1st "early" variation in heavy metal.
Obverse
青少年義勇軍章 - Youth Volunteer Army Badge
reverse
山形縣 - Yamagata Prefecture
Obverse
青少年義勇軍章 - Youth Volunteer Army Badge
reverse
山形縣 - Yamagata Prefecture
Yamagata Prefecture Youth Volunteer Army Badge/山形縣 青少年義勇軍章
2nd "late" variation in light aluminum alloy and minor differences in design.
Private collection. Photos courtesy of the owner.
Height 36.7 mm.
Width 27.4 mm.
Weight 4.2 g.
Private collection. Photos courtesy of the owner.
Height 36.7 mm.
Width 27.4 mm.
Weight 4.2 g.
Typical activities of "Youth Volunteer Army".
The highpoint of Japanese influence in Manchuria came in the 1930s, following the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932. Initially the expanded Japanese presence took the form of the Guandong (Kanto) Army or representatives of government-capitalist alliances, such as the sprawling bureaucracy connected with the South Manchuria Railway Company. By mid-decade the tide was represented by another type of Japanese. They were farmers from small hamlets in rural Japan who came as colonists to build farms and villages in the Manchurian countryside. Between 1932 and 1935 only a few thousand colonists came, but from 1935 on their numbers grew every year so that by 1945 at least 270,000 Japanese colonists were living in Manchuria.
Most of the colonists were adults, but some were teenage boys, members of an organization known as the Manchurian Youth Corps. The Manchurian Youth Corps had an eleven-year history, from the founding of its predecessor, an experimental youth corps, in 1934, to its demise in 1945. Officially termed the Youth Colonization Volunteer Corps for Manchuria-Mongolia (after it arrived in Northeast China, the organization's name was changed from giyuigun (volunteer army) to giyiitai (volunteer corps), to avoid giving it an overly military image, within Japan, however, its original title continued to be used). it was formally set up in 1938 as an organization to recruit Japanese farm boys between the ages of 15 and 22 and send them to Manchukuo, where they were to bring new land into cultivation and contribute to the agricultural production of the region. During its years of activity prior to and including the Pacific War, the Youth Corps recruited over 86,000 boys for service in Manchukuo.
Part of the inspiration behind the creation of the Youth Corps came from one of its founders, the well-known educator Kato Kanji (1884-1965). He hoped to put his religious nationalist theories into practice by having the boys of the Youth Corps demonstrate through their daily life the sacred characteristics of the Japanese people. Those characteristics, he said, were embodiied in the frugal, hardworking Japanese farmers who labored not for themselves but for the sake of the emperor. Since the emperor was a representative of the gods (the kami), the people were linked to the gods through the emperor in a relationship that was unique to the Japanese. Kato urged the boys of the Youth Corps to understand this sacred relationship and to make simple, clean living the principle of their existence.
A second founder of the Youth Corps, Lt. Col. Tomiya Kaneo (1892-1937) of the Guandong Army, held an overt, though still idealistic, view of the Corps' purpose. He felt the boys would help to protect Manchukuo from the Soviet Union by building their camps near the borders, where they could act as sentinels to observe and report Russian activity across the border while going about their daily work in the fields. He saw the Youth Corps as basically a paramilitary group trained and armed to protect itself while at the same time growing its own food and becoming as self-sufficient as possible.
The two men found their differing views of what the Youth Corps should be, not contradictory, but complementary: It provided for farm boys a rugged outdoor life that had a religious significance, while at the same time it was the vehicle through which they were serving their nation. Each man worked in his own sphere to promote the Youth Corps and it came to embody the ideas of both men.
Boys who volunteered to join the Youth Corps, after receiving their parents' permission, underwent a three-month training course in Ibaraki prefecture within Japan. At the completion of their basic training, which emphasized farming skills, physical exercise, and basic military drill, the boys were issued khaki uniforms and sent by ship to the Asian mainland. In Manchuria they were assigned to one or another of the Youth Corps training centers, which were mostly located in the eastern sections of the region near the Soviet maritime provinces. The training centers were very much like army camps, with rows of barracks, barbed wire, and sentry boxes. The life of the boys in the camps also resembled military service: They were issued rifles, practiced early-morning calisthenics, and were subject to a twice-daily roll call. Days were normally spent in the fields doing farm work, though some time was also devoted to academic study of high- school-level subjects.
All of the publicity surrounding the Youth Corps emphasized the positive role it was to play in regard to the Chinese who lived in Manchukuo. Based on the slogan, "Harmony between the Japanese and Chinese Peoples" (minzoku kyowa), the boys were supposed to cooperate with the Chinese peasants to increase agricultural output, implement better methods of sanitation, and generally improve the living standards of the region. At the end of their three years of service in the Youth Corps it was expected that they would settle down in Manchukuo, raise families, work the land, and become a sort of cadre for the other colonists who would come from Japan.
See also https://asiamedals.info/threads/vol...mperial-inspection-commemorative-badge.24287/
Most of the colonists were adults, but some were teenage boys, members of an organization known as the Manchurian Youth Corps. The Manchurian Youth Corps had an eleven-year history, from the founding of its predecessor, an experimental youth corps, in 1934, to its demise in 1945. Officially termed the Youth Colonization Volunteer Corps for Manchuria-Mongolia (after it arrived in Northeast China, the organization's name was changed from giyuigun (volunteer army) to giyiitai (volunteer corps), to avoid giving it an overly military image, within Japan, however, its original title continued to be used). it was formally set up in 1938 as an organization to recruit Japanese farm boys between the ages of 15 and 22 and send them to Manchukuo, where they were to bring new land into cultivation and contribute to the agricultural production of the region. During its years of activity prior to and including the Pacific War, the Youth Corps recruited over 86,000 boys for service in Manchukuo.
Part of the inspiration behind the creation of the Youth Corps came from one of its founders, the well-known educator Kato Kanji (1884-1965). He hoped to put his religious nationalist theories into practice by having the boys of the Youth Corps demonstrate through their daily life the sacred characteristics of the Japanese people. Those characteristics, he said, were embodiied in the frugal, hardworking Japanese farmers who labored not for themselves but for the sake of the emperor. Since the emperor was a representative of the gods (the kami), the people were linked to the gods through the emperor in a relationship that was unique to the Japanese. Kato urged the boys of the Youth Corps to understand this sacred relationship and to make simple, clean living the principle of their existence.
A second founder of the Youth Corps, Lt. Col. Tomiya Kaneo (1892-1937) of the Guandong Army, held an overt, though still idealistic, view of the Corps' purpose. He felt the boys would help to protect Manchukuo from the Soviet Union by building their camps near the borders, where they could act as sentinels to observe and report Russian activity across the border while going about their daily work in the fields. He saw the Youth Corps as basically a paramilitary group trained and armed to protect itself while at the same time growing its own food and becoming as self-sufficient as possible.
The two men found their differing views of what the Youth Corps should be, not contradictory, but complementary: It provided for farm boys a rugged outdoor life that had a religious significance, while at the same time it was the vehicle through which they were serving their nation. Each man worked in his own sphere to promote the Youth Corps and it came to embody the ideas of both men.
Boys who volunteered to join the Youth Corps, after receiving their parents' permission, underwent a three-month training course in Ibaraki prefecture within Japan. At the completion of their basic training, which emphasized farming skills, physical exercise, and basic military drill, the boys were issued khaki uniforms and sent by ship to the Asian mainland. In Manchuria they were assigned to one or another of the Youth Corps training centers, which were mostly located in the eastern sections of the region near the Soviet maritime provinces. The training centers were very much like army camps, with rows of barracks, barbed wire, and sentry boxes. The life of the boys in the camps also resembled military service: They were issued rifles, practiced early-morning calisthenics, and were subject to a twice-daily roll call. Days were normally spent in the fields doing farm work, though some time was also devoted to academic study of high- school-level subjects.
All of the publicity surrounding the Youth Corps emphasized the positive role it was to play in regard to the Chinese who lived in Manchukuo. Based on the slogan, "Harmony between the Japanese and Chinese Peoples" (minzoku kyowa), the boys were supposed to cooperate with the Chinese peasants to increase agricultural output, implement better methods of sanitation, and generally improve the living standards of the region. At the end of their three years of service in the Youth Corps it was expected that they would settle down in Manchukuo, raise families, work the land, and become a sort of cadre for the other colonists who would come from Japan.
See also https://asiamedals.info/threads/vol...mperial-inspection-commemorative-badge.24287/