@article{oai:nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp:00029472, author = {河西, 英通 and KAWANISHI, Hidemichi}, journal = {JunCture : 超域的日本文化研究}, month = {Mar}, note = {The 1930s was a decade of disasters for Tōhoku. Black-and-white photographs of children eating millet and chewing on raw daikon during the 1934 famine in particular became iconic symbols of the region’s plight. However, children gnawing raw daikon and eating millet was by no means limited to 1930s Tōhoku. Therefore, the issue is the problem of representation by the media, intelligentsia, and culturati and of reception of these images by the public. The fate of millet in particular in the 1930s deserves attention, as it was transformed from a “poor man’s” emergency fallback to a critical food resource by the end of the decade. The famine of 1934 was instead the result of failures to address long-term contradictions in the supply, demand, and pricing of rice. The famine (kyōsaku) was a result of imperialist bad policy (kyōsaku). These rice-related tragedies provided impetus for increased interest in millet. This was less a response to the Northeastern famines of several years earlier, and more the result of Japan’s shift to a total war footing. The release of an 18-volume series Hie (Millet) in 1939 is emblematic of this growing attention. However, the Pacific War brought this to a screeching halt; rice-centered wartime food policies pushed millet from the ranks of Japan’s staples. In short, the poor Tōhoku rice harvest and accompanying famine in 1934 did not result in a transformation of national food policy. Instead, it was treated as a local phenomenon of a backward region. This dark tragedy stood in stark contrast to the bright, hopeful image of Manchuria and Southeast Asia as Japan’s new “rice basket.” Ultimately, even when Japan was driven from its colonies after 1945, the 1934 Tōhoku famine remained unexamined and the region “backward” as the new postwar era began.}, pages = {20--29}, title = {昭和初期の「東北飢饉」をどうとらえるか}, volume = {11}, year = {2020} }