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The authorities clearly outlined the goal of this reformed education to be
the dissemination of nourishing and economical methods of food preparation.
The high level of science implementation was distinctive in the new
curriculum; following the model of military cooking manuals, new textbooks
indicated the nutritional value of each dish that was to be prepared
in class. This reform provided the foundation for home economics education
in post-war Japan and was responsible for the widespread awareness
and sincere concern of contemporary Japanese homemakers about the
nutritional value of their meals. 50
In his analysis of the relationship between total war and social change,
Arthur Marwick distinguished the ‘test-dimension’ of war. He argued that
the supreme challenge that total war poses to political structures and social
and economic systems that have outlived their vitality may provoke change
in the direction of greater efficiency in order to mobilize the full potential
of a society and its resources. 51 This is exactly what happened in wartime
Japan. In the long run, wartime mobilization created the basis for sound
nutritional policies in post-war Japan that encompassed the entire population.
For example, the nutritional survey initiated by the Dietician’s
Association of Great Japan in June 1945 was interrupted in August by
Japan’s surrender, but the collected material served as the basis for the
National Nutrition Survey initiated in occupied Japan six months later. 52
Nutritional research continued in the same institutes with slightly
changed names, and the dissemination of nutritional knowledge continued
under the leadership of the same experts. For example, in November 1946
Arimoto Kunitarō (1898–1984), a recognized expert in the world of
Japanese dietetics, was appointed director of the newly established Nutrition
Division in the Welfare Ministry’s Bureau for the Preservation of Public
Health. Arimoto’s publishing record alone convincingly demonstrates the
trans-war continuity in the popularization of nutritional knowledge in
Japan. Similar lists by other experts can easily be compiled.
Selected publications by Arimoto Kunitarō (single or multi-authored):
1937 Jissen eiyō to chōri [Practical Nutrition and Cooking]
1941 Tabemono no kagaku [The Science of Food]
1941 Eiyō kagaku [Nutritional Science], last edition 1977
1943 Eiyō kikakusho [Nutritional Programme]
1950 Eiyō, shokuhin jiten [Dictionary of Food and Nutrition]
1952 Ryōri kondate kādo [Menu Cards]
1952 Eiyō shidō no jissai [The Reality of Nutritional Guidance]
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