Japanese money

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 19:48
Date picture taken
1940s

Comments

Can anyone enlighten me as to whether these notes were issued specifically for HK and/or other occupied territories, or were they general Japanese home currency ? The reverse of the smaller notes pictured describe the unit of currency as SEN. Geoff W. 

Wikipedia answers my query: Japanese Military Yen and Sen banknotes, which these are, were issued as local currency only in some occupied territories, and also for paying military salaries. They were forced on the HK population on 26 December 1941 as the sole official currency. The HK dollars which they were exchanged for were used to purchase supplies and strategic goods in Macau. The military yen/sen became worthless on 6 Sept 1945.

The larger note depicted above was 100 military yen; the one below it appears to be 1 military yen; the others are 1 and 5 sen (cents) and there were also 10 and 50 sen notes. Sen coins rather than banknotes were used in Japan.