An Imperial Empire’s Awards

Part I of “An Imperial Empire’s Awards” (Military Trader, July 2020, pp. 24-8) explored the story of Japan’s 19th and 20th century military history through the war medals the Imperial nation awarded as it became a rising power in the Far East. To collectors, the war medals are unique to particular conflict, and although showing some similarity, came in only one type. The end of WWII also meant that no additional war medals were ever awarded.

In this ongoing description of Japanese awards, collectors will soon discover that Japanese Orders are much more complicated than the War Medals. This is for two reasons: The first is that many of the Japanese Orders came in a variety of classes — some with as many as eight different classes. The second reason is that Japanese Orders continued to be awarded in the post-war era up through the present