Anybody know what JAPANESE ate as rations in WW2? (war, Britain, Chinese)

[TAZORAC]

Interested in knowing what was in Japanese soldiers rations pack...anybody know?

[Zen88]

The chinese

[TAZORAC]

Originally Posted by Zen88

The chinese

yea!!!

[Unsettomati]

You might find this 1944 War Department document (here in PDF form) on the IJA to be interesting. Regarding rations, scroll down to page 17.

http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/car...c/number27.pdf

The rest of it is interesting as well.

[djmilf]

You all might remember a certain member named JohnUK. He made some "interesting" claims about WW2 based upon what was apparently the only book he ever read upon the subject.

One of his claims was about how Britain was self-sustaining regarding food while Germany was starving throughout the war. This made me curious as to the reality of the notion, and as a result I bought the e-book version of "The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food" by Lizzie Collingham. Collingham's book provides (imo) exhaustive research into how each of the major players in WW2 dealt with the production and distribution of food to both their respective military and civilian populations and how it affected each nation's war effort.

To answer the question regarding what the Japanese Army ate - there was an Army ration pack, but there weren't enough to fully feed the Army. Japanese soldiers were expected to survive on whatever it could seize from the conquered territories, capture from enemy supply depots, or raise on their own initiative. According to Collingham, Japanese troops spent a large part of their time trying to either capture, locate, grow, or hunt/harvest anything edible.

[Dd714]

There is a wiki page for everything:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japanese_rations

Without looking, I would have said rice would have been the main staple.

To djmilf's point the Japanese were always short of supplies, particularly after 1943.

[bus man]

Rice balls! IIRC, when the U.S. Marines went ashore on Guadalcanal, they captured a Japanese supply depot. At first, they wanted nothing to do with the rice balls that made up a big chunk of the overall supply there. But as their own supplies dwindled, they eventually developed a taste for them.

[MinivanDriver]

Not to mention downed American flyers.

[msgsing]

They had a plan on paper at least to provide rations to troops in the field. In reality the acquisition of rations was primitive to say the least. Oftentimes they foraged just like some American forces did in the Civil War.


In other cases they just starved especially in Pacific outposts that had been bypassed and blockaded by our forces. I recall reading and seeing photos of the Japanese surrender on Wake Island and many of the Japanese looked like walking skeletons.

[mkwensky]

I don't know if they're free but I know beer was a part of the amenities provided. US Marines captured a depot of Japanese beer at Guadalcanal. Not sure about sake or other alcoholic beverages. American soldiers on Midway Island could get beer too but these had to be purchased so I don't know if they count as part of the rations.