Japanese Invasion Money (or JIM) was issued for five different regions occupied for the Japanese. Besides the denomination, the region is indicated by the first block letter:
- cents and rupees for use in Burma (B)
- cents and dollars for use in Malaya (M)
- centavos and pesos for use in the Philippines (P)
- cents and gulden for use in what is now Indonesia (S for it's Japanese name, Shonan). Later these notes were superseded by notes denominated in rupiah.
- shillings and pounds for use in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands (O for Oceania)
Notes printed by the Japanese for use in China and Vietnam, and notes intended for paying the occupying troops, are not normally considered part of the JIM series.
As wd1040 said, these notes were intended for use by the civilian population in the occupied regions. And as wd1040 said, the Japanese printed an awful lot of it. As a result, most kinds of JIM are relatively cheap and common.
You will occasionally see Malayan notes hyped up as being money "printed for the planned invasion of Hawaii and America". This claim is patently false, as the "M" notes were intended for Malaya only. Any planned JIM for American territories would have had a different design.
You might also see Oceania notes hyped up as being money "printed for the planned invasion of Australia"; we certainly see that a lot here in Australia. This claim is also largely untrue, though if Australia had actually been invaded, Oceania JIM would certainly have circulated here.
The Philippines suffered severe inflation during the occupation; notes as high as 1000 pesos were made.
Philippine notes are also commonly found with an ink stamp applied by the JAPWANCAP, the Japanese War Notes Claimants Association of the Philippines - a lobby group which collected as much Philippine JIM as they could find after the war, then tried to get either the American or Japanese governments to redeem them for full face value. Needless to say, the case was thrown out of court.
Together with the other wartime currencies such as Philippine insurgency notes and Allied Military Currency, JIM offers a fascinating yet inexpensive insight into the economics of WWII.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 01/27/2009 7:16 pm
