With the palm facing the viewer it means peace now but it's rare to see it referred to as a V sign in the UK with this meaning.
In WW II Churchill used it to mean Victory not peace but apparently started out used the insulting version and had to have the difference explained to him. Not sure if that is true or just apocryphal.
No doubt the posh school he went to didn't have the grubby little oiks running round the playground flicking the V's everywhere. Or grubby little oiks for that matter. :)
Sorry but this is not the case at all. Most millenials know it as a peace sign, none of them would think of pokemon.
The hippie counter-culture movement in the 1960s co-opted it as the "peace" sign, but nowadays I'd argue it doesn't have much of a meaning, it's just "something people do for photos" (especially in East Asia).