Looking for info on rations

[Nick Komiya]

With so many books out there, there is no sense in me reinventing the wheel, so I'll just give you a few pieces of information about how things got reduced on paper towards the end of the war.

An army memo of 6th May 1944 states the standard daily portion of rice as 540 grams, and a later memo dated 17th April 1945 states that as 570 grams for officers and NCOs in combat and training, and 420 grams for those in less arduous roles.

There is actually tons of material in the archives about development of special vitamin loaded "power bars" to bolster one's immune system against malaria and other tropical problems (they were really busy with rations development in 1944).

The compressed rations were launched in 1933 and were supposed to have a shelf life of 5 years, but a thick 1938 test report points out problems such as oxidization of fat content in cereals and offers solutions to extend validity.

Also in April 1943 when supply routes became unreliable, the army and navy made an agreement to feed each other when one arm got cut off from supply. They were supposed to do this without keeping tabs on each other about how much the army owed the navy and visa versa.

[1942Arisaka]

Thank you for taking the time to look into it, Nick! I'll peruse through the archives whenever I get the chance. If my first resource is correct, it seems the ration of rice was nearly half by the end of the war.