"We often have to explain to visitors that our swastika has nothing to do with the Nazis," says Kai Meklin, the museum's director and former Finnish Air Force pilot. "The Finnish Air Force have used the swastika as a logo long before Hitler and the Nazis."
Although the swastika has already been removed from the aircraft, the Finnish officers continue to use them without problems in uniforms and shutters.
"For us, swastika is a symbol of freedom and independence," explains McLain, like many other Finns.
But others see the presence of this very problematic symbol, especially now that the extreme right in Finland is getting stricter.
The Finns used the swastika for the first time in 1918, when the Swedish convoy Erik Fon Rosen leaked the arms of an airplane with that symbol and handed it to the Finnish White Army, which at the time was fighting for independence beyond the Red Guard, supported by the Soviets.
Source: Worldbulletin.net
