The ("Badge for Military Merit"), commonly called the Bukōshō, was a military decoration of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...

, established on 7 December 1944 by Imperial edict. It was awarded by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

(IJA) to living soldiers who had performed with exceptional valor in battle. Airmen, especially fighter pilots defending Japan against enemy bombers, were most likely to win the award. Eighty-nine ''Bukōshō'' were awarded during the eight months it was actively awarded.

Background

The

Order of the Golden Kite The was an order of the Empire of Japan, established on 12 February 1890 by Emperor Meiji "in commemoration of Jimmu Tennō, the Romulus of Japan". It was officially abolished 1947 by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) during the ...

had served for decades as an auspicious military award of the Japanese armed forces, and was the only Japanese order that was solely awarded to the military (the Order of the Rising Sun and the Order of the Sacred Treasure could also be awarded to civilians). However, the process by which Order of the Golden Kite was awarded was very lengthy: it was indeed awarded to military men who had died in service, while the remainder were normally awarded only ''after'' the end of a war, for services throughout the conflict. As the Second World War dragged on, it became apparent that there was a need to promote morale among active army units by rewarding acts of valor more readily. To this end, the IJA suggested the ''Bukōchōshō'' as an alternate decoration for living recipients who had shown the highest valor in combat, to be awarded much more quickly by division commanders in the field. Emperor Hirohito established the award on 7 December 1944, the third anniversary of the attacks on

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

, which had signaled the start of the broader Pacific War.

Award

The ''Bukōshō'' (as it was popularly known) was presented in two classes, called A and B, or First and Second. Loosely resembling the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...

1st Class, the ''Bukōshō'' was a pin back badge, cast in iron or steel, featuring two shields (in gilt for A-Class, bronzed for B-Class) forming a cross, with a gilt banner at the center bearing the two

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

characters "Bukō" (Military Merit). The reverse side (again in gilt for A-Class, bronzed for B-Class) bore the six kanji characters in two columns "Rikugun/Bukōchōshō" (Army/Badge for Military Merit). Both classes were the same size: high and wide. The ''Bukōshō'' was allowed to be given retroactively to soldiers who had distinguished themselves as far back as 1941 or perhaps 1940. In practice, the award was given disproportionately to fighter pilots flying against the American Boeing B-29 Superfortresses bombing the Japanese homeland. The first three men to win the award were Toru Shinomiya, Masao Itagaki and Matsumi Nakano—pilots flying the Kawasaki Ki-61 ''Hien'' fighter known by the Allies as the "Tony". On 3 December 1944, the three men were successful in very risky aerial ramming attacks. Another pilot, Masao Itagaki, successfully rammed B-29s on two occasions to earn two ''Bukōshō''. Unusually, the IJA awarded the ''Bukōshō'' to at least one aviator of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

, for valiant action in the

Battle of the Philippine Sea The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invas ...

on 19–20 June 1944.

Selected recipients

First or A-class

*Tadao Sumi, fighter pilot

Second or B-class

Isamu Kashiide was a Japanese army aviator and flying ace known for achieving the highest number of victories over Boeing B-29 Superfortresses. He claimed to have shot down 26 of the heavy bombers; 7 were later confirmed. Career Kashiide was born in February ...

, fighter pilot *Isamu Sasaki, fighter pilot

Unknown class

*Toru Shinomiya, fighter pilot *Masao Itagaki, fighter pilot *Matsumi Nakano, fighter pilot *Kuniyoshi Tanaka, fighter pilot *Satohide Kohatsu, fighter pilot * Yoshio Yoshida, fighter pilot *Tohru Shinomiya, fighter pilot *Sadamitsu Kimura, fighter pilot *Shigeyasu Miyamoto, fighter pilot *Kenji Fujimoto, fighter pilot * Teruhiko Kobayashi, fighter pilot *Chuichi Ichikawa, fighter pilot *Takashi Nakai, fighter pilot *Tomojiro Ogawa, fighter pilot *

Makoto Ogawa is a Japanese singer and actress, best known as a former member of Japanese girl group Morning Musume. She joined the group in August 2001 along with fellow fifth generation members Ai Takahashi, Risa Niigaki, and Asami Konno. On March 31, 2 ...

, fighter pilot *Yasushi Miyamotobayashi, fighter pilot *Isamu Hoya, fighter pilot *Yojiro Ohbusa, fighter pilot *Totaro Ito, fighter pilot *Koki Kawamoto, fighter pilot *Mitsuo Oyake, fighter pilot *Naoyuki Ogata, fighter pilot *Sergeant-Major Kobayashi,

Battle of Mindanao The Battle of Mindanao ( Filipino: ''Labanan sa Mindanao;'' Cebuano: ''Gubat sa Mindanao;'' Japanese: ミンダナオの戦い) was fought by the Americans and allied Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese forces on the island of Mindanao i ...

*First Lieutenant Oki, Battle of Mindanao *Commander Terao Kisaemon, Battle of Mindanao

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bukokisho Military awards and decorations of Japan Military of the Empire of Japan 1944 establishments in Japan Awards disestablished in 1945 Awards established in 1944