ESTABLISHING LEGISLATION
The World War II Victory Medal was established by Act of Congress (Public Law 135, 79th Congress) on July 6, 1945.
EVENT COMMEMORATED
The World War II Victory Medal commemorates military service during the Second World War.
ORDER OF PRECEDENCE
The World War II Victory Medal takes precedence after the theater campaign medals of the Second World War and before Army of Occupation (or Naval Occupation Service) Medal.
DEVICES
No devices were authorized for this medal.
DESIGNER
The World War II Victory Medal was designed by Thomas Hudson Jones (1892-1969).
FIRST RECIPIENT
The identity of the first recipient of the World War II Victory Medal was not recorded.
DESCRIPTION AND SYMBOLISM
Obverse
In the center of a bronze medallion 36 millimeters in diameter, a female figure is shown with her right foot resting on a Roman war helmet. In her right hand she holds the hilt of a broken sword, and in her left hand she holds the blade of that sword. Barely visible behind the war helmet, a rising sun with rays emanating upward. The female figure bisects the inscription WORLD WAR II which is placed about one third of the way up from the bottom of the medal.
The female figure is Liberation, who is resting her right foot on Mars' helmet, thus alluding to victory, or an end of war. The rising sun alludes to the dawn of a new day of peace and freedom, and the broken sword represents defeat of both the enemy in particular and war in general.
Reverse
In the center of a bronze medallion 36 mm in diameter, a palm branch is displayed. Above it, the inscription ˇFREEDOMˇOFˇSPEECHˇANDˇRELIGIONˇ and following the contour of the medal's rim, the words ˇUNITEDˇSTATESˇOFˇAMERICAˇ1941ˇ1945ˇ (each word isseparated by a bullet). This inscription describes the ideals for which the United States participated in the Second World War.
Ribbon
The ribbon to the World War II Victory Medal consists of a central stripe of red edged in white. The edge stripes of the ribbon consist of a double rainbow. The center stripe of red is the color of Mars, the ancient Roman God of War. The thin white stripes at the edge of the red represent the "dawn of a new day of peace and freedom," or the end of war. The edge stripes (the double rainbows) are the colors of the World War I Victory Medal. The use of two of them on this ribbon signifies the second world war; they also encompass all the colors of the Allies and allude to the rainbow at the end of a storm.