What's with the peace sign Asians (or possibly just Japanese) make in photos?

Question:

We had Japanese exchange students here (Australia) and pretty much all the photos of my classmates with one of the students, they were doing peace signs? What's with this?

Answer:

I will tell you what it is. they are imitating African American culture. The sign was used back in the freedom movement days to indicate peaceful resistance/struggle against the authorities. Know teenage kids abuse it and use it to make themselves look "cool" in pictures... very annoying