Tonight’s note is an odd one in that it was used in China and issued from Japan. It is a 1945 issue 100 Yuan from a puppet bank in China. It features Imperial Resting Quarters in the mountains on the left and a Japanese figure Huang Ti on the right. At this time I am not sure of the collector value, but it is very low and there is no exchange value. ENJOY! Interested in the full-blown explanation of a puppet bank and some Chinese history ?…. I included it below the notes.

Japan's attempt to assert political and economic control over East Asia, an expansionist program called 'Asia for the Asiatics, and later the 'Co-Prosperity Sphere for East Asia,' was motivated by economic conditions and the military tradition of the Japanese people living space, food and raw materials were urgently needed. To secure them and also markets for their manufactured goods, the Japanese thought they had to establish control over the markets and resources of East Asia. They planned: (1) to add nearby islands to the islands of Japan, (2) to obtain possession of Korea, (3) to absorb the Malay Peninsula, Indo-China Thailand, the Philippines, and the numerous Southwest Pacific islands into the Empire of Japan, and (4) to assert at least economic control over China.

By the eve of World War I, the Japanese had succeeded in occupying the Bonin Islands (1874) annexing Formosa and the Pescadores Islands (1895), annexing the Liaotung peninsula and the southern half of Sakhalin Hand (Russo-Japanese War) and annexing Korea (1910).

During World War I. Japan managed to gain economic control over Manchuria and Inner Mongolia and to take the Shantung Peninsula from Germany. Further territorial expansion was achieved by the Paris Peace Settlement (1919), which mandated to Japan all of the Caroline. Marshall and Mariana islands except Guam. The Japanese were, however, forced to give the Shantung Peninsula back to China.

Japan's military thrust against mainland China began in earnest on Sept. 18. 1931, when with a contrived incident for an excuse the Japanese army seized the strategic centers in Manchuria and set up (1932) the puppet n of Manchukuo with Henry Pu-Yi, ex-emperor of China, as emperor under the protection and control of Japanese army. Not content with the seizure of Manchuria the Japanese army then invaded the Chinese province of Jehol and annexed it to Manchukuo (1933). In 1934 Japan proclaimed Manchukuo an independent n and the Japanese army penetrated into Inner Mongolia and some of China's northern provinces, and demolished a garrison near Peiping. Although determined to resist the invasion of their country the Chinese able to do little more than initiate a boycott of Japanese goods.

War between the two powers quickened in Jury 1937 when Japanese and Chinese troops clashed at the Marco Bridge near Peiping, an incident Japanese leaders used as an excuse to launch a full-fledged invasion of without a declaration of war. Peiping and Tientsin were taken in a month. Shanghai fell in Nov. 1937 Nanking fell in Dec. 1937 and was established as a puppet state under a Chinese president. Canton fell in 1938.

Through badly mauled and weakened by repeated Japanese blows, the Chinese continued to fight and to meet while Japanese armies overran large sections of Eastern China and occupied the essential seaports. Trading space for time, Chiang Kai-shek kept his army intact and moved his capital from Nanking to Chungking the mountains in western China. Factory machinery, schools and colleges were moved to the west. With of the aid of the Flying Tigers, a volunteer force of American aviators commanded by General Claire Chennauft, nary supplies from the United States and Great Britain moved slowly over the dangerous Burma Road. The Chinese continued to resist the hated invader. The war came to a stalemate. The Japanese made no attempt Chungking. The Chinese could not drive the Japanese armies from the provinces they had conquered.

The defeat of Japan was brought about by the decision of the Japanese government to execute their plan to drive the States, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands out of the East a plan initiated by an air attack on U.S. military installations at Pearl Harbor Hawaii. Japan's dream of dominance in East Asia began to fade with the defeat of Japanese fleet at the Battle of Midway (June 3.1942) and flickered out at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Aug. 1945 the wake of 'a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which had never been seen on this earth.' Upon the defeat by the Allies, control of the China-Japanese puppet states reverted to Chinese factions.

During the existence of the China-Japanese puppet states Japanese occupation authorities issued currency Japanese puppet banks, the most important of which were the Central Reserve Bank of China, Federal Bank of China, Hua-Hsing Commercial Bank and Chi Tung Bank.

Operations of the Central Reserve Bank of China the state bank of the puppet Republic of China government at Nanking began sometime in 1940, although the official inauguration date is Jan. 1, 1941. To encourage public acceptance, notes of this puppet bank carried, where size permitted, the portrait of Sun Yat-sen, Chinese nationalist revolutionary founder of the Chinese republic, on the face and his mausoleum on the back. The number of notes issued Reserve Bank of China exceeds the total number issued by all other Japanese puppet banks in China.

An interesting feature of the issues of the Central Reserve Bank of China is the presence of clandestine propaganda messages engraved on some of the plates by patriotic Chinese engravers. The 50-cent notes of 1940 carry a concealed propaganda message in Chinese, the initials 'U S A C' and the date 1945 ('U.S. Army Coming, 1945), on the 1944 200-yuan note. Two varieties of the 1940 10-yuan note include in the face border designs resembling bisected turtles, an animal held in low esteem in China.

A small number of notes issued by the Central Reserve Bank of China carry overprints, the exact purpose of which is unclear, with the exception of those, which indicate a circulation area. Others are thought to be codes branch offices or Japanese military units.

The Federal Reserve Bank of China, located in Peiping, was the puppet financial agency of the Japanese in northeast China. This puppet bank issued both coins and currency, but in modest amounts. The first series of notes has a curious precedent. The original plates were prepared by two American engravers who journeyed to China in 1909 to advise officials of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Peking (BEPP) on engraving techniques of the Western World. The Chinese gentleman appearing on the 1-yuan notes of 1938 is said to be making an obscene gesture to indicate Chinese displeasure with the presence of the Japanese.

The Hua Hsing Commercial Bank was a financial agency created and established by the government of Japan and it’s puppet authorities in Nanking. Notes and coins were issued until sometime in 1941, with the quantities Chinese aversion to accepting them.

The Chi Tung Bank was the banking institution of the 'East Hopei Autonomous Government' established by the 1938 to undermine the political position of China in the northwest provinces. It issued both coins n 1937 and 1939 with a restraint uncharacteristic of the puppet banks of the China-Japanese states. The issues were replaced in 1940 by those of the Federal Reserve Bank of China.