Skip to content
  • Home
  • About me
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
Exposing Imperial Japan

Exposing Imperial Japan

Viewing the suffering of colonized people through the lens of the colonizer's propaganda

  • Home
  • About me
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
Korean director of Straits of Chosun (1943)...
In April 1943, Seoul high school girls...
Korean family of radio broadcasting official lived...
Imperial Japan shamed Koreans for going to...
Korean kindergartners holding rising sun flags shouting...
In June 1945, Imperial Japan announced a...
In November 1943, colonial authorities implemented a...
In 1942, Matsumoto Chitei reportedly became the...
“Koreans need to assimilate with the Japanese...
In 1943, ethnic Korean school principal says...
In 1942, pro-Imperial Japanese Korean parents boasted...
The Sulemans were a Russian Tatar refugee...
‘Selfless’ Imperial Japanese policeman visits pregnant Korean...
Korean schoolgirls make improvised ‘tadon’ coal dumplings...
Park Deuk-hyeon (박득현/朴得鉉) became a communist activist...

Category: Food Shortages

Food Shortages

Korean rice farmers barely survived eating grass roots as they worked tirelessly to meet the rice quotas imposed by the Imperial Army in 1944, even sacrificing their own personal rice supplies to face starvation under pressure from the police inspector and the township chief

2024-09-16

325

1862

This disturbing propaganda news story from 1944 is about a rice farming township (Seonso-myeon) in Suncheon County, South Pyeongan Province

Read More
Food Shortages

Rationing sugar and sweets in 1943 Seoul: lucky families got coveted ration books issued by snack retailers, while others received nothing, one mother collapsed in line waiting to buy one cookie for her infant, so Patriotic Groups intervened to prioritize rationing to children and the military

2023-04-15

488

1658

This article from 1943 Seoul discusses the rationing of sugar and sweet snacks that was instituted due to the shortage

Read More
Food Shortages

Koreans generally used to make their own miso and soy sauce at home with raw soybeans, but with those rations gone, they were blamed for allegedly ‘encroaching upon’ and hoarding the miso and soy sauce that the ethnic Japanese normally consumed, contributing to shortages (Gyeonggi-do, 1943)

2023-03-02

453

1372

This is an interesting article about the dire shortages of miso and soy sauce in Seoul, where authorities apparently struggled

Read More
Business

Korean economic crimes suspects interrogated by Seoul economic police; the police chief boasts of having eyes and ears everywhere on the ground, and contrasts the polite, law-abiding ‘good Korean retailers’ with the rude, greedy, dishonest ‘bad Korean retailers’ in 1942 interview

2022-12-10

410

1272

This photo shows the inside of an interrogation room of the economic police in the Dongdaemon precinct of Seoul. It

Read More
‘Yōko versus Hoshiko’, a 1944 morality play pitting ‘good Korean woman’ Yōko, who is kind and considerate, against ‘bad Korean woman’ Hoshiko, the selfish, corrupt patriotic group leader harboring liberal and hedonistic British/American thoughts who ‘needs to be shot’ for betraying Imperial Japan
Food Shortages

‘Yōko versus Hoshiko’, a 1944 morality play pitting ‘good Korean woman’ Yōko, who is kind and considerate, against ‘bad Korean woman’ Hoshiko, the selfish, corrupt patriotic group leader harboring liberal and hedonistic British/American thoughts who ‘needs to be shot’ for betraying Imperial Japan

2022-09-21

398

3632

This is my translation and transcription of six fictional stories from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the

Read More
Vegetable rationing in 1943 Seoul was measly (~200 grams a day per person), monotonous (mostly bok choy and daikon radish), and controlled by Patriotic Groups, the local arm of the ruling party of Japan-colonized Korea – severe shortages of carrots, taro roots, yams, all sold on the black market
Food Shortages

Vegetable rationing in 1943 Seoul was measly (~200 grams a day per person), monotonous (mostly bok choy and daikon radish), and controlled by Patriotic Groups, the local arm of the ruling party of Japan-colonized Korea – severe shortages of carrots, taro roots, yams, all sold on the black market

2022-08-29

388

1516

This article talks about vegetable shortages in Korea in December 1943, two years into an all-out war against the US.

Read More
Food Shortages

In November 1943, colonial authorities implemented a clumsy, inefficient fish rationing system in Seoul which led to large spoilage losses, a measly fish quota of less than 750 grams a day per person, angry complaints about irregular store hours, families were sometimes allotted poisonous fugu fish

2022-08-15

753

1806

This is my translation and transcription of a news article from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the

Read More
Food Shortages

By December 1943, poultry was unavailable anywhere in Seoul, eggs were supposed to be priority-rationed to hospitalized war veterans and people with doctors’ certificates (pregnant women and nursing mothers), but ordinary Koreans had to buy eggs on the black market at 30 sen (about $6 USD today) each

2022-08-06

416

1353

This article talks about the egg and poultry shortage that was rampant in Korea in December 1943, two years into

Read More
Food Shortages

Colonial authorities discussed how to reduce prenatal/infant mortality rates in the midst of severe 1943 wartime food shortages, declaring that the Korean children belong to Imperial Japan and not to the mother, who must raise them into future soldiers and leaders of the Co-prosperity Sphere

2022-07-24

591

4782

This is my translation and transcription of three news articles from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the

Read More
Food Shortages

Governor-General Koiso blamed excessive chili peppers for ‘stimulating’ Koreans and making them ‘mentally foggy’, and ordered Koreans to ‘improve’ their diets by eating more salt and less chili peppers in his desperate 1944 push to revitalize the war effort

2022-07-03

490

769

This is my translation and transcription of a news article from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the

Read More

Posts pagination

1 2 Next

Recent Posts

  • In 1945, Imperial Japan trained almost every able-bodied Korean man, woman, and child to stab Americans to death with bamboo spears in suicide combat militias under direct Imperial Army command
  • Imperial Japan banned passengers wearing chima skirts from boarding trains, escalating its campaign against traditional Korean garments in May 1945
  • “If Japan loses, Koreans will fight each other, divided by foreign powers”: June 1945 warning by Korean collaborator (박춘금, 朴春琴) who urged authorities to redirect Korean nationalism into support for Imperial Japan
  • Imperial Japan called Korean women in chima dresses ‘the most filthy and ugly sight’ and shamed them with posters captioned ‘there are still women like these’ (April 1945)
  • Imperial Japan shamed Koreans for going to theaters instead of preparing for invasion (March 1945)

Recent Comments

    Archives

    • June 2025
    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org

    Categories

    • Business
    • Christianity
    • Clothing
    • Comfort Women
    • Currency
    • Daily Life
    • Education
    • Entertainment
    • Food Shortages
    • Foreign Residents
    • Imperial Way
    • Internment Camp
    • Japanese Language
    • Korean Royal Family
    • Korean Workers
    • Medical
    • Military
    • Model Korean Family
    • Moment of Silence
    • Philosophy
    • Police
    • Post-Liberation
    • Press
    • Prisoners of War
    • School
    • Travel
    • Uncategorized
    • University

    Pages

    • About me
    • Donate
    • Get Involved
    • Imperial Japanese penal official said Korean 'ideological criminals' (independence activists) were 'not well made as human beings', but 'if only their thoughts could be corrected, then they will get better' so they can be 'used' for wartime labor, but 'this is not the case with ordinary criminals'
    • Nostalgia for Imperial Japan and its undercurrents in Kishi Nobusuke's legacy in postwar Japan, in Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan's legacy in South Korea, and why access to wartime newspapers of Japan-occupied Korea is important to combat historical misinformation by the far-right in both countries
    • Simon Young Kim (김영근), a South Korean violin virtuoso and disciple of famous violinist Jascha Heifetz, Simon was once my teacher and mentor, and his son was my best friend in elementary school
    Exposing Imperial Japan
    Designed & Developed by WpTheme Space