2015-12-22 Tue

Did you know that Hong Kong’s official currency during the Second World War was Yen?

Hong-Kong’s official currency is the Hong-Kong Dollar since it was introduced in 1935. But during the Second World War the region was occupied by Japan and the Japanese army took over and immediately forced the people to change the local currency from Dollar to Yen.

The Japanese attacked Hong Kong on December 8, 1941 and won complete control by Christmas Day. Hong Kong lived under martial law for almost three years and eight months. During this period the official currency of Hong-Kong was the Military Yen. The highest denomination of the Military yens was 100 yens and the smallest was 1 sen.

The Japanese surrendered at the end of WWII on 15th August, 1945. When WWII ended, the Military Yen faded into oblivion and the Hong Kong dollar was reinstated.

However more than 3500 families in Hong-Kong, own military yens with a face value of more than 540 million. Right after the war the Military Yen was cancelled and the new government suggested that the occupation currency should be destroyed. However not all of the occupation currency was destroyed and the families in Hong-Kong and the Reparation Association of Hong-Kong have been fighting to convert these notes to legal, useable tender since the post-war years.