Finland to remove historic swastikas from some Air Force unit flags

Finland’s Air Force said this week it will remove historic swastikas from a small number of unit flags, a step officials framed as a move to avoid awkward encounters with foreign visitors and to modernize military symbolism. The decision was announced by Colonel Tomi Böhm, the new commander of the Karelia Air Wing, who told public broadcaster Yle that while the flags could have been kept, "sometimes awkward situations can arise with foreign visitors," and "it may be wise to live with the times."

The change completes a yearslong process of phasing out a blue swastika on a white background that first became the Air Force emblem in 1918. That year a Swedish count, Eric von Rosen, donated a plane bearing his personal swastika motif to Finland’s newly formed air force. Von Rosen used the symbol as a good luck charm after seeing it on a runestone. The emblem predated the Nazi Party’s adoption of the swastika, but its association with Nazi Germany deepened during World War II when Finland fought alongside Germany against the Soviet Union, leading to Allied orders in 1944 to remove the symbol from aircraft.

Finland has slowly reduced the swastika’s visibility in recent decades. The Air...