EATING PLAIN white rice is an essential part of being Japanese. In Japan (as in much of Southeast Asia) a bowl of white rice pulls all accompanying dishes into a coherent whole and transforms the food into a meal. And it is white rice that gives diners that satisfying sensation of a full stomach at the end of a repast. The countryside would not be Japanese if it were not patchworked with rice paddies. From 1937 to 1945 a meal of white rice came to symbolise patriotic support for the war with China and later the rest of the allied world by the placement of a single red pickled plum in the centre of a rectangular rising-sun lunch box. It was appropriate that the consumption of rice in a hinomaru bento could signal fervent nationalism during a war that was, in part, driven by a desire to secure the nation’s rice supply.

     Food is not normally listed as a reason Japan went to war. But changes in Japanese eating habits since the late 19th century, in particular an increase in the consumption of rice, caused anxieties about the poverty and inefficiency of Japanese agriculture and the security of its urban food supply. These worries about farming and food fed into an atmosphere of crisis that developed during the 1930s. It allowed right-wing militarist groups to gain political power and their influence helped to push Japan’s government into the decision to go to war.

Please subscribe/sign in to view article.