Japanese Inter-Allied Victory Medal 1914-1920

 

World War I.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

This medal was instituted in July 1919 as a result of an international agreement at the Inter-allied Peace Conference immediately preceding the Treaty of Versailles which was signed in June 1919.

 

The basic design - a ‘Winged Victory’ - and ‘rainbow’ ribbon was adopted by Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Union of South Africa and the USA. Siam and Japan also issued the medal but with a different design - although the ribbon matched that of the others.

 

On the Japanese medal, rather than adopting the image of Victory, the Japanese substituted the legendary warrior Take-Mikazuchi-No-Kami, since a Victory figure would have had no significance for the Japanese. The medal bears the date ‘1920’ since Japanese action in Siberia, following the Russian Revolution, continued after the end of the war in Europe in 1918.

 

Approximately 700,000 medals were awarded.

 

 

The medal is circular, 36mm in diameter and was struck in bronze. The obverse of this medal depicts the full-length figure of Take-Mikazuchi-No-Kami, a spear held across his body.

 

The reverse depicts a central terrestrial globe within a beaded border imposed on a five-petalled cherry blossom.

 

Each of the petals contains a Japanese characters for the following countries: Japan, France, Great Britain, Italy and the United States of America, with the characters for ‘AND ALL THE OTHER ALLIED NATIONS’. Below this, in Japanese characters, is the inscription; ‘THE GREAT WAR FOR PROTECTION OF CIVILISATION’, and; Taishō 3rd year, Taishō 9th year’ (1914-1920).

 

The medal was suspended by a ring through a laterally pierced mount fixed to the top of the medal.

 

This medal was issued un-named.

 

 

 

The ribbon is 37mm wide and is the silk moiré rainbow coloured design common to all the Inter-Allied Victory Medals issued by the First World War Allies.

 

 

None were authorised for this medal.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

 

* It should be noted that the values quoted above reflect the average price that a medal dealer may expect to sell this medal for - please see the ‘things you should know’ web page for more details about valuing medals.

 

 

This section contains information on:-

 

- Japanese Forces During World War I.

- The Entente Powers.

 

Japanese Forces During World War I - Japan participated in World War I from 1914 to 1918 in an alliance with the Entente Powers and played an important role in securing the sea lanes in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans against the German Kaiserliche Marine.

 

Politically, Japan seized the opportunity to expand its sphere of influence in China, and to gain recognition as a great power in post war geopolitics.

 

Japan's military seized German possessions in the Pacific and East Asia, but there was no large-scale mobilization of the economy. Foreign Minister Kato Takaaki and Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu wanted to use the opportunity to expand Japanese influence in China.

 

The Imperial Japanese Navy, a nearly autonomous bureaucratic institution, made its own decision to undertake expansion in the Pacific. It captured Germany's Micronesian territories north of the equator, and ruled the islands until 1921.

 

The operation gave the Navy a rationale for enlarging its budget to double the Army budget and expanding the fleet. The Navy thus gained significant political influence over national and international affairs.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Entente Powers - The Entente Powers or Allies were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the French Republic, the British Empire and the Russian Empire; Italy ended its alliance with the Central Powers and entered the war on the side of the Entente in 1915. Japan, Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, Romania and the Czechoslovak legions were secondary members of the Entente.

 

The United States declared war on Germany in 1917 on the grounds that Germany violated U.S. neutrality by attacking international shipping and because of the Zimmermann Telegram sent to Mexico.

 

The U.S. entered the war as an ‘associated power’, rather than a formal ally of France and the United Kingdom, in order to avoid ‘foreign entanglements’. Although the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria severed relations with the United States, neither declared war.

 

Although the Dominions and Crown Colonies of the British Empire made significant contributions to the Allied war effort, they did not have independent foreign policies during World War I. Operational control of British Empire forces was in the hands of the five-member British War Cabinet (BWC).

 

However, the Dominion governments controlled recruiting, and did remove personnel from front-line duties as they saw fit.

 

From early 1917 the BWC was superseded by the Imperial War Cabinet, which had Dominion representation. The Australian Corps and Canadian Corps were placed for the first time under the command of Australian and Canadian Lieutenant Generals John Monash and Arthur Currie, respectively, who reported in turn to British generals.

 

In April 1918, operational control of all Entente forces on the Western Front passed to the new supreme commander, Ferdinand Foch.

 

The only countries represented in the 1918 armistice which ended the combat were Britain, France and Germany.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.