The Japanese Empire Printed Invasion Pesos, Cents, Shillings And Rupees

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.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

  (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      

Roland Garros, Anthony Fokker And The WWI Fighter Plane Revolution

Left: Roland Garros c. 1910, Right: Anthony Fokker c. 1916, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

In World War One, the French airman, Roland Garros, took the first step in revolutionizing the airplane for warfare. His dream was to be able to fire a machine gun through turning airplane propellers without endangering the aircraft. Garros’ design was simplistic and not the most efficient model, but it got the job done—he basically armored his propellers with metal wedges that deflected bullets away from the propeller blades. Even though his design was a bit brutish, Roland Garros managed to shoot down four German airplanes by the time he crashed and was captured by the Germans in 1915. He would remain a prisoner of war in Germany until 1918.

Unfortunately for the Allied Powers of WWI, Roland Garros was not all that was recovered from the crash in 1915—Germany also salvaged Garros’ airplane propeller and gun design. The Germans then handed the design over to the brilliant Dutch engineer, Anthony Fokker. Although Fokker wanted to remain neutral in WWI, and had actually tried to sell his airplanes to the Allies, the Allied Powers had refused to buy his planes and Germany became his main client. The Allies would soon regret their decision not to work with Fokker, for he would take Garros’ design and improve it exponentially.

In less than a year after Roland Garros was captured, Anthony Fokker designed a mechanism that synchronized an airplane’s machine gun to the propellers in such a way that the bullets passed by the propeller blades like clockwork without collision. With this new invention in 1915, the Fokker E-1 fighter plane was born and the Fokker Scourge of German air superiority began.

As for Roland Garros, he escaped from German custody in February of 1918 and immediately took to the skies in an Allied fighter plane. Unfortunately for Garros, however, his plane was shot down later that year, but this time, he did not survive. In a twist of irony, the German plane that shot Garros out of the sky was none other than one of Anthony Fokker’s synchronized fighter planes.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anthony-Herman-Gerard-Fokker  
• http://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/fokker-anthony/ 
• http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=393  
• http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/29/sport/roland-garros-war-hero-french-open/

When Most Other European Powers Were Being Evicted From Japan In the 17th Century, The Dutch Were Allowed To Stay

(Dutch personnel and Japanese women watching an incoming towed Dutch sailing ship at Dejima by Kawahara Keiga (川原慶賀), c. 1811-1842, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

After the Battle of Sekigahara (conveniently dated 1600 CE) Tokugawa Ieyasu became the undisputed shogun of Japan by 1603. His rule would usher in the Edo Period, a multiple-century span of time when Japan was ruled by a Tokugawa government (or Bakufu). The Edo Period lasted until the late 19th century, when the Tokugawa Bakufu was stripped of power during the Meiji Restoration.

One of the central aspects of the Tokugawa style of foreign policy was strict isolationism and seclusion. The Tokugawa leaders tried to close as many doors to the world outside of Japan as they could. The main reason that the Bakufu detested Westerners was because of religion. In the case of most European countries at the time, missionaries often followed merchants to new civilizations they came in contact with, and Japan was not spared from that pattern. Since most European countries refused to end their missionary work, the Tokugawa government told the majority of Europeans to pack up and leave.

The first to go were the British. They left Japan in 1623. Next were the Spanish, who ended their commerce in Japan around 1624. Portugal lasted more than a decade longer, but they also were gone by 1639.

Only the Dutch, who were able to separate commerce from religion, were allowed to stay—albeit, they were cordoned off to a miniscule marketplace in Nagasaki harbor.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Source:

• A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (Third Edition) by Andrew Gordon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.