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American aid from 1945–1950. During the two years following
the Korean armistice, Japan earned an additional $2 billion
from military procurements. These orders initiated a twenty
year period of nearly uninterrupted 10 percent annual growth
in the Gross National Product (gnp). 4
Before this miraculous economic growth began, however, the Japanese
population experienced long years of deprivation (see chapter Five). The
food crises experienced during the first two years of the occupation were
more severe than any during wartime shortages. A sudden and unprecedented
population increase was largely responsible for this situation.
Between 1945 and 1950 the Japanese population increased by 11.2 million,
more than half of this increase resulting from the repatriation of Japanese
civilians and military personnel from the colonies and other overseas
areas. 5 Moreover, in 1945 the country encountered the poorest rice crop in
years, while food imports from the colonies came to a halt. The first shipments
of grain from the United States did not arrive until March 1946. The
food collection and rationing machinery that had been developed by the
Japanese government during the war period was retained intact by the
American occupying forces. The administrative confusion surrounding
the surrender, however, along with increased resistance among farmers to
comply with food collection quotas, resulted in a deficit in the food supplies
available to meet the rationing requirements. 6
In 1947, with the aim of easing malnutrition among Japanese children,
the occupation authorities initiated a programme of school lunches.
At first, this was carried out in large cities, whose populations suffered most
from food shortages. The meals were prepared using canned meat and fish
from the remaining stockpiles of the Japanese Imperial Army and food
donations of the Licensed Agencies for Relief in Asia (lara). lara was a
group of private American charitable and religious organizations formed in
1946 with the aim of contributing food, clothing, medical supplies and
other relief items to Japan and other Asian nations after World War Two. 7
In 1951 the school lunch initiative was expanded to encompass children
all over Japan. The directive issued the previous year prescribed that
a school lunch was to provide 600 kilocalories and 25 grams of protein, and
should be centred on bread and milk. Skimmed powdered milk was considered
the most cost-effective remedy for strengthening malnourished
children and was donated by various aid organizations, such as lara, the
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (now known
under the name unicef) and the us Government Appropriation for Relief
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