Complicating matters further was the fact that, by 1942, most Japanese soldiers were paid using the Japanese Military Yen (JMY), an unbacked currency that could not be redeemed for the regular Japanese Yen. In territories under Japanese occupation, the Military Yen—or "Japanese invasion money", as it came to be known by the locals—was the only legal tender in circulation. The Japanese authorities seized or ordered surrendered all other bank notes in territories under their occupation and provided compensation at an "exchange rate" as they saw fit, in the form of JMYs. This had the effect of affording Japanese soldiers in many occupied territories a higher degree of return for their low pay than they otherwise would have received. However, at the end of the war, the Imperial Japanese ministry of finance cancelled all military bank notes, rendering the Japanese Military Yen worthless.