Give Up the Ghost
The dust in the air, the smoke curling through the gunfire and the uniforms stained with blood and dirt. It's loud, colourful and chaotic.
Then, suddenly, the unexpected: a single white flag rises.
In this frozen heartbeat, a simple cloth shouts a paradox that shows nothing but says everything.
In a glimpse, a white flag is a silent choice; plain and patternless, yet without threat, it refuses, obstructs and demands a word.
History might suggest this pragmatic pause was born of necessity. Yet others would argue the white flag was always there, an ever-existing ghost of the battlefield, drifting past tanks and settling beneath falling bombs.
Long before it was carved into stone or written into law, a white cloth cut through mud and smoke, catching the eye from a distance.
It appears first with the people of the Eastern Han dynasty, where white was a hue of mourning for the lost and defeated. Across the seas, Roman soldiers mirrored the gesture, stabbing white fabric with olive branches to plead for words instead of blades.
White was white, white and white.
A blank cloth, likely torn from a garment, lifted and waved, speaking an unspoken language. Not of victory. Not of surrender. But of mercy.
Against all odds, this fragile solution kept a low profile and stayed off-grid. And as Albert Camus put it, “Calling things by the wrong name adds to the affliction of the world.” So the world had to fabricate a dictionary for the times when words failed them and weapons began to communicate.
The transition was set somewhere in the 20th century. Initially codified in the Hague Convention of 1899, subsequently officially ratified as a sacred shield in 1907.
Now let’s continue with a cliché question, but on a more human level, why not butter yellow or navy?!
White was accessible. For many years, finding a white cloth was considered a quick find, so across cultures and lands, soldiers were dressed in it. Then a clash of identity hit. Symbols and ideologies outflashed each other, trying to scream themselves louder and brighter, and it was perhaps easier to identify friends and enemies too, so white became a unique, unusual symbol. Then black powder was introduced to the battlefield, with guns and heavy smoke that reduced visibility. And what could work better than a cheap, unexpected sign, when visibility itself was disappearing?
On the other hand, in many Western societies, white represents innocence, freedom, honesty and peace. For instance, imagine a dove. Doves overall symbolize peace and love. But we don’t normally see a black dove being freed at a wedding, because the colour white carries so much meaning in that symbolic action. Even in feng shui, white stands against black, which represents mystery and power, while white balances black, bringing peace and safety. Or as some might put it, in many cultures people wear white during prayer, white somehow representing that they are placing themselves in the surrender of others and their god(s).
White felt inviting.
It’s strange to consider that colours are binary. Considering a definition and labelling them as such. But the world that we live in thrives with the data that we give it, and it projects it into tiny-huge tags so it can continue, less alienated.
So in this context, the journey perhaps began with a cultural understanding, where people buried their sadness beneath a simple white cloth, but as dominos knock each other down one after another, ideas drifted from one mind to another and a universal idea got shaped.
The idea that makes white cheap, accessible, and perhaps even resentful, as it collided with the idea of victory, but gave hope and serenity.
A chance for a new beginning.
Sources
Evarts, A. B. Color Symbolism. 1919.
Junghare, I. Y. Colors of Peace. 2016.
Doctors Without Borders. Distinctive or Protective Emblems, Signs and Signals. N.d.
G. Piper. How Did The White Flag Become The Symbol of Surrender?. 2025.
SOFREP News Team. How the White Flag Became a Symbol of Surrender. 2022.
International War Heritage Institute. Uniforms and textiles. n.d. https://warheritage.be/en/uniforms-and-textiles#:~:text=Guns%20of%20that%20period%20use,for%20order%20and%20team%20spirit.
Verywell Mind. Color psychology: White. n.d. https://www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-white-2795822
Verywell Mind. The color psychology of black. n.d. https://www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-black-2795814
Chirp for Birds. Why doves are the symbol of peace and other dove facts. 2022. https://chirpforbirds.com/wild-bird-resources/why-doves-are-the-symbol-of-peace-and-other-dove-facts/?srsltid=afmbooqzgphvvafkzg3to9048tcxwxnx1ajkslsg9airycedhm62p5h
Colour Studies. White surrender. 2022. https://www.colourstudies.com/blog/2022/10/20/white-surrender#:~:text=Regalia%20decorated%20with%20colourful%20patterns,the%20same%20message%20for%20all.
AS USA. How a white flag became the symbol for surrender and the history behind its meaning. 2025. https://en.as.com/latest_news/how-a-white-flag-became-the-symbol-for-surrender-and-the-history-behind-its-meaning-n/
Oxford Public International Law. White flag. n.d. https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e2084
Human Rights Watch. White flag deaths: Killings of Palestinian civilians during Operation Cast Lead. 2009. https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/08/13/white-flag-deaths/killings-palestinian-civilians-during-operation-cast-lead
