Extra Credit: On So-Called ‘Mickey Mouse’ Money

This is the Colonial Department's Extra Credit, a bonus show that provides some nugget-sized tidbits of Philippine colonial history. It's based on the most recent episode, so if you haven't yet, check out Season 5, Episode 9, Manila's Stars, then hop on back here for some extra credit. In our last episode, we took stock of the hardships and the hunger that befell Manila during the Japanese occupation. As food stocks dwindled, prices climbed up and up and up. The turning point came at the tail end of 1943 when floods wiped out stocks and food prices went out of control. To buy anything in wartime Philippines, well, anything that wasn't in the black market anyway, citizens had to use Japanese bank-bank notes, which the Imperials had brought with them when they invaded the Philippines. These notes came in one peso, five peso, and ten peso bills, and smaller one centavo, five centavo, ten centavo, and fifty centavo notes. They had no serial numbers, just a little red letter control code in the corner that started with "B" for Philippines. The bills were decorated with an illustration of an abaca plantation. The Filipinos were immediately suspicious of this new currency. After a while, it got the derisive nickname Mickey Mouse Money, because it felt like pretend or play money, a cartoon version of the real thing. But it was this Mickey Mouse Money they had to use when they lined up to buy their food. Here are three things about wartime currency that I had to leave on the cutting room floor. One, Mickey Mouse Money wasn't the only nickname these bills got. Filipinos also called them "Gurami Money," after a plentiful and, at the time, practically worthless fish. They were also called "Apa Money," named after thin, flimsy, and brittle ice cream cones. Two, in 1943, the Japanese introduced a new version of their bank notes. This time, the bills had real serial numbers and had the Rizal monument up front. The designs still kept the abaca plantation illustration, but as a security watermark. If you held it up to the light, you'd be able to see it. Despite these innovations, the Filipinos continued to squirrel away their pre-war money. At the end of the war, that almost became the only acceptable currency. The exchange rate during 1945, one pre-war peso was equivalent to 120 Mickey Mouse pesos. Three, the Japanese tried hard to control inflation by limiting the amount of banknotes that were going around. However, as inflation ballooned and prices shot up, the banknotes struggled to keep up. The bills soon became worthless. Instead of getting your salary in a nice little pay envelope, you'd get bundles and bundles of rolled up bills. To buy anything in the market, you had to carry around a bag full of money. Now I leave you with a quote from historian Ricardo T. Jose, who wrote about how the Japanese introduced the money into their newly occupied territory. One of the first acts of the Japanese, when they landed in the Philippines, was to circulate military money in peso and centavo denominations. The bills had been prepared several months before the war. The peso was decreed equal in value to the Japanese yen. Since the peso was equivalent to 2 yen before the war, this order effectively doubled the salary of the Japanese soldier, who now found everything cheap and affordable in the Philippines. The new bills, however, looked like toy money, lacking serial numbers or any sign that it was backed by silver and gold. The Philippines were hesitant to accept them and the Japanese threatened punishment to anyone who refused the notes. And that's it. Hope you learned something new today and check back next week for a new episode of the Colonial Department.