cooper, a member of the California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center that fights
anti-Semitism around the world, says his group is concerned about the seeming
proliferation of Nazi symbolism in Myanmar.
"Our first assumption is
that it's based on a lack of knowledge, not on any insidious hatred," he
said. "But we don't want to see the symbols of the genocide that was
perpetuated against the Jewish people become fads anywhere in the world."
Cooper says the Wiesenthal Center
is worried that Nazi symbols are becoming increasingly popular throughout Asia,
including in countries where Jewish people have never historically faced
persecution.
In India, Hitler's
autobiographical book Mein Kampf, which among other things proclaims the
supremacy of the German race, is regularly sold at bookshops next to the
biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs and the country's graduate students are
snapping it off the shelves, Cooper says.
In Thailand, which was an ally of
Germany and Japan during World War II, school children in the northern city of
Chiang Mai dressed up as Hitler and in Nazi SS guard uniforms for a school
parade in 2011. A local band named "Slur" produced a song and video
called "Hitler," in which dancers put on Hitler mustaches and
incorporated the Nazi salute into their dance routine.
In Korea, Nazi symbols have even
been used to promote cosmetics, Cooper said. "I wish I could tell you it's
the first time we've seen this phenomenon pop up in Asia, but it seems to come
up too often," Cooper says. "It's difficult to put a finger on why
it's happening."
Cooper is particularly alarmed
because Asia is a part of the world where most people never meet a Jewish
person in their lives. This, he says, could make Asians more vulnerable to
accepting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. His group also doesn't want to see
Asia, a garment manufacturing giant, export such clothing items that have
appeared on the streets of Yangon abroad.
Seig Heil history
While many Myanmar youth might
not be familiar with the history of Nazism during WWII, many do have a
perspective on the Nazis. In certain circles Hitler is seen by some Asians as a
strong leader who fought against colonial powers, including England and France,
that ruled and oppressed their nations before achieving independence.
American historian Rosalie Metro,
who wrote her doctorate thesis on how history is taught in Myanmar, says that
popular opinion of Hitler in Myanmar is generally positive. "I asked a few
taxi drivers about history, and they said, 'Yes, Hitler is a good, strong
leader,'" Metro said. "People say that sometimes."
Myanmar's government-issued
history textbooks contribute to this strong leader perception because they do
not describe Nazi atrocities, according to Metro.
"They talk about the Treaty
of Versailles after World War I, and that the situation was very bad in
Germany, that Hitler was a strong leader, and that many Germans felt that the
Jews, who controlled the economy, were responsible for their troubles,"
Metro, who can read Burmese, said in summarizing Myanmar history textbooks.
"That's strange because it doesn't say, 'And they were wrong.' And it
doesn't mention the Holocaust."
That portrayal is in stark contrast
to how schoolbooks refer to the British and the Japanese, who are described
broadly as enemies of the Myanmar people who "sucked the lifeblood out of
Burma," she said, referring to the country's former name.
To combat the growing popularity
of Nazi symbols in some Asian countries, the Wiesenthal Center has organized
Holocaust exhibitions throughout the region. The exhibits, which include
photographs illustrating the murders of approximately six million Jewish
people, are meant as a historical introduction for those who have no knowledge
of what happened in Europe during the 1940s.
The center's first exhibit in
Mumbai opened in the fall, while a Holocaust display in Bangkok - which was put
together as a response to the Chiang Mai's school children's Nazi parade - will
open on February 4.
No Holocaust exhibition has ever
been organized in Myanmar but Cooper said he would be interested in bring one
to the country. The rabbi also plans to look into the origin of the Nazi shirts
appearing on the streets of Yangon.
"If it's a company that
makes its living by exporting (these shirts) overseas, this kind of behavior
will cost them a lot business wise," he said. "We'll see if we can
put an end to it."
Julie Masis
Julie Masis is a Cambodia-based journalist.
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