The Evolution of Imperial Japan’s War Medals (1875-1945)

[Nick Komiya]

29th August 1921
Detailed internal guidelines were issued relating to awarding criteria of the medal. This applied the 11-class merit scale adapted from order awarding.
-“Combat zones” referred to service either in the Shangdong Province (山東省), Northern Manchuria or Eastern Siberia.
-To qualify as having served in the combat zone required presence in the zone for more than 30 days
-Service in a foreign army also could be awarded if one served longer than 30 days in the combat zone
-Civilians serving in the combat zone were now also eligible so long as they had served there for more than 30 days.



Finally It’s Finished
Finally, the full history of the Evolution of Japanese War Medals from 1875 to 1945 is concluded by plugging the remaining hole in the middle of the long story with the WW1 Chapter above.

Because of all the busy international exchanges involved, I have long wanted to write about the victory medal, but had found the large pile of archive material a bit too daunting to tackle. I am glad I finally could work up the courage to lay seize on that pile, taking it apart layer by layer and reassembling it into a coherent drama.

Looking back, the whole article spanned a full 70 years in time, and as Ogyu was with us for half of that story, I had come to understand the mind of the man Ogyu, as if he had been alive in my own lifetime and started to look forward to his next fight over medal designs. I almost came to see within the small disc of a medal, a little wrestling ring where Ogyu as a kind of Popeye got matched against the Army as Bruto, hurling anchors, stars and all sorts of vegetation against each other. So I was really sad to see Ogyu run out of spinach in the end.

If some readers saw any of that, too, it was worth writing. If you didn’t, at least there were all the colorful ribbons and the shiny metal for you to enjoy.

完

[imperialjapan]

Thank you so much, Nick. Such great and useful scholarship!

[Nick Komiya]

Counting Crow’s feet

No, this is not spam about skin care for the elderly.

There once was a government office in Japan that seriously made it their business to count crow’s feet. I already explained about the Cabinet Legislation Bureau emerging as the new tormentor to the army, but it was not only the military that got the sharp end of their stick, but even the former office of Ogyu’s, the Decorations Bureau, were now also getting jolts now and then.

They played a lawyer’s role within top government circles and typically got involved just before Cabinet Ministers had to sign things off before gaining the Emperor’s signature and signet. Because they came in at this late stage, when they saw something objectionable about to be passed into law, the action they took tended to upset the applecart in a dramatic way.

They already made a big splash by throwing the word “combatant” into the Victory Medal Edict and they will soon force the Decorations Bureau to correct the writing direction of the word “war medal”, on the bar of a Greater East Asia War Medal prototype as shown in Peterson’s book, which had been spelled backwards (as was a temporary trend in the early 1940s). Now we catch them again, this time, amputating a crow’s foot.

As briefly discussed in post 59, the final edict for the China Incident War Medal came with a lot of reference material debating how the real Yatagarasu (Huge Crow) of legend should have had two feet instead of three. The reason for all this sudden attention to the number of feet was because the initial design submitted for the China Incident War Medal by the Decorations Bureau did indeed feature a 3-legged creature, as was a fairly traditional depiction of that particular freak of a crow.

The Legislation Bureau’s function included checking for legitimacy and conformity of new bills with the traditions of Japan, but in this instance, they went as far as questioning whether the Legend was really correct. I don’t know, but their motivation in going that far might have been all the jokes they imagined foreigners would come up with when seeing the medal. Let’s face it, 3-legged crows were not normal even in Japan, at least before the A Bomb.

Anyway, the Legislation Bureau prevailed in the end as usual and the crow lost its third leg. Here is what the Legislation Bureau’s report had to say about the poor creature as attachment to the Edict draft submitted on 9th February 1939.

“The initial design proposal submitted to us featured a 3-legged crow, and the Edict draft further described that as being the Yatagarasu, which we found to be a claim lacking in sound backing.

We understand the 3-legged bird to have appeared first in China’s ancient Yin Yang mythology. Although there are also old documents in our country that describe the Yatagarasu as a tripedal, there are equally theories that contest that and it is a controversy that has not seen any agreement among historians. Therefore we should refrain from taking any definite stance that may be seen as an endorsement.

Not wishing to cause unnecessary aggravation, our office offered the Army a compromise of keeping the 3-legged crow on the medal, but changing the wording within the edict merely to crow, instead of identifying it as a “Yatagarasu” (The contingency issue 1 Sen coins depict a simple crow and the description also referred to it simply as crow. Also the 1931-1934 Incident Medal officially described the Golden Kite merely as a Kite in the Edict).

However, the Army wanted to avoid such wording, as crows are often seen as birds of ill omen in common lore. Thus the originator of the design preferred rather to modify the crow into a bipedal and keep the Yatagarasu description as is in the Edict. Accordingly, we updated the drawing of the medal attached to the Edict.”

The same report also explained some thinking that went into the metal to be used in the manufacture of the China Incident War Medal. This is because of the severe material shortages caused by the China Incident that introduced a wide range of substitute materials and specs.

“In support of the war effort, all copper coins were recovered from market circulation to be replaced by aluminum ones to conserve material needed for war production. So the medal to consist mainly of copper, though not enough to aggravate war production shortages, presents problems of principle by setting an example not consistent with what the population is being forced to endure. Therefore we have repeatedly requested considering use of substitute metals. However, switching to steel (in this case, stainless steel) was out of the question as that requires upgrades to most of the production machinery at the mint. Steel wears out molds quickly, so special molds become necessary.

Producers also considered using Chinese coins consisting mainly of copper, but because Chinese refining technology is behind the times, their copper contains high amounts of arsenic, which unless further treated will lack in ductility and malleability, making them unsuitable for striking large numbers of medals in mass production. Removing the arsenic by redoing the refining is simply unthinkable. On the other hand, use of aluminum is rather shabby for symbols of honor and something the Decorations Bureau wants to avoid. Therefore we finally settled on accepting the idea of making it in bronze to make use of the old bronze coins recovered by the mint.”

Finally here’s how the China Incident War Medal had changed back in February 1939.

[Alan M]

Great post Nick , I enjoyed reading it and learning . I smiled also with the addition of a little humour . Thanks for your time and effort .

[Nick Komiya]

In my research for the Golden Kite Story, which I just finished, I also ran into some interesting references on the China Incident Commemorative Medal, which was discussed at the same session as the dual wear of identical classes of the Golden Kite.

The meeting to discuss the changes to the Golden Kite Awarding regulations took place on Wednesday, 9th September 1942 from 10:30 AM.


First, a Q&A exchange between Prime Minister Tojo and Moriyama the Chief of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau.

Moriyama: Now that the China Incident is to be regarded as part of the Greater East Asia War, what meaning does it have to issue a China Incident Commemorative Medal at this time?

Tojo: You are right that we have agreed to include the current China Incident campaign within the definition of the Greater East Asia War. However, the part of the campaign preceding the date of 7th December 1941 will still remain as “the China Incident” and it is for that timeframe that this medal is intended. It is therefore assumed that a separate medal with similar intentions will follow for the Greater East Asia War as well (The Greater East Asia War Commemorative Medal/Home Front Medal).

Asked why the China Incident Prize-Giving had been set up at such strange timing, Seko the Governor of the Decorations Bureau---

Seko: Holding a Kosho by splitting the campaign into sections was done with the intention of offering timely recognition of individual achievements for the sake of upholding morale.

He was further asked whether the clause about “assisting the war effort” in the China Incident War Medal eligibility clause needed to be altered (trimmed back) as the result of adding a China Incident Commemorative Medal. To which Seko replied that no changes were necessary.

Commissioner Izawa: Why not simply call the medal "The Greater East Asia War Commemorative Medal" and be done with it?

Seko: That is because we already have the China Incident War Medal and we wish to properly wrap up all matters related to that stage of events under that name.

The meeting was adjourned at 16:05.

[Nick Komiya]

Soccer in Japan has gained immensely in popularity over baseball nowadays and, because of that, one might see the logo of a 3-legged crow on the uniforms of the All Japan Team in international competitions more often.

That crow is none other than the Yatagarasu that collectors of Japanese medals are familiar with. The reason for this is that the Japan Football Association logo had originally been designed as far back as in 1931 by Jitsuzo Hinago (日名子 実三), who later designed also the Manchurian and China Incident War Medals.

His attempt to reuse the 3-legged crow again in the China Incident War Medal was foiled by the Legislation Bureau as explained above, and he had to reduce one leg, but his earlier creation still flutters today with all 3 legs intact.

[Nick Komiya]

Relating to post 61 of this thread, there was a question at another forum why the German Kaiser gave General Nogi the Blue Max after the fall of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War. Rather than laud the Japanese, he was stoking racist, anti-Japanese sentiment in Europe, declaring the Japanese as the Yellow Peril. So he probably would have wanted to ignore the whole matter if possible, except for one glitch.

In the following letter, the Kaiser himself explained the irony of awarding Nogi, the same order he had previously awarded to Stessel, the Russian general, who surrendered to Nogi, and who was later sentenced to death by the Russians for cowardice. The only way to compensate for a mistake made earlier was to make another mistake in the opposite direction.

The Japanese government replied the next day that it gratefully would accept.

[Nick Komiya]

The Greater East Asia War Medal in Augmented Reality


As discussed at length in the text, The Greater East Asia War Medal never saw the light of day in the form of actually being issued to those who fought in the Pacific War. However, you might entertain doubts when you see portraits like the ones below, clearly featuring the medal on the ribbon bar. Those portraits are postwar creations ordered by some wealthier families of KIA soldiers, who died in the Pacific War. If you gave the artist a photo of your son in civies or whatever, the artist would portray him in uniform, and as a consolation factor to the bereaved family, the artist would add the Greater East Asia War Medal that the deceased was eligible for but never got. That made the son look more highly decorated and depicts a sort of "director's cut" version of how it was supposed to look.

Another example of more questionable motive is a scene from the 2015 film "The Emperor in August". In the scene before General Anami commits Seppuku, he lays out his uniform jacket and places a photo of his KIA son upon it. The uniform prominently features the Greater East Asia War Medal in the center of the bar, which should not be on the bar at all (it should have also been at the right edge of the bar, like in the two portraits below). Why they would mess up a decent movie with such a blatant mistake in such a weighty scene is beyond me.