Nambu World: Manchurian Campaign/Early China Incident Medal

Japan had had various footholds in China for a long time, but in 1931 the military got serious about territorial expansion, fabricating an incident that gave them an excuse to go to war and grab ever larger chunks of China. They started in resource-rich Manchuria, the northeastern part of the country, which they envisioned turning into a colony that would provide the raw materials they lacked. This medal is for the early years of what the Japanese still refer to as the shi-na-ji-hen, or “China Incident”. Superficially the early and late medals look similar since they both have a bird and chrysanthemum on the front. However, if you look closely, the birds are quite different. This medal is covered on page 49 of OMJAS.

The back of the early medal is quite different from the later one. For obvious reasons this early one is often called the “helmet medal”.

Here you can see that this bird is not the same one as on the later medal. This one is supposed to be the golden kite (kin-shi) that helped the mythical first emperor, Jimmu, to victory by bringing him a message from the gods to attack from the east at dawn, when his enemies would be blinded by the sun. Note the hooked beak, which is obviously that of a bird of prey. The medal is 30mm (1-3/16”) in diameter. The ribbon is the standard 37mm used on Japanese service medals.

Closer in you can see that the left helmet has an anchor, signifying the Navy, while the right one has a star, signifying the Army. The inscription reads from right to left in three lines: sho-wa-roku-nen-nai-shi-kyu-nen-ji-hen, or “Showa 6-9 incident”. Showa 6 to 9 corresponds to 1931 to 1934 by the Western calendar.

Here is the medal in its box.

The box lid says: sho-wa-roku-nen-nai-shi-kyu-nen-ji-hen-ju-gun-ki-sho, or “Showa 6-9 incident war medal”. Note that this box is pressed cardboard rather than the balsa wood used for earlier medals like those for World War One. The box is 110mm X 60mm X 21mm (4-5/16” X 2-3/8” X 7/8”).

The certificate for this medal measures 418mm X 323mm (16-7/16” by 12-23/32”). The right side has the recipient and the date of the award. The left side has the formalities from the Board of Decorations. It has two watermarks that are shown below, but nothing is printed or stamped on the back. It is made from a thicker, stiffer material than the World War One medal certificates, almost like thin cardboard.

This close-up of the right side has the most important information.

First column (far right): Sho-wa-roku-nen-nai-shi-kyu-nen-ji-hen-ju-gun-ki-sho-no-sho

Second column from right: Riku-gun-ho-hei-chu-i-ju-nana-i-kun-roku-to-tsuchi-ya-ri-sabu-ro

Third column from right: Sho-wa-roku-nen-nai-shi-kyu-nen-ji-hen-ju-gun-ki-sho-rei-no

Fourth column from right: mune-ni-yori-ju-gun-ki-sho-o-ju-yo-seraru

Last column (on left): Sho-wa-kyu-nen-shi-gatsu-ni-ju-kyu-nichi

This translates roughly as: “Certificate for Medal for Military Service During the Showa 6 to 9 [1931-1934] Incident. Army Infantry First Lieutenant Risaburo Tsuchiya [surname is Tsuchiya], Junior Seventh Rank and holder of the Sixth Order of Merit, is awarded the Medal for Military Service in accordance with the regulations regarding the Medal for Military Service During the Showa 6 to 9 Incident. Dated April 29, Showa 9 [1934].” I bought this certificate at an antique market in Tokyo. I have a total of four certificates from this same Mr. Tsuchiya, tracing him from a sergeant to a first lieutenant to a captain. The other certificates of his that I have are for the late World War One medal, China Incident medal, and the commemorative medal for the 2600^th anniversary of the Imperial line in 1940. You can view them in the relevant sections.

This close-up of the left side has the formalities from the Board of Decorations (shokunkyoku).

First column on far right: Sho-kun-kyoku-so-sai-ju-san-i-kun-it-to-shimo-jo-yasu-maro

Second column from right: kono-sho-o-kan-sa-shi-dai-ni-ju-ni-man-roku-sen-kyu-hyaku-ju-nana-go-o-motte-sho-wa-roku-nen

Third column from right: nai-shi-kyu-nen-ji-hen-ju-gun-ki-sho-bo-satsu-ni-ki-nyu-su

Last column (on the left): sho-kun-kyoku-sho-ki-kan-sho-go-i-kun-yon-to-i-de-hitoshi [last character could also be pronounced Mamoru]

With family names underlined, this translates roughly as: “President of the Board of Decorations Yasumaro Shimojo, Junior Third Rank, and Holder of the First Order of Merit. Having checked this certificate we have entered it in the Register of Medals for Military Service During the Showa 6 to 9 Incident as number 226917. Secretary of the Board of Decorations Hitoshi Ide, Fifth Rank, Holder of the Fourth Order of Merit” The red stamps at the ends of columns with names and titles repeat the titles of the individuals whose names appear here, i.e. President of the Board of Decorations or Secretary of the Board of Decorations, as the case may be. I have gone out a bit on a limb here with my translation. Accompanying the names of senior figures in pre-war Japan there is often a series of titles. I have never seen anyone explain these titles properly, but here I have followed the conventions used in a translation on pages 20-21 of OMJAS. There is a bit of an explanation of these terms on page 4 of OMJAS, but it is quite inadequate for purposes of translation. In particular, the links, if any, between these titles and the Orders of Merit (Orders of the Rising Sun, Sacred Treasure and Golden Kite) are very unclear. The certificate translated in the OMJAS book happens to have Mr. Shimojo’s name on it, so I have translated his titles exactly as that book does. However, they refer to him as Director-General rather than President and refer to the Board of Decorations as the Bureau of Merit & Award. I have chosen to use the term Board of Decorations as this is the term used in a pre-war Japanese-English dictionary I have that was compiled in Japan.

Here is a close-up of the artwork in the centre-top of the certificate. The chrysanthemum in the centre is, of course, the symbol of the Imperial Family.

The red seal in the centre says Dai nippon teikoku shokunkyoku-in, or “seal of the Board of Decorations of the Empire of Greater Japan”.

Here is the artwork in the centre-bottom. If you compare this to the World War One and earlier service medals, you will note the addition of a tank, truck and two airplanes. The light machine gun in the lower right appears to be a Type 11. You can see photos of a real Type 11 in the section on Japanese Machine Guns. Note that the sword leaning up against the butt of the machine gun is an older, Western-style sword known as a kyu-gunto (old-style military sword). It was replaced starting in 1934 with the more familiar Japanese sword similar in style to the samurai sword, but some officers kept carrying their older swords.

There is a watermark of a chrysanthemum in the upper right. This photo appears very orange because I had to put an incandescent light right behind this spot to get the image to be bright enough to get a shutter speed fast enough for a sharp, clear shot.

There is also a smaller watermark in the lower left. It represents a sakura (cherry) blossom with the character in (pronounced een) inside it. That character is the first one in the word insatsu (printing). I suspect it is the watermark of the government printing office. The image is orange for the same reason as the photo of the other watermark.

If you are interested in reading more about the background of the Japanese in Manchuria is The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-1932, by Yoshimasa Tak Matsusaka. It is not so much about the military action itself, but rather how the Japanese had obtained a large measure of de facto control by that time anyway through the skillful exploitation of railway concessions and other strategems.

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Last updated: August 15, 2006. All contents are copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in any form without prior permission.