** World War II : American occupation of Japan Japanese food situation








World War II Aftermath: Japanese Food Situation


Figure 1.--People in the cities began converting available space to gardening. The press caption read, "Weat Grown in Japanese Capital: As a result of the food shortage, people of Tokyo have cultivated the fire-razed distrcts throughout the city. These Japanese children wlk along apath through a weat field in the heart of Tokyo. They're prticularly proud of the fine stand of wheat because they had their in ciltivating it. It is estimated that 24,800 bushels of wheat will be harvested in th capital itself." The photograph was taken June 11, 1946.

A critical issue for the occpation was food. As a result of the war, when the Americans arrived (September 1945), the Japanese had begun to starve. One Japanese girl working in a war plant recalls how she was happy to find a sinhle noodle at the bottom of her soup bowl. Domestic food production had declined by over 25 percent as the Government prioritized needed farm inputs like labor, fertilizer, and metal equipmt to the military. And as a result of the American blockade, food cargos could no longer reach the country. One of the highest priorities for the American occupation authorities was rebuilding the country's transport system destroyed by the America strategic bombing campaign. This was necssary to get the food produced in the countryside into the cities. But even in the countryside there were food shortages. Here the rail system was a high priority. And steps were taken to increase food production. We see people in the cities growing crops on all available land, including parks. One Japanese expert writes, "From 1944 on, even in the countryside, the athletic grounds of local schools were converted into sweet potato fields. And we ate every part of the sweet potato plant, from the leaf to the tip of the root. .... For protein, we ate beetles, beetle larvae, and other insects that we found at the roots of the plants we picked, which we roasted or mashed. Even in the countryside, food was scarce." [Ayao] This could, however, go so far. In the best of times, Japanese farmers did not meet domestic demand. Japan was not self-suffient in food production even in a good year and the 1945 was a disappointing year. Thus it was important to get the ports working again. Food had to be imported. The United States also moved to revitalize the fishing fleet and to found a new whaling fleet. A stringent rationing system was in place when the Americans arrived. The U.S. authorities upheld sanctions against outdoor food vending and preserved Japan's wartime food rationing system. American occupation authotities quickly got involved in the process. Decisions by the authorities had lasting impacts on the Japanese diet, even how the Japanese ate sushi. [Shimbo] There was, however, just not enough food to go around. American food aid began arriving. But the only real fix to the food crisis was to get industrial Japan working again so that Japan could purchase needed food as it had been doing before the War. And this was a huge challenge because was stripped of it colonies it had been exploiting. The solution would be the Japanese Economic Miracle which the American occupation helped engineer. Even before the occupation ended (1962), Japan was more prosperous and better feed than any time in history.

Sources

Ayao, Okumura. A Japanese food scholar quoted in George Salt. The Untold History of Ramen (University of California Press: Berkeley, California. 2014) p. 6.

Shimbo, Hiroko. The Sushi Experience.







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Created: 8:30 AM 1/23/2018
Last updated: 8:30 AM 1/23/2018