By 1942, the Japanese had
conquered a large empire in the Pacific, stretching from the border between
Russia and China in Manchuria, down all the way to Indonesia and the Solomon
Islands. When Japan invaded new regions in China or South East Asia, the local
populations suffered more than just an occupying force—the Japanese also
imposed an invasion currency on the seized regions.
Japanese Invasion Money,
interestingly referred to as JIM, came in many different forms. These paper
currencies were tailored and modified for each region. The Japanese Military
Yen was imposed on China; invasion dollars were put into circulation in Malaya
(now Malaysia); Japanese rupees were disseminated in Burma (now Myanmar); paper
cents and gulden were released by Japan into the Netherlands East Indies;
Japanese versions of shillings and pounds were used in lands captured from the
British Empire and Japanese Government pesos and centavos were also printed for
the occupied Philippines.
During World War II, the
United States was able to take advantage of Japan’s simplistic paper invasion
money, especially the Japanese peso. The U. S. quickly counterfeited the
invasion money, dropping in loads of bank notes that looked authentic on the
front, but had propaganda and anti-Japanese messages printed on the back.
In the end, the Japanese
Invasion Money was never very effective and often suffered devaluation because
of over-printing. When Japan surrendered
to the United States on September 2, 1945, the Japanese Invasion Money lost all
of its value as a currency. Even though the money is no longer legal tender, a
few of the JIM bank notes (if they are in pristine condition) are still
valuable to collectors, yet most JIM’s are now completely worthless, except as personal
keepsakes.
(Japanese Government (Philippines)-100 Pesos
(1944), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the National Museum of
American History)
(OCE-3a-Oceania-Japanese Occupation-10 Shillings
ND (1942), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the National Museum of
American History)
(NI-125c-Netherlands Indies-Japanese
Occupation-10 Gulden (1942), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the
National Museum of American History)
(Malaya-Japanese Occupation-1000 Dollars ND
(1945), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the National Museum of
American History)
(Burma, Japanese invasion currency,10 rupees
(1942-44), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the National Museum of
American History)
(10 Yen military banknote of the 1938 series.
[Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the Army Ministry of Japan)
Sources:
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/World-War-II-and-defeat
- https://www.educationalcoin.com/media/amfile/files/(1)imagesalbumsoptjimalb.pdf
- http://www.psywarrior.com/WWIIAlliedBanknotes.html
- http://www.antiquemoney.com/the-japanese-government-pesos/
- http://www.littletoncoin.com/shop/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=29555&productId=289012
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