= The darkside of washoku: How Japan completely swiped rice seed stock from Korea =

— Korean bapsang table in 1900 photograph

Surprise, Koreans started to eat white rice thanks to the Japanese, only starting in the late 1960s?

The myth of washoku has a darkside unabsolved from Meiji and Hirohito Japan repressed legacies. The rice based aspect of the washoku myth was spawned from meticulously premeditated destruction of Korean culture by presenting rice as an integral, unexamined “tradition” of Japanese food, not Korean food.

There are incredulous notions floated in academia that somehow Japan modernized Korea through infrastructure development (left out is the part it was all geared for Japanese resource extraction), so Koreans nowadays are supposed to be thankful (sidestepping how the Korean War destroyed any infrastructure anyhow), the same copied sophistry somtimes flouted by Westerners to cover up their lust for colonial expansion. Two wrongs are supposed to make a right?

— Japanese invasion of ancient Joseon Korea by Hideyoshi in 1592, the start of the Imjinwaeran by attacking Busan Fortress

How Japanese washoku food got to be what it is now completely hides the tainted history tied to human suffering and exploitation. The hinomaru bento is a prime example of such hidden history.

Even Japanese archaeologists have confirmed Japanese did not eat rice as a staple until Meiji Japan, stopping under Hirohito Japan under duress of losing a world war, then resuming again in the late 1960s after America rebuilt Japan recast to exploit its newfound role as a manufacturing and resupply base for the Korean War to completely destroy Korea yet again.

Easily overlooked as another modernization distortion, Korean rice stolen by Japanese then “gifted” back to devastated Korea is rewritten as praiseworthy Japan being so generous making exchanges of mythicized washoku tradition of rice based culture to the benefit of Koreans.

I do not think this Korean-American author of the first article summarized below that appeared in a food website was being callous, just clueless despite uncovering so many historical facts. She likely refered to a standard account history book and believed the first thing she read without awareness such books contained peculiar Japanized “truth” of her Korean heritage.

“Japan had to look closer to home for its rice supply. Luckily, it had just taken over a country lush with agricultural land, natural resources, and a temperate climate ideal for rice production: Korea.”

“Luckily…”? The multiculturalism pervasive in the United States makes such sob stories about Koreans benefiting from Japanese one sided exchanges, such as how starving Koreans “learned” to eat mixed grains because of Meiji Japan, is just contrite. But the feel good multiculturalism slant is what matters more, clouding the sadly ugly history of what really occurred. The colonization part gets ignored conveniently as Koreans enjoying Japanese stewardship.

As a result of Meiji era Japanese having a huge head start specifically publishing in English a flood of false colonial histiography for Korea to justify the colonial takeover (has any other country written the “definitive” history for another couuntry?), Koreans cannot correct their own culture or history. All must be rewritten as practices and traditions invented from outside influences, especially the post-war modern Japanese.

So misuse of multiculturalism that attracts adherents under the guise of celebrating and respecting unique cultures winds up academically being about surreptitiously dismantling targets (ask which side benefits from such repression?), the strong Korean culture being one of the targets to confiscate as copied from Chinese or Japanese to benefit well meaning yet clueless multiculturalists.

Multiculturalism professes diversity as a draw, but when misused, prefers selective sterility to distort or blot out uncomfortable history.

Japanese did not have a rice culture, rice was not a staple until recently. When multiculturally minded Korean-Amercans simply accept history found in books with flashy covers, they do so without knowing Japanophiles are repeating Meiji era Japanese history distortions.

In my previous post, the small research paper proved how Hirohito Japan drove brainwashed starving Japanese losing the Pacific War into the fantasy that they had a rice-centric culture since forever.

Meiji Japan took control of all the rice production, selected varieties from Korean sourced stock to make Korea a colonial breadbasket to requisition rations for the Japanese military while starving the Koreans. Japanese took control of seed production for rice, baechu, all the Korean indigenous crops to control their resource colony to feed Japan. The regional diversity that existed in Korea was all sterilized (along with language, names, religion, folk games and practices, art forms, the burning of books, etc.) to grow mono-culture standardized high yield crops to supply Japanese military rations.

“The Japanese catalogued over 1,400 varieties of rice indigenous to Korea at this time, but by the end of the occupation, virtually none of them would remain.”

Meiji Japan had to turn to Korea for rich genetic diversity to catalog and develop agricultural seed stock. Japan was truly resource poor and had to steal from Korea to also impress European and American onlookers. Everything was materially and culturally stripped away from Korea to impose dependency on Japan.

“This rice was of the akibare japonica variety, introduced by Japan in 1969. South Korean consumers, who now had more capital, chose to buy rice from this area because it was historically served to the king of the Joseon dynasty.”

Ancient Koreans grew rice for their king but did not have any rice to grow until 1969 when Japanese were so kind enough to give back “their” high yield rice stock (previously researched and stolen from Korean rice varieties).

Koreans are then supposed to be multiculturally minded and be thankful to the Japanese (for stealing the regifted rice stock ancient Koreans developed and grew for their king?) and stop making trouble for the post-war reversal turned ally of the United States, unapologetic Japan.

Washoku being centered on rice is a myth, a fabrication of tradition swapped with Korea through blatant theft of select rice stock from Korea then registered as “japonica.”

In the previous research article I posted, the paper described how Japanese tricked themselves into thinking they always ate white rice thanks to the insanity of their war criminal Hirohito.

Displays of washoku oozing with white rice and hinomaru bento boxes are steeped in regrettably shameless history..

(Meiji Japanese invented the “shrimp between two whales” to belittle Korea in the eyes of Americans and British. It is not a Korean proverb, but a Japanese one made up as though Korean.)

Quotes:

• Japan had to look closer to home for its rice supply. Luckily, it had just taken over a country lush with agricultural land, natural resources, and a temperate climate ideal for rice production: Korea.

• The Japanese catalogued over 1,400 varieties of rice indigenous to Korea at this time, but by the end of the occupation, virtually none of them would remain.

• While Japan was able to revolutionize Korean rice production and address their own shortage, they were suddenly unable to feed the colony itself.

• Eventually Japan had to start importing other cereal grains such as millet, corn, and sorghum to feed the Korean population, which was already relying on barley as their main source of grain.

• Through the Campaign to Increase Rice Production, launched in 1920, Japanese land holders instructed their Korean tenant farmers to actively sow these specific varieties of rice, replacing many of the native Korean rice and paddy rice varieties.

• Japanese varieties went from making up 2 to 3 percent of Korea’s rice to 90 percent. Korea quickly became Japan’s breadbasket, increasing its rice production by more than 250 percent, eventually supplying almost 98 percent of Japanese rice imports.

• This is likely when japgok bap (a multi-grain rice mix of glutinous rice, millet, sorghum, black beans, and red beans) came into practice, an economical way to fill out the scarce white rice.

• This rice was of the akibare japonica variety, introduced by Japan in 1969. South Korean consumers, who now had more capital, chose to buy rice from this area because it was historically served to the king of the Joseon dynasty.


The Surprisingly Little-Known History of White Rice in Korea
How Japan had everything to do with the most important ingredient in Korean cuisine today.

Food52
March 13, 2019
https://food52.com/blog/23925-history-o … e-in-korea

My grandmother, born in 1930, was raised in Japanese-occupied Korea. After China and Japan fought for centuries over Korea (“a shrimp between two whales”, as the old Korean proverb goes), Japan emerged the victor in the early 1900s, officially annexing the colony in 1910.

While Japan had by then made great strides in its agricultural and manufacturing development, it was fast losing the means to feed its own population domestically. Japan had already been importing rice, mostly from Southeast Asia. But during World War I, British and French colonial rule restricted Japan’s access to this rice, triggering inflation, economic hardship, and the rice riots (kome sōdō) of 1918.

Japan had to look closer to home for its rice supply. Luckily, it had just taken over a country lush with agricultural land, natural resources, and a temperate climate ideal for rice production: Korea.

Korea was always a largely agricultural country. According to R. Malcom Keir, by the beginning of Japan’s occupation, 75 percent of Korea’s population was engaged in farming, with 94 percent of the arable land devoted specifically to rice fields. The Japanese catalogued over 1,400 varieties of rice indigenous to Korea at this time, but by the end of the occupation, virtually none of them would remain.

Japan was among the first to genetically engineer rice (through hybridization) to be higher yielding, quicker to harvest, and more resistant to disease (and more susceptible to fertilizer). Through the Campaign to Increase Rice Production, launched in 1920, Japanese land holders instructed their Korean tenant farmers to actively sow these specific varieties of rice, replacing many of the native Korean rice and paddy rice varieties. Japanese varieties went from making up 2 to 3 percent of Korea’s rice to 90 percent. Korea quickly became Japan’s breadbasket, increasing its rice production by more than 250 percent, eventually supplying almost 98 percent of Japanese rice imports.

So what did this mean for Korea?

While Japan was able to revolutionize Korean rice production and address their own shortage, they were suddenly unable to feed the colony itself. Eventually Japan had to start importing other cereal grains such as millet, corn, and sorghum to feed the Korean population, which was already relying on barley as their main source of grain. This is likely when japgok bap (a multi-grain rice mix of glutinous rice, millet, sorghum, black beans, and red beans) came into practice, an economical way to fill out the scarce white rice.

Korea’s rice shortage worsened as Japan entered World War II and heavily rationed the colony. Even after the war, post–Japanese occupation, U.S. forces in Korea struggled and failed to rehabilitate food security, creating severe inflation in the cost of rice and spurring a heavy black market for what little was left of it. My grandmother’s family would barter their surplus rice for banchan and vegetables. White rice became an even greater commodity.

Following the devastation of the Korean War, President (and high-key dictator) Park Chung-hee pushed for rice self-sufficiency in Korea, which was now one of the poorest nations in the world. Park also took a page out of the Japanese-occupation book and reimplemented their farming methods, particularly the genetic engineering of higher-yielding rice. Previous iterations were versions of the short-grain japonica rice. But for the first time, during the late 1960s in conjunction with the International Rice Research Institute, South Korean scientists successfully crossed japonica with the long-grain indica rice to develop tongil byeo, immediately dubbed a “miraculous rice seed,”

Tongil rice (which ironically means “reunification”) was higher yielding and more resistant to disease. Coupled with significant government propaganda and incentives, it revolutionized South Korean rice production completely. Unfortunately, the “miraculous” rice wasn’t super popular with consumers, generally disliked for its bland taste in comparison to regular short-grain japonica rice. My dad recalls his mother purchasing this rice only once or twice, at the behest of the government, but never again afterward.

In addition to pushing tongil rice, President Park strived to regulate rice consumption among his people in order to grow the nation’s reserves. “No rice days” were implemented, and citizens were encouraged to eat more flour-based dishes (like ramyun and jjajangmyeon) and mix alternate grains into their white rice. In school, my parents were required to show their lunchboxes to their teachers at lunchtime, and those who did not comply with the mixed-rice initiatives would be punished. Via these measures, South Korea rapidly became self-sufficient in its domestic agricultural needs by 1977, setting the stage for the phenomenal growth of its modern economy since.

As rice supply became a surplus, consumers moved away from the tongil variety and farmers ceased planting it entirely by the early 1990s. Many farmers, particularly in the Gyeonggi Province, had reverted to planting “ordinary rice,” initially for their own consumption and eventually for sale. This rice was of the akibare japonica variety, introduced by Japan in 1969. South Korean consumers, who now had more capital, chose to buy rice from this area because it was historically served to the king of the Joseon dynasty.

This Gyeonggimi (Gyeonggi rice) spread across Korea as the most popular variety of rice. Imgeumnin ssal (“king’s rice”), the first Korean brand of rice, hit the shelves in 1995 (yes, that recent). Thus, the sticky, short-grain Korean rice we know and love today was born.

Today, years after my grandmother has passed, I pop open my own rice cooker, a Zojirushi-brand Japanese model, and fluff the steaming white kernels. Once the meal is done, I look down at my bowl and see a few stragglers, clinging to leftover sauce, and pour a bit of water in.

In complete contrast, the recollections directly and plainly told by this Korean harabugi grandfather makes it very clear what life was like under Hirohito Japan when Korea was systematically stripped of natural, material, human, and food resources to provision militarisitic Japan, especially Korean rice. The truth is completely different from the Japanophile distortions underlying washoku being centered on rice through so much human suffering.

Highlight quotes:

• The good rice produced domestically was requisitioned for military provisions. Korean people received rations of barley, corn and other grains of low quality that came from countries in Southeast Asia that Japan had recently occupied.
• There were many people who died of hunger in those days due to the dire shortage of reserved provisions. When I visited my parents’ home in Seongju during one summer vacation, their meals were watery porridge cooked with rotten corn, some potatoes and lots of vegetables. There was no rice in it.
• In addition, we were forced to donate all metallic objects we had at home to replenish their serious material shortage in making ammunition.
• Consequently, before long, every Korean household was practically stripped of the age-old, traditional brass tableware and other metallic utensils that were put into blast furnaces to make munitions. Also, when I was in elementary school, we were often summoned to pick up scrap metal in the street or go to the mountains to collect resin from pine trees.

Disgrace, oppression and hunger
Korea Times
Apr 12. 2021
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinon … 87.html?fl

By Yi Woo-won

Korea was annexed by imperial Japan in August 1910, professedly by a treaty which was just a cover for Japanese political machinations and armed intimidation. Next, the Korean king was forced to abdicate and the Korean Empire was totally abolished in the same month, causing the 518-year history of the Joseon Kingdom to come to an end. Japan virtually obliterated Korea as a nation.

The humiliating incident in history took place during the reign of Japanese Emperor Hirohito who acceded to the throne in 1926 at the age of 25. Japan’s colonial rule continued for the next 35 years.

Japan’s aggressive military expansionism proceeded in the initial years of Hirohito’s empire, starting with the invasion of China in the 1930s followed by incursions into other parts of Asia. I still remember vividly two political slogans that the Japanese chanted, carrying placards saying: “Naisenittai” (Koreans and Japanese are one flesh) and “Taitowa kyoeiken” (Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity). Japan attempted to assimilate Koreans into the Japanese Empire to reinforce its military might.

Furthermore, Japan’s misjudgment eventually instigated it to launch a surprise attack by “kamikaze” (divine wind) fighter bombers on the U.S. 7th fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941. The sneaky, unprovoked assault, which destroyed many battleships and airplanes with heavy casualties, brought the U.S. into World War II, declaring war on Japan

The war in the Pacific was one of the toughest and bloodiest wars in history. But after four years of conflict, a turning point finally came for American forces. American bombers dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, and Japan realized it could not win the war. Again, Emperor Hirohito was the one who stopped the war by telling his loyal subjects of Japan’s surrender over the radio on Aug. 15, 1945. Auspiciously, Korea was liberated at last from Japanese colonial rule.

On that day of the historic surrender announcement by the emperor, I was 15 and attending middle school. If I had been just a few years older, I would have been drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army, fighting somewhere in the Pacific ― possibly my fateful journey of no return. I can still picture graphically the image of myself at that time, wearing a laundry-worn, faded green school uniform, a combat cap and knee-girdles like a little soldier, but looking pale and thin from malnutrition. Since the news came out of the blue, I was unsure whether I should be happy or unhappy.

Technically, I was a Japanese citizen, because my name had been changed into a Japanese one and we recited the “Oath of Imperial Subjects” in schools or offices each morning, pledging to be loyal to the emperor. Also, we had to attend a Japanese Shinto shrine every morning, rain or shine, to worship Shinto Kami (deity) and pray for divine support to win the war. Besides, teaching or publishing anything in Korean and about Korea was strictly prohibited by law.

What surprised me most of all was the realization that the emperor wasn’t a living god as we had been taught at school. He was just another human being like any one of us. He was rather a fainthearted and cowardly old man when I heard his voice surrendering on the radio.

When I heard that the war was over, I was glad, above all else, that I didn’t have to go to work at the military construction site near the airfield. I had to get up at five each morning to catch the smelly cargo-train that took us near the site. I took with me two rice-balls spiced only with salt for breakfast and a shovel or pick to work with. Lunch was provided there for us, but it was not rice. It was reddish grain of some sort I had never eaten before; worse still, it tasted rotten or moldy. But I was just too hungry to mind the quality of the food. I only wished they would give me enough to eat.

The good rice produced domestically was requisitioned for military provisions. Korean people received rations of barley, corn and other grains of low quality that came from countries in Southeast Asia that Japan had recently occupied. There were many people who died of hunger in those days due to the dire shortage of reserved provisions. When I visited my parents’ home in Seongju during one summer vacation, their meals were watery porridge cooked with rotten corn, some potatoes and lots of vegetables. There was no rice in it.

In addition, we were forced to donate all metallic objects we had at home to replenish their serious material shortage in making ammunition. Consequently, before long, every Korean household was practically stripped of the age-old, traditional brass tableware and other metallic utensils that were put into blast furnaces to make munitions. Also, when I was in elementary school, we were often summoned to pick up scrap metal in the street or go to the mountains to collect resin from pine trees.

Apart from material contributions, Japan demanded physical labor from Koreans. It was estimated that about 2 million Koreans were engaged in forced labor in Korea, Japan and abroad between 1939 and 1945, working in subhuman conditions in mines and munitions factories. Most atrociously, they rounded up hundreds of thousands of Korean women, some as young as 13 or 14 in elementary schools, to recruit them for the “teishintai” corps for sex-slavery to heighten the fighting spirit for their savage, unwarrantable war ― a war that was of no significance whatsoever for Korea or the Korean people.

The author lives in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang Province.

Koreans were remarkable for how much variety of food they were able to eat in massive meals which astonished Western travelers describing Joseon Korea. Later, Japanese systematically swapped and traded places to turn the Korean diet into the Japanese sub-subsistence diet that was long the Japanese cultural norm before Meiji Japan.

For Centuries, Massive Meals Amazed Visitors to Korea
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-korean-food

— Massive Korean meals, photograph made into astonishing European postcard