Food ration during the Japanese Occupation(1942-1945)

Food ration during the Japanese Occupation(1942-1945)

During the Japanese occupation, the people in Singapore faced severe food shortages.This was because Singapore's entrepot trade was disrupted and all available resources were used to support Japan's war efforts in other parts of Asia. Rationing was introduced to control the sales of essential items like rice, sugar and salt.Each household was issued with a 'Peace Living Certificate' which entitled them to a number of ration cards to purchase essential goods. Once a month, people would line up at the kumiai shop (distribution association) for hours to purchase whatever rations that were available. This picture on the right hand side is an example of the Ration card and that is how it looks like. During that time, it affects my life a lot because we do not have a freedom to like buy them freely rather than using the Malaya Ration Card. It is such a troublesome as you have to get down and line up for queue that will took me a long time to finally get my foods.

Adapted from Singapore: From settlement to nation, pre-1819 to 19719 (Date accessed: 14/02/2013 )