- In the Philippines, our grade school years ended in April and the next year began in July. Although the Americans had set up the school system there, this differs from the school break of June-September in America. Originally, that was meant to allow rural students to work on the farms during summer harvest time.
From the air force I remember certain senior NCOs who were much liked and respected. Farewell dinners were given for their retirements or reassignments. They were not necessarily teachers but often acted as good ones, informally. Even, they were like fathers to their men, who were happy to work for them. Although it was more than 25 years ago, I can still remember some of their good advice.
I would like to imagine that the photo's scene had some of this too, if it is a farewell dinner for an IJA instructor going to the front.
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From Katarzyna Cwiertka’s social history of Modern Japanese Cuisine, we saw earlier a 1935 survey of favorite dishes served in the Imperial Japanese Navy. (pages 74-75)
The author also gave this sample of Army dishes, from a few years before that Navy survey. For us, it can be our nearest handy comparison between food in the two services back then. However, it does not tell if any of these dishes were particularly soldiers’ favorites. Even though they look good here.
Menus served in the 14th Cavalry Regiment, IJA, 21-30 March 1933
In the above table, for 25 March, udo is a vegetable shoot eaten in Japan and China.
- Dinners for 23 and 24 March look comparable to the Navy’s beef stew and kare raisu, both as described in the 1935 survey.
Lunch soup for 27 March looks like Satsumajiru.
Ohagi of 21 March are sweet-coated rice balls, Traditionally they are for autumn, rather than springtime as here. But Cwiertka noted that:We may presume that [these] rice cakes were served especially on 21 March to celebrate the Spring Equinox, a national holiday at the time officially labeled Imperial Ancestors' Spring Memorial Day. [page 85n]- Today the Spring Equinox is Shunbun no Hi, and the former Imperial Ancestors' Day was Kōreisai.
Although impossible to know for certain, I imagine they could be the sort of small treat enjoyed by a gun crew in this previous photo. But neither can we tell what the occasion was, if any.
- Did this mean that biscuits were crushed back into flour and remade into noodles? If it worked, it sounds like a good makeshift. But all the other dishes look fine enough for the kitchen not to need makeshift udon.
Similar things are sometimes told about other armies’ food. In the American Expeditionary Force of WW1, there was an oversupply of matzo crackers for holiday meals of observant Jewish soldiers. They were disposed of by crushing them into meat hash for serving to all troops, Jewish or not. (DIckson, Paul. CHOW: A Cook's Tour of Military Food (New American Library, 1978), page 44)
In the next war, very great surplus of US Army D Ration chocolate bars (117.8 million were produced in 1942 alone) was often used for baking cakes and other sweets.
- They seem more likely from a garrison mess, if made with fresh seafood. Surely most field kitchens cannot usually serve dishes this fine, even under good conditions?
Mackerel and squid might even be fresh, since here they are not said to be canned like the salmon.
- Today the Spring Equinox is Shunbun no Hi, and the former Imperial Ancestors' Day was Kōreisai.
Would cavalry have had rolling field kitchens, same as the infantry? (Those kitchens discussed and detailed earlier, thanks to Taki.) No mention yet found whether tank units had them, either. We have seen tank troops eating well in a few previous photos.
- (Apologies for repeating this table, which appeared in the thread a few years ago. But this time it is in context, discussed more closely, and shown more clearly. Also, it was uploaded directly to the Forum instead of an outside photo site.)