Japanese food culture is lean and simple if you want to describe it simply. Therefore, the Japanese people in the war period pursued food in small quantities and satisfying basic needs with calories and nutrition, or easy access to ingredients, if necessary, everything Mainly with fruit belly. For example, there is a "Famine Relief Book" in Japan. This book records a variety of emergency rations when food supplies cannot meet demand, such as eating grass roots, gnawing bark, and making emergency rations that are easy to store for a long time. and many more.
and in World War II, all armies tried their best to provide their own troops with the best food, German sausages, American chocolates, the Soviet Union that can be used as weapons. Baked breads are all famous military foods, and what we are going to talk about next is the food of the Japanese Army.
1. The staple food of the Japanese army
Japan has a long history of simplifying food. Japan has been tortured by famine since ancient times. Therefore, both the nobles and the civilians put the top priority on reducing the difficulty of food processing, reducing the amount of food and ensuring the calories provided by the food. Next, let’s talk about the Japanese army during the Second World War. what.
The staple food of the Japanese army is mainly polished rice, which is rice. Since the Meiji Restoration, rice and polished rice balls can be said to be the soul of the Japanese army’s food. Improving the nutritional structure has diversified the nutrition of the army's meals and reduced the supply of polished rice. It has also triggered strong opposition from the soldiers. After all, the Japanese habit of eating rice has a long history, but this does not mean that the Japanese do not eat anything except rice, otherwise the Japanese would have starved to death in that era when production conditions were backward.
At the same time, Japan has also caused many diseases caused by malnutrition due to the excessive simplification of the army’s diet. Therefore, the Japanese Army headquarters still paid attention to soldiers before and at the beginning of the war. Of our diet. The Japanese Army clearly stipulated in writing that each meal should be accompanied by soup containing meatballs and vegetables, and sufficient vitamin-rich vegetables and fruits should be eaten. Each soldier should consume no less than 3000 calories per day.
In addition to rice, the most basic and easiest to prepare and carry by the Japanese Army is noodles. Among them, the most edible is the most widely used and most known to Asians. Steamed buns, I don’t need to talk to everyone.
Another kind of pasta that is widely eaten in the Japanese army is called crispbread, It is said that this kind of cake originated in South Asia, one said it originated in South The Pacific islands were introduced to Japan during the Meiji Restoration, and the production method is quite simple and easy to preserve. Its raw materials are flour and starch, which are made by adding various pulps, red beans or vegetables during production and baking. If there is an extreme shortage of ingredients and it is difficult to start a fire, it can also be made by grinding hay and bark, and then dried on a stone to relieve hunger. It can be said that it is the most widely used emergency ration by the Japanese army, The year In the Pacific, many army red deer survived on this thing.
The third type of pasta is quite controversial among Japanese soldiers. Its name is "Xingya Bread" and is a kind of wheat flour and soybean flour. , You can also use black bean flour or soybean flour, broad bean flour, soba noodles, starch, whatever grain flour can be used in the food. This kind of food is made with Shanghai algae powder or vegetable powder, and it can be baked after fermentation.
However, it is said that this kind of bread is baked very dry and hard, it needsYou can eat it with soup. But the soy flour and broad bean flour in the bread are too bloated, and the use of fish meal or natto to bake it will turn into a strange dark dish. Only the bravest soldiers can eat it, so it is quite popular in Japan. Bad reviews from army soldiers.
In addition to the above bread, the Japanese Army also has a kind of black bread originating from Russia (called Lucia in Japan) on paper. This kind of bread follows The paper data is eaten with cream or jam with lemon juice. has enough calories and can supplement vitamins, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. Soldiers can still eat bread in the early stages of the war. As for lemon-flavored butter and jam, they are basically the patents of the Japanese Navy. Army soldiers can hardly get them, so many times they just eat it with miso.
Compared with the troublesome bread, Japanese Army soldiers have more staple foods are canned biscuits and canned rice. This kind of food is easy to make, especially The biscuits can be eaten as long as the can is opened, and the latter requires the soldiers to heat it themselves.
2. The caloric food of the Japanese Army
The Japanese Army developed a food called "Heat 量食" in Showa 6 " military rations, this ration was widely used by the Japanese army at that time. is a mixture of glucose, butter, milk powder, milk, soybeans, sugar, and green tea powder. "Hot food" can provide about 500 calories, and the shelf life of can be as long as one year after being frozen, dried and compressed.
To put it bluntly, the so-called caloric food is compressed dry food. It is said that this kind of food is not only common for navy and army, but also attracts the attention of Italians. Japanese army is very Enthusiastically provided the Italian ambassador with the production method.
Another kind of higher calorie and popular among soldiers is omelet, , as the name implies, is a food that is rolled into a roll by breaking up eggs during cooking. You can add butter, minced vegetables or minced meat, fish and other ingredients during the production process. If it is not made into an egg roll, it can also be used to wrap rice and other ingredients to make sushi-like food. Basically this egg roll 100 grams can provide about 350 calories. Although this kind of thing exists in theory, it is only in writing. If you want to eat this kind of thing, you have to make it yourself.
How can the Japanese army's food be reduced without the Japanese favorite curry rice? An average of 100 grams of curry rice filled with oil can provide about 225 calories. It is naturally a very important and popular food for Japanese soldiers and even Japanese civilians. The preparation of this kind of food is very simple, just use oil to stir-fry the curry seasoning, add radishes, potatoes and chicken or pork to a stew, then pour it on the fragrant rice. In addition to curry rice, it is said that there is a simpler way of making hot sauce rice. Just mix the steamed rice with Korean hot sauce, but it is said that this hot sauce rice was not very popular among Japanese army soldiers at that time.
With curry and rice, how can I reduce the traditional Japanese gourmet sashimi? But for the army, the most important thing is that it can be preserved for a long time and provide enough heat, so the sashimi becomes a grilled fish fillet. This kind of fish fillet is first salted and marinated with wine after the viscera and scales are removed. Bake the fish into dry and hard fish fillets with oil, then apply Korean chili sauce to marinate, and finally dry and finish. In theory, this kind of dried fish can provide about 3 per 100 grams30 calories, but the Japanese prefer sweet and sour taste, and love eating sea fish, which limits the source of ingredients. Therefore, the supply capacity of grilled fish fillets has become lower and lower with the development of the war. By the end of the war, even famous Masanobu Tsuji, the Showa staff, can't eat fish anymore.
One of the most luxurious meals in the Japanese army is schnitzel. was also called hamburger meat by Japan at that time. At this time, it was a mixture of pork and fish. Or beef and mutton leftovers, add chili, flour, a small amount of salt and eggs, ground vegetables, and sometimes add bread crumbs to make high-calorie foods. An average of 100 grams can provide about 300 to 500 calories. It is said that this thing tastes fragrant and tender, but this kind of food is basically the Japanese army's recruitment advertisement, The Japanese army often used to eat schnitzel every day to lure young people in the early conscription, but in fact In the early days, they could only be eaten by soldiers when they enlisted in the army and on the expedition. When ordinary soldiers went on the expedition in 1944, they could not eat the cutlet.
Complementing the schnitzel is fried tempura, which is called "the three major delicacies of Taisho" along with schnitzel and curry rice, and so is One of the specialties of Japan to this day is naturally one of the important foods of the Japanese Army. The main raw material of this food is shrimp, but fish or other meats can also be used instead. If there is nothing, vegetables can be used. The outside is covered with thick mashed potatoes with minced vegetables and seasonings. Add egg liquid and bread crumbs and fry it.
Tempura provides enough calories, but due to the cumbersome preparation in front-line combat, the cooking class chefs often use local ingredients and occasionally use some Plants containing toxins were mixed in, or the food was not fried until it was fully cooked, resulting in a large number of food poisoning incidents. brought down many Japanese soldiers, so this food was quickly banned from being produced and eaten in frontier troops. .
Another luxurious food is fried chicken patties, marinated with mirin soy sauce, sugar and pepper, and then coated with egg liquid and breadcrumb oil Fried chicken pie. However, although it is called fried chicken, the ingredients themselves are not particularly limited to meat at the time, and other ingredients can also be mixed to make. This kind of stuff is restricted supply like the cutlet above. is basically something that fools soldiers. Of course, senior army officers can still eat real fried chicken.
In addition to the three major delicacies of Taisho, the Japanese Army’s high-end foods include sesame pork, canned pork and canned beef, canned chicken and canned fish. For the soldiers, the sesame pork preserved is naturally not enough to eat, but in the early days of the war, the soldiers of the First Division Division still got some canned food, but in the middle of the war, the canned meat became canned minced meat for mixed grains. In the later stages, even senior Japanese army officers were difficult to obtain.
3. Soups and pickles of the Japanese Army
The most famous Japanese soup is miso soup, which is also the Japanese army and The favorite food of Japanese civilians is also the main source of protein for the Japanese and the Japanese army in ancient times. Its main material is soybeans. According to regional customs, it may also be rice or other beans. The production method is basically the same as that of Douban. The sauce is similar. It is said that the early miso was a kind of sauce with a strong smell. Later, the odor was gradually removed through the improvement of brewing technology.
Miso can be combined with many ingredients, such as tofu, meat, and vegetables to make various types of miso soup. You can also make miso rice balls and use portable miso powder. You can make miso cap anytimeRice and miso ramen. This kind of miso can be said to have accompanied the Japanese army almost throughout Asia, and is an indispensable food for Japanese soldiers.
In addition to miso or Japanese soy sauce, Everyone knows that the main raw material of soy sauce is soybeans. However, due to the problem of domestic food planting habits in Japan, Japanese soybeans The production volume is relatively low, and the war are getting more and more tense, so as a substitute for soybeans, Japan has developed a variety of soy sauces, such as silkworm pupa soy sauce and seaweed soy sauce. These alternative soy sauces have been simplified in the brewing process to make it easier to produce. However, it is said that using seaweed as the raw material of soy sauce will have a strange smell, while using cicada pupae as the raw material will have a smelly smell.
There is also natto with a strange flavor. This thing originally originated in East Asia and then flowed into Japan and became a traditional Japanese cuisine. Although it has a strange taste, it is rich in protein and vitamins. It can be said that it is the most widely used food with health care and health functions by Japanese soldiers, but many soldiers still hate its strange smell.
In addition to the traditional miso soup and soy sauce, the Japanese army soldiers’ soups also include canned borscht, canned oyster soup, canned bone soup, canned red bean soup , Canned beef soup, canned Guandong canned food, But these canned foods became less and less available in the middle of the war. needed Japanese soldiers to grab them in order to make up enough ingredients to make their own soups, and count on local supply. Is unlikely.
But the main source of vitamin intake for the Japanese army is pickles. Speaking of pickles, the most consumed food in the Japanese army is naturally pickled radishes, as the name implies. It is the Japanese version of sweet and sour radish. It tastes sweet and sour, and also has different flavors of salty and spicy. It is the cheap and easy-to-serve side dish most commonly eaten by army soldiers.
In addition to the most traditional pickled radish, there are also pickled dried tofu, pickled kelp, pickled cucumber, pickled cabbage, pickled eggplant, etc., These pickles were also made into various small cans to supply frontline soldiers, but after 1944, even pickles became scarce.
In addition to soups, the Japanese Army also has some fruity sodas and canned fruits, which were also popular among soldiers in the early days of the war.
By 1945, the food conditions of the Japanese Army became starved of food. Before Japan surrendered, those who were far away from the mainland Army soldiers, only 149 grams of rice noodle rations and a bowl of miso soup a day, 110 grams of sweet potatoes and 51 grams of pickles made from various plants. However, the actual situation is that many soldiers often have no food or ammunition supplies. A large number of Japanese soldiers who were fighting outside were starved to death, and some soldiers were forced to go out to work in exchange for food. However, no matter how Japan tries to improve its military food, it will inevitably fail to provoke a war to the people of the world. In 1945, Japan swallowed the evil results they planted. When the war was on the verge of defeat, Japan’s food was almost exhausted.
was unable to find more real photos of Japanese food during World War II, which affected readers' reading, the author apologizes!
Conclusion
Probably from the Warring States Period in Japan to World War II, Japan was almost war and turmoil, which made Japan extremely frugal, pursuing small and complete, simpleAnd refined eating habits.
References:
"Japanese Army Cuisine"
"Japanese Army Food Processing Knowledge in the War Period"
"Japan during the Pacific War" Diet"
"The Life of the Japanese Army: Military Rations"
