In World War II, the Japanese Army's food can be said to be the worst, although the paper looks good, but in the actual battle, it is basically not enough to eat, sometimes drink mud soup, eat grass roots. However, the Japanese Navy was completely different, not only a meal of white rice, but also a sea fish, and even soldiers could eat Western dishes. The gap in food between the army and navy, which are also members of the Japanese army, is so large that it is almost speechless, as if they are not the army of a country. So what is the food standard of the Japanese Navy?
First, the superiority of white rice
On the Japanese army's food list, white rice is definitely the number one staple food. Whether it is the Army or the Navy, this white rice is definitely a favorite staple of soldiers.
After the harsh training every day, a bowl of white rice and a bowl of miso soup can definitely wash away the fatigue of the soldiers. However, in the early years, white rice also caused trouble for Japan, and this trouble has been since ancient times. Ancient Japanese daimyōs preferred to eat white rice, and it was rice that had its husks completely removed.
It is said that we eat this kind of rice now, so that we will not get sick, but the daimyo of Japan only eat refined rice, and there is no supplementary food to eat.
At that time, the daimyōs of Japan ate only refined rice, just these two pickles and fish and tofu under the rice. In the long run, there will be a lack of vitamins, resulting in serious athletes suffering from severe beriberi.
This beriberi is not simply beriberi, but because of the severe lack of vitamins, the skin of the foot is cracked, and finally neurological diseases and even heart disease occur. In ancient Japan, the daimyo and samurai who died of complications of beriberi were almost uncountable, and it is said that Emperor Meiji also died at this time.
In modern Japan, because the troops did not understand modern medicine and nutrition, the soldiers of modern Japan once ate dried rice every day, and at most came to pickles and miso soup.
The soldiers were all from poor backgrounds, where could they eat polished rice in normal times? Naturally, I think the taste of refined rice is greatly better, and I would like to eat two or three bowls more.
However, the soldiers had been eating refined rice for a long time and suffered from severe beriberi. When it comes time to fight, more people may die of beriberi than the enemy.
After the Japanese military top brass figured out why, they began to issue orders prohibiting the consumption of refined rice.
However, because of the strong protests from the soldiers, they could only add some brown rice or coarse grains to the polished rice to ensure that the soldiers could get enough vitamins.
The red deer of the Army felt satisfied with refined rice with brown rice, but how could the arrogant Navy allow such a thing? Although the requirement is for the Japanese Navy to put oats in the rice and cook together to ensure the acquisition of vitamins. But the officers and men of the Navy pride themselves on being superior, coupled with the reorganization of side dishes in the daily meals?
So the cooks of the Navy, with the acquiescence of the senior generals, ate fine rice all the time, and directly poured the inconspicuous oats into the sea.
And when the Japanese army next door was often hungry on the battlefield, the navy was so extravagant, it was really worthy of being a superior navy.
Second, the Navy's luxurious recipes
If you think it's a luxury for the Navy to eat only refined rice and pour oats into the sea, you haven't seen the Recipes of the Japanese Navy. Compared with the Japanese Army's still good recipe, the Japanese Navy's food is simply a representative of luxury, whether it is soldiers or officers.
At that time, even if the Japanese Army soldiers were in the garrison, they often had a little vegetable and meat, plus a little pickle, and then a bowl of Miso soup and rice passed. Sometimes it can be even more miserable, two rice balls, a bowl of miso soup can also send you away. The generals were not much better, and it was estimated that only when they were stationed, they had to be in the rear station to eat good meals.
But if you look at the Japanese Navy, it's completely different, and the Japanese Navy is not such a simple meal. In fact, even ordinary soldiers can enjoy a high level of treatment.
In the Japanese Navy, soldiers can easily eat marine fish, not only can they eat most Japanese dishes, whether it is simple miso soup and stir-fry, or high-grade sushi and delicious ramen, or sashimi and grilled meat.
In addition to these, the Navy often eats delicious desserts such as yokan, candy and ice cream.
And these are all traditional Japanese dishes that ordinary soldiers can eat, not including watercress that Japanese naval soldiers can eat.
For example, schnitzel, fried steak, creamy chicken stew and the like, and you can eat sandwiches, brioche bread, pudding and other foods. Even the Navy has its own specialty, the Navy Curry, which is made with reference to the British curry stew, but Japan also adds wheat flour to make the soup more viscous, so that it is very suitable for eating with rice
It is also a special dish of the Japanese Navy, and Japanese naval soldiers love this naval curry very much.
If you think this is already the superiority of the Navy's food, then you must not have seen the additional meals provided by those naval gallies. Usually, whether it is the Army or the Navy, every day there are some soldiers on duty who cannot catch up with the meal time, so it will take a while to eat.
If you're an Army soldier, you're usually going hungry and can get at most a rice ball. But if you are a naval soldier, it is different, the naval soldier can go to the kitchen in advance to ask for a bowl of soy sauce, oil tofu and miscellaneous vegetables, oil tofu bibimbap to make up for the pad.
The hungry Army red deer next door yelled unfairly.
Third, the enjoyment of admirals
What I just said is that ordinary naval soldiers and ordinary officers can enjoy it, and the generals of the Japanese Navy can enjoy more.
For example, their breakfasts are all customized, and if you want to eat a traditional Japanese breakfast – refined rice, miso soup, grilled fish and the like, then the kitchen can provide you. But if you want an English breakfast and want a roll of oatmeal, toast, fried bacon, bread or something like that, the kitchen can also get it for you.
In short, it can be completely customized, and the army red deer next door can not enjoy such treatment at all.
Lunch is even more enjoyable, as you can not only eat Japanese food, but also enjoy a French meal.
Usually, the captain or commander of the fleet on a warship would invite the key members of the ship to dine in the commander's hall, and there were attendants next to them to serve the generals throughout the process.
Ordinary officers and junior officers also have special dining places to eat, and ordinary soldiers go to the canteen to eat.
At this time, the ship's military bands would play classical or European and American pop music on the back deck, which also provided a relaxation and lunch for the senior generals.
Ordinary soldiers and officers can also take advantage of this time to relax and relax for a while.
Dinner is even more interesting, usually this is also a customized meal, although it is also Japanese cuisine, but the taste is really very good. And because of the different locations of warships, there will be some specialties.
For example, if the Yamato sailed to the Seto Inland Sea today, you can eat the tender and delicious fish of the Seto Inland Sea today, and Yamamoto Isoroku is particularly fond of the fish of the Seto Inland Sea. In addition, if you don't eat enough at night, for example, Yamaguchi smells that this big stomach king is not full at night, then he will go to the kitchen to ask for some leftovers.
But in fact, this is the supper specially prepared for him by the kitchen, coupled with fish, poached eggs and the like, this kind of meal is really what the Japanese Army dreams of.
If you want to specifically talk about the food gap between the Japanese Navy and the Army, then the Japanese Army's "Jackal Staff Officer" Masanobu Tsuji has definitely experienced it firsthand. During the Battle of Guadalcanal, Masanobu Tsuji traveled to the battleship Yamato to negotiate with Yamamoto Isoroku.
It was said that Yamamoto Wasoroku should take care of Masanobu Tsuji's meal for an officer, but Yamamoto Wasoroku hated Masanobu Tsuji so much that he gave him a soldier's meal. As a result, this meal not only failed to humiliate Masanobu Tsuji, but also moved Masanobu Tsuji to cry bitterly, and even confessed that he should not say bad things about the Navy.
This incident made Yamamoto Isoroku very embarrassed, and only afterwards did he understand that there were sea fish in Tsuji Masanobu's meal, and the army could not eat sea fish, so Tsuji Masanobu was moved to cry bitterly.
epilogue
It can be seen that the comparison between the Japanese Army and the Japanese Navy is simply the gap between beggars and nobles. When the Japanese Army was worried about rations and supplies on the battlefield, the officers and men of the Japanese Navy had enough to eat, not only to eat well, but also to consider whether they ate well or not. With such basic food differences, it is not difficult to understand that the Japanese Army hates the Japanese Navy. But it was useless to hate, because even at the end of the war, the Japanese Navy still had a better life than the Japanese Army.
Reference: Logistic Apocalypse of World War II
Logistical History of the Japanese Army in World War II