I'd appreciate it if you could help me
After World War II, the U.S. had a huge surplus of grain, resulting in a serious food shortage. During the war, large quantities of grain were produced to feed soldiers and sent to the front lines overseas, but when the war ended, there was nowhere for the overproduced grain to go. In 1954, the U.S. government enacted the "Surplus Produce Disposal Act. The purpose was to process the large amount of agricultural products that could no longer be processed in the U.S. and to expand the import market for U.S. agricultural products.
As a result, grain was sold off to foreign countries in the name of alleviating hunger in postwar Europe and Asia. The price for the grain was a long-term, low-interest loan that could be paid back over time on favorable terms. Reasons for selling off the grain cheaply overseas included strengthening allies in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and interfering in politics by providing food aid to developing countries and others. Both conditions included Japan.
Japan, which was in the middle of its postwar reconstruction and had food shortages, also imported wheat from the U.S. on low-interest loans. Of course, this was on the premise that the U.S. would conduct a project designed to increase Japan's wheat consumption. Nutritional guidance vehicles, called "kitchen cars," toured the country to promote wheat-based cooking among housewives under the guise of a "nutritional improvement campaign through powdered food. The cars were equipped with kitchen facilities, and instructors would board and give cooking demonstrations.
It is hard to believe now, but at that time, Professor Wheat of Keio University advocated the theory that "eating rice makes you stupid," which influenced many people. The fact that we lost the war to wheat-eating America and the West was another reason to oppose eating rice. Bread became the mainstay of school lunches. The goal was to familiarize Japanese children with wheat and encourage them to consume it throughout their lives. Many other efforts were made to promote wheat products, including newspaper advertisements, television and radio appearances, participation in industry fairs, and a golf tournament called the "American Wheat Cup.
The U.S. strategy succeeded and Japan is now a major importer of wheat. And the wheat importation and flour diet case movements of the time are blamed for the collapse of the Japanese diet. However, Japan was in the middle of postwar reconstruction, and many people were undernourished, unable to escape food shortages. It is also true that wheat imports were quite beneficial to Japan at the time.
