enticz: Japanese Government-Issued Dollar In Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, Sarawak And Brunei

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Japanese Government-Issued Dollar In Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, Sarawak And Brunei

The Japanese government-issued dollar was a form of currency issued by Imperial Japan during the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei between 1942 and 1945. The currency was also referred informally as banana money (Malay: duit pisang), named as such because of the motifs of banana trees on 10 dollar banknotes. The Japanese dollar was in widespread use within the occupied territories where the previous currency became a scarcity. The currency were referred to as "dollars" and "cents" like its predecessors, the Straits dollar and Malayan dollar.

On 15th February 1942, the whole of the Malaya Peninsula was occupied by the Japanese Government following the fall of Singapore. As a result of that, a Japanese Military Administration was set up and Malaya was renamed ‘Malai’.

During the occupation of Japanese Government, the Japanese introduced new currencies as a replacement of those previously in use in the occupied territories of Malaya, North Borneo, Brunei and Singapore. The new currency in Malaya and Singapore were issued at the par value with the existing British Malaya currency notes (Malayan dollar) and first entered circulation in 1942. The first series of Japanese occupation notes had serial numbers (as shown in pictures below), but these were later omitted leaving the control letter "M", meaning Malaya.

Picture 1
Five dollars note with serial number.
(Obverse)

Picture 2
Five dollars note with serial number.
(Reverse)

To supply the authorities with money, the Japanese authorities simply printed more notes whenever they required it. This resulted in high inflation and a severe depreciation in value of these notes. Moreover, counterfeiting was rampant due to its lack of a serial number on their notes.

Increasing inflation coupled with Allied disruption of Japan's economy forced the Japanese administration to issue banknotes of larger denominations and increase the amount of money in circulation. Sharp drops in the currency's value and increased price of goods frequently occurred following a Japanese defeat in battle abroad.

After the surrender of Japan, the currency became entirely worthless. To this day, the Japanese government has refused to exchange these currencies. Some locals managed to escape poverty because they had hidden Straits dollars and Malayan dollars, the previous currencies before the Japanese invaded. Those with hidden stashes of the old dollars were thus able to use them the moment the British resumed control of Singapore and surrounding colonies, when they became valid again. A number of surviving banknotes were stamped as war souvenirs, while its use as printing paper for rudimentary calendars for 1946 was also recorded.

A complete series of Japanese occupation of Malaya note consists of nine denominations namely one cent, five cents, ten cents, fifty cents, one dollar, five dollars, ten dollars, one hundred dollars and one thousand dollars. These notes bear a prefix of 'M' that represents 'Malaya'.