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In 1894 hostilities broke out between Japan and China over the question of Japanese rights in Korea and Taiwan. After a brief and intense campaign, China recognized Japanese rights in Korea and ceded Taiwan to Japan. This service was rewarded by The 1894-95 War Medal (Figure 3). Figure 2: The Order of the Sacred Treasure 7th class. seven classes in 1888. It was awarded for a wide range of services and became (and remains) the most frequently awarded Japanese decoration. As an example, I present the lowest class of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, the 7th class (Figure 2). Interestingly, the late Emperor Showa (Hirohito) habitually wore only the 7th class of Figure 3: The 1894-95 War Medal. the Sacred Treasure and the Order of the Chrysanthemum, representing his right, as Emperor, to wear all awards, the In part to reassert its interests in China and in part highest and the lowest. to establish its standing as an imperial power, Japan sent troops to China in 1900 to suppress the “Boxer To reward the highest achievements in the preservation Rebellion.” The Japanese forces were, in fact, the largest and advancement of Japanese culture, the Cultural of the international contingent. The 1900 War Medal Decoration was created in 1937. It is an incredibly rare (Figure 4) was awarded to those who participated in this award (only 344 awards had been made as of 2009) and campaign. recipients are seen as national cultural treasures. Due to the broad orientation and multiple classes of Japanese orders, there was no need for separate gallantry or distinguished service medals since their need was already subsumed within the structure and logic of the orders CAMPAIGN MEDALS Inspired by the Western example, Japan began the issue of campaign medals in 1875. The 1874 War Medal was created to reward soldiers who participated in the 1874 expedition to Taiwan. While it had probably been the initial intent for this medal to function, British-style, as a general service medal with new clasps being added as future needs demanded (the medal’s inscription is simply WAR MEDAL while the clasp reads TAIWAN), this pattern was almost immediately abandoned. Figure 4: The 1900 War Medal. Vol. 64, No. 3 (May-June 2013) 23 Initial actions by the Japanese in seizing German colonies along the Chinese coast and in the western Pacific were rewarded with the 1914-15 War Medal. Later operations, mainly after 1917-20 in eastern Siberia, attempting to unravel the Russian Revolution, gained the 1914-20 War Medal (Figure 6). These medals are very confusing to Western collectors who cannot read Japanese. The 1914- 15 medal has a single vertical line of characters on the reverse, while the 1914-20 War Medal has two lines of vertical characters above and a single line of characters below. As an allied power, Japan also issued their version of the common Allied Victory Medal (Figure 7), although, since a winged victory image would be devoid of any cultural meaning in Japan, they substituted a depiction of the ancient mythical warrior Take Mikazuchi no Kami for the obverse design. Figure 5: The 1904-5 War Medal. In 1904, Japanese and Russian imperial interests in East Asia came into conflict and led to naval and military action. The Japanese victory over Russia was recognized with The 1904-5 War Medal (Figure 5) and also established Japan as the rising non-European power even while simultaneously displaying Russian weakness. Japan had come to see herself as a world power, even as the obvious reluctance of the Europeans to embrace this fact led to a deep resentment among the Japanese. From the Japanese perspective, it was only natural that Japan would enter World War I. Figure 7: The Allied Victory Medal. Continuing Japanese dominance in north-eastern Asia led to growing tension between Japan and a weakened China. The ambitions of the Japanese military also grew during this period. In 1931 an incident was manufactured between Japanese forces and the Chinese warlord in control of Manchuria and the Japanese took advantage of this concocted crisis to move into Manchuria. This was commemorated by the 1931-34 Incident War Medal (Figure 8). This also led to the creation of the quasi- independent State of Manchukuo in 1932 (see below). Tensions between Japan and China predictably did not evaporate, and in 1937 a second “incident” took place between Japanese and Chinese troops near Beijing and the full-scale Japanese invasion of China began. As far as East Asia was concerned, World War II had begun. For the Japanese activities in China during this war, the China Incident War Medal (Figure 9) was created in 1939; it Figure 6: The 1914-20 War Medal. 24 JOMSA (though copies/fakes/replicas abound). As the Japanese Constitution of 1947 rejected the use of military force as a tool of national policy, there have been no campaign medals since 1945. COMMEMORATIVE MEDALS Figure 8: The 1931-34 Incident War Medal. Figure 10: Medal commemorating the enthronement of Taisho (Yoshihito). A series of medals was also issued commemorating significant events, and a few examples will be presented here. Medals were issued for the enthronement (not exactly “coronation”) of the emperors Taisho (Yoshihito) 1n November 1915 (though he had become emperor in 1912) (Figure 10) and Showa (Hirohito) in November 1928 (though he had been Prince Regent since 1921 and had become Emperor in 1926) (Figure 11). Figure 9 : The China Incident War Medal. would continue to be awarded until the Japanese defeat in 1945. The Japanese considered World War II to be two separate but linked wars: The China War that began in July 1937 and the Great East Asian War that began in December 1941 in the Pacific. Service in this second war was to have been rewarded by the Great East Asia War Medal, and while a few posthumous awards had been made prior to Japan’s defeat, the stocks of these medals remained unawarded. They were mostly destroyed by the occupation authorities and authentic contemporary Figure 11: Medal commemorating the specimens of this medal are therefore exceedingly rare enthronement of Showa (Hirohito). Vol. 64, No. 3 (May-June 2013) 25.

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