SERA, Japan (AP) -- Pressure was mounting on high school principal Toshihiro Ishikawa.
The government had ordered him to hoist the Rising Sun flag and play the anthem to the emperor at an upcoming graduation ceremony. Groups opposed to any hint of Japan's militarist past pushed him to disobey.Unable to satisfy both sides, Ishikawa took the ultimate exit: He killed himself the day before graduation.
His death in February not only shook this hamlet outside Hiroshima, it also ignited a national battle over whether the flag and anthem that once inspired Tokyo's war machine should still be honored today.
Though the symbols are common at sports events, Ishikawa's death highlighted what education officials consider an unsettling fact: Some areas have made a tradition out of snubbing the flag and anthem.
After years of merely suggesting their use, the Education Ministry specifically directed schools to raise the flag and play the anthem in 1989, when only half of the country's public schools honored the symbols.
In the past year, the ministry has turned up the pressure on holdouts -- with results. This year, 100 percent of Hiroshima Prefecture's high schools raised the flag at graduation.
Among dissenters, the flap has prompted calls for a new flag and anthem -- such as a flag featuring a dove to signify peace or a change in the song's lyrics that now praise the emperor.