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Cooking on board
ship in 1942.
to the discretion of the Military Medical College and the Surgeon General’s
office. The Army Accounting College, in turn, was responsible for educating
paymasters who coordinated catering in each division. In 1920 the responsibility
for reforming army catering was finally placed under a central
coordination of the Army Provisions Depot. 57
The situation was very different in the navy, where a system of central
food control had been in operation since 1890. The introduction of
such a system was necessary in order to implement the reforms aimed at
fighting beriberi. As mentioned earlier, Takagi’s Westernized diet proved
too costly in the long run, but the measures revolutionized navy catering.
After 1890 provisions were distributed centrally by the Munitions Bureau
of the Naval Ministry, instead of the hitherto prevalent local procuring
by paymasters. 58 This made the navy much less vulnerable to the local
71