The Union Jack, My London Kaori Maeda I am from Japan but I’m a Londoner at heart. Fascinated by English lyrics, I started to scribble since I was a teenager. Those scribbles were transformed into poetry and led me to the world of Creative Writing. Apparently my writing reads like candyfloss.
The Union Jack means home to me. I would happily die wrapped in it although I am Japanese. I even want a tattoo of the Union Jack someday. When I mentioned this to a British person, he said, ‘Really? I would never do that. It’s not like you’re one of the BNP (British National Party).’ Peter from Coventry is in his fifties and has a sleeve tattoo that stretches from his wrist to his shoulder. He told me that he carefully planned the design and the timing for his tattoo. ‘I don’t like the flag (the Union Jack) because it reminds me of the discriminating British Empire and what it has done to people’, Peter said. To understand the depth of the Union Jack, what it means to others and what they think of its tattoo, I have asked a group of people of different ages and backgrounds including tattoo artists. The Union Jack has been flying for hundreds of years but how people feel about it does not seem monolithic. The Union Jack was first created in 1606, when King James VI of Scotland became James I and united England, Scotland and Ireland. Wales and Ireland were under English rule at that point. Today the Union Jack is comprised of three flags: St. George’s, St. Andrew’s and St. Patrick’s and it represents the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Ireland since 1801. Although the Union Jack is officially addressed as the Union Flag, its appellation as the Union Jack came into use in the 17th century. In 1908, Parliament declared that the Union Jack should be regarded as the national flag. As a shift in power can change the discourse of a country, the United Kingdom has experienced many changes over the years. Although Wales is now independent from England, its national flag with the red dragon does not appear in the Union Jack. When each national flag, such as the Scottish or the Welsh, is heisted in its dominance, it is as if to inflame a feeling of nationalism, a counterforce to the unionist approach of the United Kingdom. This exposes the limitation of the Union Jack in this current political climate. When I asked forty-year-old Michael from Northern Ireland about the Union Jack, he rolled up his sleeve and pointed at a scar on his arm. ‘This is what they (the unionists) did to me. I got shot for being where I was not supposed to because I had a delivery to make for work. The Union Jack makes me feel sick!’ He also voiced his nationalist view by telling me that he is Irish and from Derry ‘where British 90
