Japanese military yen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Japanese military yen (Chinese and Japanese: 日本軍用手票, also 日本軍票 in short) , abbreviated as JMY, was the currency issued to the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy as a salary. The Imperial Japanese Government first started issuing JMY during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. The JMY reached its peak during the Pacific War period, when the Japanese Government excessively issued to all of its occupied territories. During the war, not only was the JMY used in the military, it was also forced upon the local population as the official currency of the occupied territory. Since the JMY was not backed by gold, and did not have a specific place of issuance, the JMY could not be exchanged for Japanese Yen. Forcing the local population to use the JMY officially was one of the ways the Japanese Government could dominate the local economy.
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[edit] Introduction of JMY to Hong Kong
After the British Colonial authorities of Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Army on 25 December 1941, the newly installed Japanese occupational authorities decreed the JMY to be the legal tender of Hong Kong the following day. The Japanese occupation also outlawed any use of Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) and set a deadline for exchanging HKD into JMY. Anyone caught with possession of HKD would be tortured.
When the JMY was first introduced in 26 December 1941, the exchange rate between HKD and JMY was 2 to 1. However, by October 1942, the rate was changed to 4 to 1.
After exchanging for HKD, the Japanese Military purchased supplies and strategic goods in neutral Macao (Portugal was neutral in World War II in Asia, and Japanese respected its neutrality).
As Japan became more desperate in the war effort in 1944, the Japanese military authorities in Hong Kong circulated more JMY, resulting in hyperinflation.
[edit] JMY after the war
After Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August 1945, the JMY was seized by British military authorities. However, although there was about as much as 1.9 billion yen, the Japanese military administrations intentionally destroyed 700 million worth of it.
On 6 September 1945, the Japanese Ministry of Finance announced that all JMY became void. Hong Kong people’s JMY literally became useless pieces of paper overnight.
[edit] Recent developments
On 13 August 1993, an organization in Hong Kong seeking a refund for JMY took legal action against Japan, suing the Japanese government for the money that was lost when JMY was declared void. A Tokyo district court ruled against the plaintiff on 17 June 1999, stating that although it acknowledged the suffering of the Hong Kong people, the Japanese government did not have specific laws concerning JMY compensation. Japan also used the San Francisco Treaty, of which United Kingdom was a signatory state (and therefore, the Crown Colony of Hong Kong), as one of the reasons to deny compensation.
[edit] See also
- History of Hong Kong
- Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong
- Battle of Hong Kong
- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
- Pacific War
- Banana money - An informal term referring to the currency used during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore
