BACK FROM JAPAN

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3264, 17 May 1943, Page 3

BACK FROM JAPAN

REPORTER FROM TOKYO PARALLEL IN SHORTAGES RATIONING FOR THE JAPANESE Max Hill, who wrote the following article, was chief of the Associated Press Bureau in Tokyo when the war broke out in December, 1941. He was imprisoned by the Japanese until released in June to return to the United States with other Americans. Shortages in America —and the programme of rationing which is developing day after day—are showing an uncanny parallel to what I watched happen in Japan before war was declared, and from a prison for the first six months of the conflict. But there is this essential difference: We will never know rationing in the severe forms they have it; nor is it likely we ever will face the shortages they have been struggling to overcome for many years.

The parallel is there only in the trend.

I watched Japan change from an industrial nation to one geared for total war, and .each day the pinch of feeding, clothing and equipping the military machine left less for the home front.

. The housewife in Japan not only knows what it is to have every product she uses rationed, but she ‘has become accustomed to stand for hours in line to buy the little her ticket permits. Sugar Contrast

Long before the war, skimpy packages of sugar were given each family in Japan once a month. We ration sugar, but what we receive would be an abundance to a Tokyo housewife, and more than she ever was able to purchase, anyhow. She buys her rice or bread by ticket, too, and she is not permitted to buy both. The rice is mixed with barley. The K bread is gray . and doughy. We haven’t yet rationed bread, but we are eliminating the frills, such as slicing, which takes labour more valuable in other fields. It’s a gala day in a Japanese household when a housewife can buy a piece of meat, good or bad, without boing to the “black market” and paying more than she can afford. I had a guard in the prison tell me he hadn’t been able to buy meat for a month. And if you get a piece of pork, it probably would taste , more like fish than meat. They feed the hogs on fish. So you are cold in your 68 or 70degree house and home? In Japan, the year before the war heat was not permitted in any public building until January, and last year not until the eiyl of January. I spent four winter months in a cell, without any heat. War, Not Comfort It isn’t so much that the Japanese haven’t coal, but it must be shipped, either by boat or rail —and the Japanese would rather have the home front cold than tie up their limited transportation facilities with anything other than military necessities. They think in terms of war, not comfort.

If a Japanese uses more than the limited amount of electricity and cooking as allotted him, an agent shuts off the supply. Here we see public utility companies advertising in newspapers asking people not to waste gas and electricity because, of war 1 production requirements. Railways in the United States ask people not to travel unless the trip is necessary. In Japan is it almost impossible for a civilian to travel unless he has a permit from the Government showing that the trip is essential, and it requires a’special pass to get on the station platforms in Tokyo. In Japan there is no gasoline for private use. A Japanese is not permitted to buy a car. Even the Army officers while on duty in Tokyo ride in charcoal-burning automobiles. One Ticket One Suit All clothing in Japan is on a ticket system. You can’t just go in and buy a suit. Even if you are able to get one at a cost of 106 to 150' yen it won’t be all wool and cotton. It will contain 20 per cent; staple fibre. We haven’t got around to a national uniform yet, but we are slashing the fancy stuff for both' men and women in a way which leads me to •believe the trend may go even further. Even shoes are considered a luxury in Japan and. the only leather used for shoes for the public is whaleskin. The soles are of some sort of paper competition which virtually melts the first time you walk out in a . rainstorm. But don’t be too encouraged by my story of hardships in Japan. They are fighting a total war. against us

and little things like the ones I have related don’t really count. I just want to show you, if I can, that rationing or not we have an easy and pleasant' time of it in America. The next time someone frets about rationing tell him to talk to a person just back from Japan.