Military fans who know something about Japan's military history know that Navy meals are more delicious than the Army. I can see many examples from various sources, and I have mentioned in my previous tweets that Army officers hate the luxury of the Navy in their hearts, but their bodies are very honest in admitting that the Navy food is really delicious!
Why are Navy meals more sumptuous than Army meals? Che tried to find several reasons.
First, the Navy has a special cook, that is, a planner.
In contrast to the old Japanese Navy, where there were chief planners specializing in cooking operations who needed special training to "take up their posts," the Army adopted a rotational system in which (group) soldiers were turned to cook. The army's newly recruited conscripts and volunteers in various places are assigned to local troops, such as new recruits in Osaka. Recruits enter the army and immediately receive basic training, the first requirement of military life is collective life, folding quilts, cleaning, laundry are essential, and cooking is added.
▲ Army soldiers cook on the front line, and every Army soldier has to play the role of a guest husband almost every once in a while.
When army soldiers went to the front, they had to take care of their own meals three times a day, and sometimes they had to raise their own food. For this reason, the 20-year-old boy who had just become a soldier yesterday had to cook according to the order on the day of enlistment. In pre-war Japanese society, cooking was a woman's vocation, and men were usually not allowed to enter the kitchen. Don't talk about cooking rice and cooking, most soldiers are afraid that they have not even touched a kitchen knife. Although there is a corporal to guide, there is still no expectation for the skills of the recruits, if anyone makes a delicious meal, it must be a miracle!
Whether in the rear or on the front line, the Army's cooking operations are rotated, in other words, a soldier will play the role of cook every once in a while.
Looking at the Navy, whether it is a ship at sea or a troop on land, there is a special cooking department, which is prepared by a professionally trained master, that is to say, the Navy's cooker is served by a special person, unlike the Army, everyone takes turns to cook, which is the advantage of professionalism over amateurs.
The cooking departments of naval ships and shore troops vary according to the number of troops, taking the battleship Yamato as an example, there are 52 chief planners in the ship's galley, divided into four squads, each shift of about 13 people, using four shifts, that is to say, to cook for the 2300 officers and men of the "Yamato", these chief planners should be busy from morning to night. If the cooking staff is assigned according to the army's rotation system, it is 2300÷52≈44, which means that after a sailor's cooking operation, the next rotation will be about a month and a half later.
In fact, the Japanese Army also attaches great importance to food, and there is a department called the "Grain Factory" that specializes in the study of soldiers' food, and even wrote a diet textbook of the "Army Conditioning Law" before the Navy and distributed it to all units, and even revised it several times. Textbooks are rich and informative, but not many soldiers read and apply them to practice, and soldiers are more interested in learning to shoot than how to cook.
Second, the Navy is more willing to introduce Western food than the Army
In modern times, the Japanese army and navy have been gradually established by learning from the West, but the degree of westernization of the navy compared to the army is particularly evident in terms of diet. Since Japan opened its doors, in order to enrich the country and strengthen the army, the army and navy have worked hard to learn from the developed countries in the West, and in addition to learning to introduce military technology, even eating habits are also being learned. However, the Navy almost completely accepted the Western diet, while the Army only introduced a small amount of Western food, more inclined to maintain Japanese food, which can be seen from the Army and Navy cuisine textbooks can be seen in the difference: the Army textbook in the Foreign food only a few varieties of fried meat cakes, pork chops and so on, while the Navy's Chinese and Western food is much more important, such as hamburgers, grilled lobsters, cabbage meat rolls, curry rice and so on.
▲ Croquettes, also known as "cola cakes", is a dish learned by the Japanese Navy from France.
An important reason for the deep westernization of the Diet of the Japanese Navy was the spread of beriberi in the Japanese Navy during the Meiji period. From the Edo period onwards, beriberi was prevalent in Japan, and no one knew what the cause was at the time, but in the Meiji era, beriberi was even more severe, especially among urban residents. The Japanese Navy was also the hardest hit by beriberi, so much so that it caused a lot of attrition during navigation, such as the warship "Ryūjō" in 1882, when the warship "Ryūjō" sailed for a long voyage, and 180 of the 280 people on board suffered from beriberi, killing 25 people. Due to the shortage of manpower, Captain Ito Yuho Daisaku (the future commander of the first combined fleet) also had to personally go down to the boiler cabin to refuel the boiler, which showed the bad situation.
▲ During an ocean voyage, more than half of the crew of the Meiji period suffered from beriberi.
In contrast, in Europe and the United States, it is almost impossible to see the occurrence of beriberi. After careful observation and research, the Japanese Navy believes that the diet structure of Europeans and Americans has played an effect in preventing beriberi, so barley is mixed with white rice, a staple food, and the side food has also changed to Westernization.
In addition, the navy is an international service, with more contacts with foreign countries, in order to promote cultural, technological and other exchanges with developed countries in Europe and the United States, the navy often holds receptions, invite foreign officers and other important personnel to participate. The reception is naturally full of food and wine, and it is aimed at foreigners, and the food provided cannot be Japanese dishes such as grilled fish and miso soup, but a Western-style full meal that begins with a soup dish and ends with dessert.
▲ The old Japanese Navy introduced Western food at diplomatic banquets that met the tastes of European and American dignitaries.
Since it is a diplomatic occasion, it is associated with the image of the country, and it cannot be damaged by negligence in the dishes. To this end, the Navy's chief planning officers are trained in special training, including Western food cooking, eating habits, various table manners, and dining details. Therefore, there are many masters in the Japanese Navy who are proficient in Western cuisine.
Third, the military service system of the Japanese army and navy is different.
Regardless of the army or navy, the source of troops is divided into two types: conscription and volunteers. The period of conscription service in the Army is two years, and the situation of volunteers is somewhat special, and they can continue to serve in the case of approval of the application, and usually, the service period is also two years. They were then converted to reserves, and in the event of an emergency such as war, these reservists were recalled to the army.
The conscription service period of the Navy is three years, and the volunteer service period is five years, which is longer than the Army service, and the volunteers can continue to be promoted to a professional soldier by application after completing the five years of service. Each year, the Navy recruits (conscripts and volunteers) who are sent to each naval regiment for several months of basic training. Unlike the Army, the main job of the Navy is to manipulate machinery, which is more technical and requires certain knowledge and skills, so training in the Navy Corps before boarding the ship is extremely necessary.
▲ The front door of the Wu Naval Regiment, where qualified soldiers are sent to the Navy.
Naval life is also centered on collective life, soldiers in the first half of the naval corps training regardless of specialty, mainly basic training, such as hammock training, short boat training, etc., after two months, the second half of professional training began. When enlisting, each soldier will choose the future class of service according to the service volunteer, such as the military section, the organ section, the main comptroller section, etc., and when special training, they will learn the knowledge and skills required by each section. Cooking is included in the professional training of recruits in the comptroller's section. After two months of professional training, the chief recruit went from being a thorough layman to a skilled player.
▲The image of the Japanese Navy's chief planner, the left side is the senior planner, and the right side is the newly hired recruits.
In short, Army soldiers served only two years in peacetime before moving into the reserve. Assuming that you cook once every two months and have only 12 opportunities to cook during your two years of service, it is difficult to expect any progress in your cooking skills. In contrast to the Navy, volunteers served at least 5 years, conscripts also had 3 years, and the planners had been engaged in cooking during their service. Seeing this, the Army and Navy who made the meals more delicious need not be repeated.
I suddenly wanted to eat curry rice from the Japanese Navy again, about?