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Famine is often not included as a major killer in World War II. A lot of attentiion is gien to the bombing which was a minor killer. Famine throughout history has been a majo killer in wsarfare. Bombing and other military means of killing is an expenice way of jilling, expnsive economically and with manpower. Famine is a very inexpensive way to kill. Civilians can find ways of attemting to avoid bombing and other military action. People in contrast have to eat and eat well and regularly. It is not something that can be avoided. Ehe Germans understood this, in part because of their World War I experience. As a result, NAZI officiaks preparung for war studied how to use food as a weapon even before the War. The result as the NAZI Hungerplan (Hunngr Plan). In World War II there were several deadly famines. This included famines vaused on purose and well as fanines caused out without any planned desire to kill. Famines are the most difficult mortalities to quantify bcause most the deaths occured in rural ares and not recorded statitically. Another fcor id poor nutrition weakned the body's immune system. And the immediate cause of death may have been disease.
Some three hundred thousands Greek adults and children starved as a result of the famine that occcurred during the German occupation (April 1941). This was not planned by the NAZIs in the same way that Jews were starved in the gettoes and concentration camps or that Stalin enginered the Ukranian famine. The Greek famine was the result of the fact that Greece imported food and after the occupation this was no longer possible. The condition was wornsened by German shipments of food to the Reich to support the NAZI war economy. The Germans engineered the famine, but more out of indiference than malovenence. No exact accounting exists of the death toll, but seems to have exceed 0.3 million people.
The Netherlands was one of the countries where the Germans at least at first conducted a 'correct' occupation. Here etnicity was a factor. The Germans wanted to incorporate the Duch people into the Greater Reich. The Germans from the beginning of the occupation (May 1940), however, used the Netherlands as a source of food. Rationing meant that all but the Jews and those in hiding got were allocated enough food to survive which was not the case in the East. As the War went against Germany, rationing got more severe, but was still enough to survive on for most of the Duch people, espcially with a few black mrket purchases anf the help of friends and family in the countryside. After the failure of Market Garden and the onset of the Dutch Railway Strike, the German authorities reetaliated by embargoing food transports to the western Netherlands. The Germans partially lifted thre embargo (early November 1944). They allowed restricted food on water transports--primarily barges. The early onset of a particularly harsh winter disrupted barge traffic. The canals froze over making barge operations impossible. Occupation authorities instituted mneasures which virtuall stopped farmers from delivering food to cities and towns. Coal, gas, and electricity was also cut off. Dutch municipal officials did as best they could. Rations were 1,500 calories in October, but sliced to 900 in November. Further cuts were made. Availability differed from town to town, but in some places had declibned to 230 calories and even that was not always available by April. Municipal kitchens were set up, but little food was available. Old buildings were cut down as well as avaiable trees. The children an elderly especially began to exhibit symtoms of starvation (January 1945). The underground issued pleas, but crossing the Rhine was a huge military obstacle. Children were sent by their parents into the streets to steel food. City dwealers in weakened conditions treaked into the country side attemoting to trade whatever they possesed for food. Some farmers tried to help, but others saw these city people as thieves and looters. Often the food they obtained at great cost was confiscated by German patrols when the treakers tried to return home.
Severe food shortages developed in Bengal after the fall of Burma (1942). Historians debate the cause of the famine. Several factors have been identified. Burma was a major exporter of rice before the War. After the Japamese occupied Burma, this supply of rice was no longer available to India. Estimates suggest that about 15 percent of the Indian food supply was supplied by Burma. As Burma bordered on Bengal, that proportion was even higher in Bengal. The war boom in Calcutta drove up food prices (1942). The poor increasingly found it difficult to buy even their minimal requirements. Then the harvests failed, various historians disagree on the extent of the failure. British military authorities, braceing for a Japanese invasion, seized control of food supplies. And there were exports from India to supply British forces in the Middle East. The relative importance of these various factors is argued by historians. What is more clear is that the response of authorities was inadequate. Local officials appealed to colonial administrators in London for aid. Some food was sent, but the British Government was primarily focused on first the war in Europe and than the Japanese threat from Burma. Some sources claim that some 3 million Indians died in the Bengal famine (1943-44). [Bayly and Haeper] Estimates of the victims vary, but even lower estimates are as high as 1.5 million. The British as part of their justification for colonisl rule claimed that they had eliminated the plague of famine in India. The failure of the Raj to respond effectively futher strengthened the call for independence. The Bengal Famine was the largest single disaster within the British Empire during World War II. Since independence there have been no famines of such dimensions. Some argue that this is due to India's democratic government. This may well have been important. The Green Revolution resulting from American research which substantially increased crop yields has been another factor.
One of the poorest reported attrocity of World War II was the famine in the Japanese controlled Dutch East Indies. The fatalities appear to be a combination of Japanese mismanagement, seizure of food stocks, and lack of concern about the consequences for the local population. Food production and consumption appears to hve been adwquate in the DEI before the Japanese invasion. We know of no overall study for what occurred in the DEI, but sone unformation is available on the main islands (Jva and Sumatra). The availavility of food on Java fell sharply within a year of the arrival of the Japanese. The situation appears to have been especially severe in deensly populsted Java. The primary cause of food shortages were Japanese efforts to regulate the domestic trade of food products, including price controls. The Japanese also imposed a coercive system of purchasing rice for distribution. The impact was a disincentive for farmers to produce rice and other foods. The result was a horific famine. We see estimates during the Japanese occupation from 2.4-4.0 million deaths. [Van der Eng, pp. 35-38 and Dower, pp. 295–96.] No one really knows the precise numbers. The DEI famine is not well covered because the Nationalist collborated with the Japanese and thus bear somne degree of reponsibility for the famine. As a result Indonesian historians find it more convenient simply write the tragedy out of history. Indonesia for much of its history had a coinytrooled press, but even since the the rise of democracy, we see no appetite for addressing this tragedy. Food shortahes persisted after the War, although not as severe as during the Japanese era. We are not sure just why. America food aid prevented famine in many countries after the war. We do not at this time know if American food aid reached Indonesia. The major oroblem appears to be the fighting which broke out between the Dutch and Nationalists. This appears to have adversely affected shipments of food between the food producung rural areas into the food deficient cities. The food supply recovered with the end of the fighting (1948-1950). [Van der Eng]
Japan's decesion to go to war against the United states was motivated by the desire to seize the resources of the Southern Resource Zone (SRZ). Only the American Pacific Fleet could block access to these resources which is why it was targeted in the Japanese carrier attack on Pearl Harbor. The most pressing need was the oil to run the Japanese war machine and war economy. But the SRZ contained many other resoyrces such as food. Southeast Asia includig the Dutch East Indies (DEI) was the rice bowl of Asia. And industrial Japan needed to import food, especially rice, to live. And tragically the Japanese dramatically reduced the output turned the food producing and exporting area. Terrible famines occurred in the Japanese occupied SRZ, even though exports out of the area were ended, creating a famine in neighboring India (Bengal). The famines were particularly probounced in the DEI and Indichina (especially North Vietnam). And even where full blown famines did not occur, here were serious food shirtages. The famines killing millions occurred while Japanese wearhouses bulging with rice and other foods. In the end even the Japanese did not benefit from possession of the SRZ. The U.S. Pacific Fleet, especially the Submarine Service, cut the Japanese Home Islands as well as countless islands garisons off from the food and other supplies available from their conquests. Even before the end of the War, the Americam submarine had destroyed the Japan merchant marine fleet--the marus. The few surviving marus were afraid to come out of the ports. The American submarines took to actually entering Japanese port as well as the largely enclosed Sea of Japan.
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