Figure 1.--The arrival of the Americans could not have been more different than the Japanese occupation. Rather than ransaking villages for food and raping and banyontting women, the American soldiers shared their eations with the viilagers and cargo ships brought in food to feed the food deprived popultion. Here American soldiers in 1945 distribute food to Filipinos on Luzon. The press caption read, "Freedom Means Food: As liberating American forces rolled across the fields of Luzon soup kitchens were set up in freed towns to alleviate the hunger of Filipinos kept on a starvation diet during the years of Jap occupation. In the town of San Francisco, natives look on happily and with anticipation as they line up for rations around a mess kitchen. " The photograph was dated February 9, 1945. Click on the image for a closer look a the people waiting for the food. Photographer Willard Hatch.

The Philippine Islands when acquired by the United States in the Spanish American War was a backwater of the decaying Spanish Empire and almost totally agricultural (1898). The United States oversaw a development effort. The United States built new public schools, transportation, reform system, boutiques, offices and civic buildings. There was a raid growth of the economy. Agriculture remained the heart of the economy, but tourism and industry developed. Major crops included rice, corn, hemp, tobacco, coconuts, and abaca (a species of banana). Many other crops were grown in garden plots for family consumption. Coconuts were important for oil production. Forestry was also important. The Philippines had one of the world's great strands of commercial timber. The economy grew despite difficulties with various agrarian uprisings. The robust coconut industry was a major factor in the growing economy and taxes helped fund infrastructure and other development projects. The Philipino benefitted from a developing economy. The American Commonwealth unlike many countries and colonies was not terribly affected by the Great Depression. The Japanese invasion and occuoation, however, did result in a serious recession. The Philippines before the War was laregely self sufficent in food, some foods were imported but were paid for by mostly agriculturl expots. Unlike sveral other areas of Southeast Asia/Ocenia, the Phillipines was not a major rice producer. Some rice was grown, but even before the War, rice had to be imported. And the Japanese were espcially interested in rice, it was their preferred food. The needs of the large Japanese military garison sharply increased the demand for rice. Thus the Japanese began shipping in rice was imported from other areas of the the expanded Japanese Empire (primarily southern Indo-China and Thailand). Japanese mismanagement of the economy disrupted agricultural production throughout the areas conquered, including the Philippines. Food shortages developed. People as the occupation continued has to rely increasinly on small garden polts to feed themselves. This was possible in the countryside, but not in the major cities like Manila.

American Era (1898-1941)

The Philippine Islands when acquired by the United States in the Spanish American War was a backwater of the decaying Spanish Empire and almost totally agricultural (1898). The United States oversaw a development effort. The United States built new public schools, transportation, reform system, boutiques, offices and civic buildings. There was a raid growth of the economy. Agriculture remained the heart of the economy, but tourism and industry developed. Major crops included rice, corn, hemp, tobacco, coconuts, and abaca (a species of banana). Many other crops were grown in garden plots for family consumption. Coconuts were important for oil production. Forestry was also important. The Philippines had one of the world's great strands of commercial timber. The economy grew despite difficulties with various agrarian uprisings. The robust coconut industry was a major factor in the growing economy and taxes helped fund infrastructure and other development projects. The Philipino benefitted from a developing economy. The American Commonwealth unlike many countries and colonies was not terribly affected by the Great Depression. The Phiilippines at the time the Japanese launched the Pacific War were other than the British Dominions (Australia and New Zealand) perhaps the most properous and well fed people in the Pacific and Asia and scheduled or independence in 1946.

Japanese Occupation (1942-44/45)

The food situation as elsewhere in the Pacific and Asia changed dramatically with the arrival of the Japanese. The lack of food was a major reason that the American forces on Bataan surendered (April 1942). Tragically they would not get much more to eat after surrendering to the Japanese. The Japanese invasion and occupation resulted in a serious recession. The Philippines before the War was laregely self sufficent in food, some foods were imported but were paid for by mostly agriculturl expots. Unlike sveral other areas of Southeast Asia/Ocenia, the Phillipines was not a major rice producer. Some rice was grown, but even before the War, rice had to be imported. And the Japanese were espcially interested in rice, it was their preferred food. The needs of the large Japanese military garison sharply increased the demand for rice. Thus the Japanese began shipping in rice was imported from other areas of the the expanded Japanese Empire (primarily southern Indo-China and Thailand). The Japanese had logistical problems from the onset of the War. Thei maru fleet was barely adequate for peace-time commerce. It was totally inadequate foe war. Shipping food for civilans stopped, but was permitted for the Japanese military. Japanese mismanagement of the economy disrupted agricultural production throughout the areas conquered, including the Philippines. The Japanese had their priorities and oil, rubber, and mineral resources were at the top of the list. Transport both sea and teresterial was allocated for those priorities. Thus both food production and normal civilian transport were disrupted. [Scott, p. 275.] Military shipments occurred (942), but the American submarine campaign began to bite and (1943) and evenually ldecimated the Japanese Maru fleet (1944). This meant that the Japanese on the Philippines and elsewhere were largel dependent on local food sources. Attacks on ethnic Chinese such as the sook-ching in Malata also disrupted commerce and along with the American submarine campaign caused the collapse of the pre-War ruce trade. Food shortages developed. People as the occupation continued has to rely increasinly on small garden polts to feed themselves. This was possible in the countryside, but not in the major cities like Manila. The Japanese in the Philippines attempted to increase rice production. Their major effort was to introduce a fast growing Formosan (Taiwanese) strain of rice--horai rice. They expected for the Phillipines to become self sufficent in rice production by 1943. This proved as usuccessful in the Philippines as it did in Malaya where Japanese also introduced it. [Jose, p. 75.] The Japanese blamed the rains. As a result, rice and other foods became increasingly difficult to obtain and prices escalated along with a general inflationary spiral. Rice was only availavle on the black market. Before the Japanese invasion rice cost about 6-7 pesos per cavan. (Cavan was a unit of volume and weught measurement in the Philippines. It was used for dry goods like rice and bean and amounted to about 56 kilograms.) The price escalated to 30 pesos (late-1942) and by the end of the Japanese occupation had reached 12,000 pesos (early-1945). Inflation had began to run wild in 1944. [Hartendorp, Shortages and the Japanese fiat currency were factors. Resistance newspapers portrayed people going to the market with suitcases or bayong native bags suffed with Japanese-issued peso bills.[40] The Filipinos began calling the Japanee bills Mickey Mouse money. A kilogram of camote (sweet potatos) at the end of the occupation cost something like 1,000 Mickey Mouse pesos. [Ocampo, pp. 22�25.] Wages increased as well, but only from 1.3 pesos to a mere 3-4 pesos per day. Ordinary people had no way of purchasing the food they needed. And farmers in the country side did not want to produce food for worthless biils no mtter how high the dedenominations. The well to do made trips into the country to barter jewlry and other possessions for food. The poor became increasingly desperate. Reports began of corpses on Manila streets. [Collingham, p. 243.] People with relatives in the countryside began leaving Manila and other cities. The most important rice growing area of the Philippines was central Luzon. Her the Hukbalahap guerrillas had established considerable control. Many landlords had left and were no longer collecting rents. Incontrast to other areas, the oeasants lived rather well. And despite the availability of rice, the Japanese did not moveinto the countryside to avoid conflict with the gerillas (1942-43). Yhis began to change in late-1943 as the American submarine campaign and the impact of occupation policies combined to reduce food supplies. The Filipinos demonstrated a remarakable ability to adjust. Handicrafts and artisal industries revived toproduc products like basket weaving, beverages, cloth, coconut oil productopn, salt, soap, and other items no longer available from more industrialized city manufacturrs. [Kerkvliet, p. 308.] Unfortunatel for the Filipinos, the Japanese di not always leave them alone. The Japanese moved reinforcenents into the Philippines (late-1943). Allied victories in the South and Central Paific made it clear that an American invasion was coming. This increased the Hapanese need for food and the Japnese military capability. As a result they launched operations into the rice producing area of cbtral Luzon. Clashes with the guerrillas followed and the Japanese committed terrible atrocities in village after village. A priest operating with one of the guerrilla groups reported that the Japanese," ... raped, tortured , bayonetted, burned houses and crops, drove off animals and carried away clothing, food, even agricultural equipment. In their wake they left hunger, malnutrition and starvation." [Kerkvliet, p. 311.] The Japanese gained some food, but it was a one-time gain. The food collected was quickly eaten and once a village was ravaged, there would no longer be any food to be seized. The Japanese turned a rich-agricultural region which could have been exploited rationally into an area with a sharply reduced ability to grow food and could not be exploited. Their brutal actions only added to food shortages in the Philippines for both the population and the Japanese occupation forces.

Liberation (1944-45)

The Japanese in the end would suffer the consequences of the disorder and rapicious policies, turning a prosperous island Commonwealth soon to be independent to a conquered people bordering on starvation. Economic groeth cease and the ecomomy contrcted. Food shortages appeared and only became worse as the occupation comtinued. When the Americans anded on Luzon (January 1945), the Japanese retreat was fisorganized. Gen. Yamashita fought delaying actions and then wuthdrew into the mountains of central and northern Luzon. This mountenous retreat had not been prepared in advance. And at any rate, food was in very short supply. The area in which they withdrew was mountenous and not a food profucing area. Here they held out, not allowed to surrender and died either by starvation or disases related to malnutrition. The Japanese High Command essentially ordered their men to starve to death rather than surrender. Certainly a war crime not commonly rported. The Japanese High Command did not keep track of the numbers who starved, but they almost certainly exceeded battle deaths. One Japanese estimate after the War suggests that 80 percent of the 0.5 million Japanese military deaths in the Philippines were the result of food shortages. [Fujiwara, pp. 135-38.] The difference between the Americans and Japanese was startling. One author estimates that for every four tons of supplies the Americans shipped to their ground forces, the Japanese managed to provide their own men only two pounds! [Haries and Haries, p. 314.] The American operations in the South Pacific were completed in a few days or at most a 1-3 weeks. Thus the period of contact with the Americans was limited. This was different in the Philippines. Here and in other Pacific islands with prolonged contact resulted in Japanese bitterly reporting the abundance of the Americans which they could see and smell. A Japanese soldier starving but still resisting on the Philippines found a wad of chewing gum on a leaf he had picked for dinner. He wrote, "Here we were holding on for dear life, and these characters were chewing gum as they fought!" [Hiroo, pp. 67-68.] American soldiers caried emergency rations. The Japanese soldiers did not. One soldier explained that they considered essential, salt, a mess tin, and matches. That was because they were surviving on grasses. The salt made it palatable, the mess tin was the cooking pot, an the atches started the fire. According to the soldier, "Death awaited the soldiers who lacked these three items." [Mutsuo, p. 146.] The arrival of the Americans could not have been more different than the Japanese occupation. Rather than ransacking villages for food and raping and banyontting women, the American soldiers shared their rations with the viilagers and cargo ships brought in food to feed the food deprived popultion while the agriucultural sector recovered from the Japanese depredations. This occured rather quickly as real money was offered for farm produce.

Sources

Collingham, Lizzie. The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food (Penguin Books: New York, 1962), 634p.

Fujiwara, Uejini shita eireitachi (Aoki Shoten: Tokyo, 2001). ,

Haries, Meirion and Susie Haries, Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army, 1868-1945 (Heinermann: Londom, 1991).

Hartendorp, A. History of Industry and Trade of the Philippines (Manila: American Chamber of Commerce on the Philippines: 1958).

Hiroo, Onoda. Quoted by David Reynolds, Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942-1945 (Phoenix Press: London, 2000).

Jose, Ricardo Trota. "Food production and food distribution programmes in the Philippenes during the Japanese occupation," in Paul H Kratoska, ed. Food Supplies and the Japanese Occupation in Southeast Asia (Macmilln: London1998), pp. 67-100.

Kerkvliet, Benedict and J Tria. "Wthdrawl and resistance: The political significance of food, agriculture, and how people lived during the Japanese occypation in the Philippines," in Bernd Martin and Alan S. Milward, eds. Agriculture and Food Supply in the Seind World War -- Landwirtschaft und Verorgung im Zweiten Welt krief (Scripta Mercaturae Belag, Ostfildern, 1985). pp. 297-315).

Mutsuo, Sumeragi.Quoted in Frank Gibney. ed. Senso. The Japanese Remenber the Pacific War. Letters to the Editor of Asahi Shimbum (M.E. Sharpe: London, 1995).

Ocampo, Ambeth. Looking Back 3: Death by Garrote (Anvil Publishing: 2010). .

Scott, James. "An approach to the problems of food supply om Southeast Aaia during World War Two" in Bernd Martin and Alan S. Milward eds. Agriculture and Food Supply in the Second World War -- Landwirtschaft und Verorgung im Zweiten Welt krief (Scripta Mercaturae Belag, Ostfildern, 1985). pp. 269-96).

Created: 4:18 AM 9/15/2017
Last updated: 4:18 AM 9/15/2017