日本占領下フィリピン・レイテにおける食糧問題 (一九四二年～一九四四年) -駐留日本軍とレイテ民政側の食糧対策を中心に-

国際政治研究の先端3

抄録

This paper considers how the Japanese forces stationed in Leyte, Philippine and the Filipino civil government in the province conducted a foodstuffs policy during the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1944.
Most of the historians assume that the foodstuffs in the occupied area during the Japanese occupation were procured by means of coercive manner and violent pillage. During the past of several years there can be seen some academic researches regarding the Japanese foodstuffs policy during the wartime in the Philippines. According to the work of Ricardo Jose, the procurement of foodstuffs of the Japanese in the Philippines was carried out in a well-done collaboration with the Filipino civil government and the controlled economy. He also points out some deficient situations of foodstuffs, especially of rice and corn, in the country originated from the colonization period of American regime, which brought about not only a serious plight to the Filipinos but also seriously affected the replenishment system of the Japanese forces. Although his work gives full and excellent explanation to the situation of foodstuffs during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines, it does not go beyond the analysis focusing on the situations in the nation capital, Manila. Therefore, this paper tries to supplement his work by the research regarding the problem of foodstuffs in the provincial area of Philippine, Leyte, during the Japanese occupation.
The policy of foodstuffs during the Japanese occupation was based on the fundamental outline for waging war in the occupied area established before the Pacific War broke out in 1941, of which three principles were formulated. Of those three a self-subsistence for supply of foodstuffs to military forces in the occupied area was very important. Controlled economy was put in force by the Japanese military administration in collaboration with the Filipino civil government assuming complete control of food supply to the Filipinos in order that the Japanese could acquire necessary foodstuffs for its military demand. However, the basic policy of foodstuffs based on the said controlled economy was evolved in different manners in each occupied area in which different social or political environment or condition affected the social system.
In Leyte, which is at more than five hundred kilometers distance from Manila, the controlled economy was not carried out completely for some complicated reasons: a meager agricultural situation; an administrative problem for development and distribution of rice and corn; defective function of National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC) created during the Commonwealth regime before World War 2; and ubiquitous guerrilla societies in the island. These three factors prevented the Japanese military forces from implementing complete economic policy in Leyte.
Leyte was under the Japanese occupation from May 1942 to the end of October 1944 until US forces landed at the seashore of the provincial capital, Tacloban. The occupation in the island lasting just only for two years and six months or so may be divided into two periods; a moderate military occupation under the Nagano Unit and the Omori Unit from May 1942 to October 1943; and a fierce military occupation conducted by the main force of the 16th Division and the 20th Regiment against anti-Japanese guerrilla groups from October 1943 to October 1944. Considering the complicated situation in which the controlled economy could not be carried out, in the former period, both Nagano and Omori Unit groped for an efficient way of procuring foodstuffs not by means of coercive pillage but moderate way, such as like propaganda activities or consideration of plan for cultivation in Ormoc area. In the latter period, Japanese 14th Army decided to concentrate troops of main forces of the 16th Division in Leyte in order to conduct a mopping-up operation against active guerrilla groups, and to prepare for anticipated landing of