Popularizing a Military Diet in Wartime and Postwar Japan

Abstract In this paper, I document the role played by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy in the dietary transformation of modern Japan. I first describe the development of a new, multicultural diet in the Japanese armed forces during the first decades of the twentieth century. Then I identify the trajectory through which this new diet was popularized among the civilian population during the 1930s and the 1940s. Finally, I argue that the postwar transformation of Japanese foodways rested upon the foundation constructed by the diffusion of military dishes and the military's advice on nutrition during the wartime period.