Foreword

As I had already finished writing a complete history of Japanese War Medals, I thought I might start something on the commemorative medals.

Whereas each conflict earned itself a war medal more or less automatically, there was no inherent justification or need for commemorative medals, unless the occasion itself unanimously deserved commemoration as a historic milestone or unless someone with a political agenda and clout actively campaigned for one.

Thus commemorative medals had more room for interpretation and therefore possible abuse. So the event first had to speak for itself, and then in order to prevent making a big deal out of trivial events, the Decorations Bureau would screen medals of the world for comparable precedent as a check.

We will see, however, that until Japan “got the hang of it”, sometimes it ended up issuing superfluous medals like the 25th Wedding Anniversary Medal, blindly emulating European tradition that did not really seem to have any mileage in Japan.

Either way, unlike my stories on war medals, there needs to be more on the event or occasion itself and its historical significance; because why they decided to issue the medal in the first place is a key question.