[1] Despite this, neither Japanese civilian officials nor the U.S. military occupation authorities were able to allocate the food supply efficiently, which led to an extreme hunger crisis.
Exacerbated by the Allied bombing of Japan and a shortage in the working age male population, caloric intake per capita fell further to 1,680 calories by the summer of 1945.
To make matters worse, the return of eight million expatriates from Japan's recently freed colonies added to the high demand for food.
[7] In 1940, the Japanese government established a food rationing system for items such as vegetables, sugar, seafood, dairy goods, and rice.
[8] People in provincial towns and cities who were not as dependent on the rationing system were relatively less affected, until the Allies bombed Japanese home islands in 1944.
[10]Unlike the case in Germany, the Japanese government continued to function under essentially the same structure as was established under the Meiji constitution, even as the country came under U.S. military occupation.
Many Japanese therefore regarded their civilian administration as little more than a puppet government and perceived a power vacuum subsequent to their defeat in the Pacific War, which was further confounded by the U.S.' occupation.
[14] The rations limited the average adult to 1,042 calories per day, which only constituted about 65% of the minimum caloric intake weighed necessary for basic survival.
To avoid the expansion of Asian communism, the U.S. engaged in the Reverse course by dividing foodstuffs between these two countries, sometimes limiting aid in Japan to provide for a more restive Korea.
In the cable, MacArthur said: I am considering authorizing an immediate diversion from allocation of wheat to Japan of a token shipment of twenty-five thousand tons to Korea to alleviate a serious psychological and political crisis wherein adverse leftist elements are capitalizing on the present food shortage.
[17]In 1947, U.S. authorities established school lunch programs in Japan to provide nutrition for children in the larger cities affected by the food crisis.
As a result, American charities and religious organizations developed the Licensed Agencies for Relief in Asia (LARA) to dispense food, clothing, and other aid to Japan.
The bread was not donated because of its health benefits, but because Americans wanted to divest excess wheat to foreign markets to increase their profits.
Instead, George Solt, the author of The Untold History of Ramen, asserts that the government gave the appearance of opposing the black market by cracking down on individual vendors and consumers.
Historian John Dower claims that 1.22 million average men and women were jailed for acquiring goods from the black market in 1946.
Solt raises the possibility that the police and government elites received a portion of the profits from the illegal food trade, which explains their motives for quietly accepting the black market.
In the 1954 film Bangiku (which later became known as Late Chrysanthemums) a plot line features a woman who takes her mother to a ramen restaurant to celebrate the former's wedding engagement.
The idea of eating it in prosperous times mortifies the mother, a theme that is found in poems and music from this period, which were recited on the radio.