On the left, government statistics and later recalculations. On the right, quantities counted by individuals (107 of them), written in diaries, magazine articles and the prefaces of books. The same events, seen through two rulers of different magnitude.
All figures follow the wording of their source. The original Chinese numerals and shakkanhō units are kept in the "item" column.
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945-03-05 | Tamura Tsunejirō | The rationed rice came to 1 gō 8 shaku a day | 1.8 | gō/day | Tamura Tsunejirō, Shinsan [Bitter Hardship], Minerva Shobō, 1980 The record for this day |
| 1946 | Preface to Kōtō Sūgaku Nyūmon [Introduction to Higher Mathematics] | A harvest of 60 million koku of rice was near certain, and a ration of 2 gō 5 shaku was expected | 2.5 | gō/day | Ōkōchi Osamu, Kōtō Sūgaku Nyūmon [Introduction to Higher Mathematics], Corona, 1946 |
| 1945-01-19 | Hamada Akiko (20, teacher) | Ate seven bowls of white rice with anglerfish hotpot | 7 | servings | Hamada Akiko, Sokai Kyōshi Hatachi no Nikki [Diary of an Evacuated Teacher, Aged 20], Ōmura Shoten, 1994 The record for this day |
| 1908-09-08 | Takahama Kyoshi | Three bowls at breakfast, three at lunch, four at dinner — ten bowls of rice in a day | 10 | servings/day | Takahama Kyoshi, Kikōbun, Haibun [Travel Writing and Haiku Prose], Kaizōsha, 1937 The record for this day |
| 1945-06-22 | Yoshihara Sachiko (evacuated schoolchild) | Finished five large rice balls | 5 | items | Toshima no Shūdan Gakudō Sokai Shiryōshū [Materials on the Group Evacuation of Schoolchildren from Toshima], vol. 3, 1992 The record for this day |
| 1945-08-16 | Innami Hirokichi | Received twelve eggs, 3 kanme of potatoes and 3 shō of crushed barley | 12 | items | Jinsei Mandara: Shomin no Nikkishū [Life Mandala: Diaries of Ordinary People], 1975 The record for this day |
| 1904-09-06 | Kano Yoshihiro (on campaign) | Cooked rice at a ratio of half white rice, half millet | 50 | % | Kano Yoshihiro, Nichiro Sensō o Kaku Tatakaeri [This Is How We Fought the Russo-Japanese War], 1937 The record for this day |
The ration standard was 2 gō 3 shaku. What Tamura Tsunejirō in Kyoto actually received was 1 gō 8 shaku, and the preface to a 1946 mathematics book writes of a 2 gō 5 shaku ration as something "expected". Meanwhile, in 1908, Takahama Kyoshi was eating ten bowls of rice a day at a hot-spring inn.
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930-11-22 | Imanishi Yanosuke | A can of pineapple and 1 shō of white rice cost the same, 26 sen | 0.26 | yen | Kutō suru Ningenzō: Suiheisha Dōjin no Nikki [Figures in Struggle: Diaries of Suiheisha Members], 1973 The record for this day |
| 1945-03-05 | Tamura Tsunejirō | One daikon, one yen | 1 | yen | Tamura Tsunejirō, Shinsan [Bitter Hardship], 1980 The record for this day |
| 1946 | Rōdō Kumiaihō no Kaisetsu [A Commentary on the Labour Union Law] | Raised to 1 yen 50 sen a copy because printing wages had soared | 1.5 | yen | Kikuchi Isao, Rōdō Kumiaihō no Kaisetsu [A Commentary on the Labour Union Law], Nihon Sangyō Kyōgikai Shuppanbu, 1946 |
| 1946 | The author of an exam study guide | Student living costs run to 500 yen a month | 500 | yen | Haginoya Akira, Kōtō Senmon Daigaku Yoka Juken no Shin Shidō [New Guidance for Higher Technical and University Preparatory Entrance Exams], Jiyū Kenkyūsha, 1946 |
| 1948-01-30 | Suzuki Tsumoru (student) | Spent 20 yen on potatoes, 10 yen on tobacco, 7 yen on books | 37 | yen | Suzuki Tsumoru, Kūfuku Nikkishō [Selections from a Hunger Diary], 1994 The record for this day |
| 1955-09-14 | Mugenkin | While everyone else had a 200-yen dinner, made a dinner of 13 yen's worth of milk | 13 | yen | Mugenkin, ed., Fūju no Nageki [The Lament of the Wind in the Trees], 1985 The record for this day |
| 1966-09-17 | Kogure Waichi | His daughter's flat: 10,000 yen a month in rent, 35,000 yen in key money, 10,000 yen in agent's fee | 35000 | yen | Kogure Waichi, Waga Jinsei wa Kawara no Ishikoro [My Life Is a Pebble on the Riverbed], 1989 The record for this day |
In 1930, 1 shō of white rice and one can of pineapple both cost 26 sen. By March 1945 a single daikon cost 1 yen. These will not line up on one ruler, so all you can do is look at what each thing cost the same as.
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945-04 | Sokuratesu [Socrates] (Sakurai Shoten) | Six thousand copies were caught in the bombing at the bindery, and the reprint burned as well | 6000 | copies | A. E. Taylor, trans. Hayashi Takeji, Sokuratesu [Socrates], Sakurai Shoten, 1946 |
| 1945 | Meijigawa [The Meiji River] (Fujitani Sūbunkan) | The publishing association approved five thousand copies, but they burned along with the stereotype plates | 5000 | copies | Kishi Tetsuo, Meijigawa [The Meiji River], Fujitani Sūbunkan, 1946 |
| 1945 | Tsuchiya Bunmei, Araragi | Printer and publisher burned down four times over | 4 | times | Araragi NDL |
| 1945 | Tsuchiya Bunmei, Araragi | With Seijisha's help, printed a report issue of about eight pages | 8 | pages | Araragi NDL |
| 1946 | Nihon Rikkōkai | Printing costs have reached more than ten times what they were before the war | 10 | times | Nihon Rikkōkai Sōritsu Gojūnenshi [Fifty Years of the Nihon Rikkōkai], 1946 |
| 1938-1942 | Paper controls on newspapers and magazines | Controls began in July 1938; by the end of 1942, down 40% | 40 | % down | From the piece 〈The People Who Wanted to Keep Publishing Magazines Even in Wartime〉 |
| 1946 | Keisho no Seiritsu [The Formation of the Confucian Classics] (Zenkoku Shobō) | A manuscript of more than five hundred sheets on the institute's 200-character paper | 500 | sheets | Hiraoka Takeo, Keisho no Seiritsu [The Formation of the Confucian Classics], Zenkoku Shobō, 1946 |
Inside that figure of a quarter of the national wealth, 6,000 copies burned twice, an approval for 5,000 copies vanished along with the stereotype plates, and one tanka magazine's printer burned down four times running.
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Kume Makoto, Ejison Monogatari [The Story of Edison] | "A defeated Japan that must feed eighty million people packed together" | 80000000 | people | Kume Makoto, Ejison Monogatari [The Story of Edison], Hoshi Shobō, 1946 Read the preface |
| 1946 | Konno Eikichi, Sanchi Nōsaku to Zōrin [Mountain Farming and Afforestation] | Forest halved to about a million chōbu, while the population, at seventy or eighty million, is about twice what it was at the time of the wars with China and Russia | 2 | times | Konno Eikichi, Sanchi Nōsaku to Zōrin [Mountain Farming and Afforestation], Kasumigaseki Shobō, 1946 |
| 1946 | Honda Seiroku, Kokubō no Shokuseikatsu [Eating Through Want] | The territory has gone back to its area of seventy years ago, and the population is a little over twice what it was then | 2 | times + | Honda Seiroku, Kokubō no Shokuseikatsu [Eating Through Want], Ōbunsha, 1946 |
| 1946 | Takachiho Nobumaro (peer and entomologist) | "Looking back over my eighty-odd years of life" | 80 | years old | Takachiho Nobumaro, Ōrei Senwa [Tales from Warbler Ridge], 1946 Read the preface |
Books of the time write the population as "eighty million". The territory is back to "its area of seventy years ago", and the population is "a little over twice" what it was then. The ratio between those two figures was the shape of the fear at the time.
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Former Japanese soldiers from Gifu | Seventeen of them in all toured the old battlefields in China over eight days | 17 | people | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 (the quoted source is not public) |
| 1991 | Former Japanese soldiers from Gifu | Proposed handing out a shō or two of sake to the village where they had been stationed | 1-2 | shō | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| 1991 | Former Japanese soldiers from Gifu | Gave the Chinese guide 10,000 yen as a tip | 10000 | yen | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| 1945-08 | Ozaki Yukio | At 86, submitted a written opinion titled Bunka to Sensō wa Ryōritsu Shiezaru Mono [Culture and War Cannot Coexist] | 86 | years old | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| present | Japanese memorial tours | More than four hundred memorial monuments in the Philippines alone | 400 | monuments | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| present | Germany | More than a hundred thousand stumbling stones (Stolpersteine) | 100000 | items | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
6.24 million came home, and decades later some of them went back to the battlefield, seventeen of them, and handed out a shō or two of sake. When the macro figure returns to individuals, this is the size it comes back at.
One row = one figure. Sources are the bibliographic details and URLs in the National Diet Library Digital Collections.
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1849-12-03 | Koume, wife of Kawai Baisho | Ate three slices of beef and got a stomach ache | 3 | slices | That same night, a shō of sake was sent for | Nagayama Hisao, Sake Zatsugaku Hyakka [An Encyclopedia of Sake Trivia], Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 1983 The record for this day |
| 1849-12-03 | Kawai Baisho | Sent for a shō of sake at night and drank it with beef | 1 | shō | A neighbourhood gathering | Nagayama Hisao, Sake Zatsugaku Hyakka [An Encyclopedia of Sake Trivia], Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 1983 The record for this day |
| 1889-06-18 | Fujikura Yahei | Drank 5 gō of sake in bed in the morning | 5 | gō | A drink before getting up | Kinshu Zasshi [The Temperance Magazine] 1(4), May 1890 The record for this day |
| 1889-06-18 | Fujikura Yahei | Is not satisfied unless he drinks 3 shō 5 gō every day | 3.5 | shō/day | His family were at their wits' end. Later a creature came out of his mouth and he could not drink a drop | Kinshu Zasshi [The Temperance Magazine] 1(4), May 1890 The record for this day |
| 1904-09-06 | Kano Yoshihiro (on campaign) | Cooked rice at a ratio of half white rice, half millet | 50 | % | A billet in the Russo-Japanese War. Ate his fill for the first time in a while | Kano Yoshihiro, Nichiro Sensō o Kaku Tatakaeri [This Is How We Fought the Russo-Japanese War], 1937 The record for this day |
| 1908-09-08 | Takahama Kyoshi | Three bowls at breakfast, three at lunch, four at dinner — ten bowls of rice in a day | 10 | servings/day | While staying at a hot-spring inn | Takahama Kyoshi, Kikōbun, Haibun [Travel Writing and Haiku Prose], Kaizōsha, 1937 The record for this day |
| 1911-07-07 | Okamoto Sakura | Okamoto, who could not hold his drink, had two glasses of beer | 2 | servings | A toast to the opening of Chiyoda Gas. A man who went red from a single pickle | Gasu no Sekai [The World of Gas] 7(3), March 1937 The record for this day |
| 1912-01-03 | Sakakiya Senjirō | Ate twelve rice cakes dipped in soy sauce at the Horiuchi house | 12 | items | Stayed on for dinner and spent the night | Sakakiya Senjirō Nikki [The Diary of Sakakiya Senjirō], 1969 The record for this day |
| 1916-11-19 | Shigeno Yoshinosuke | Before giving up drink: a glass of wine at noon, a bottle of beer at night | 1+1 | glasses/bottles | Gave up drink after coughing blood. On the fifth day he records feeling well | Shigeno Yoshinosuke, 1957 The record for this day |
| 1923-02-03 | Mabashi Iwazō | Ordered two duck noodle dishes from Sakamotoya; a senior colleague ate one of them | 2 | servings | Duck noodles were 8 sen a bowl | Mabashi Nikki: Taishōki no Seinen Nikki [The Mabashi Diary: A Young Man's Diary of the Taishō Era], 1981 The record for this day |
| 1936-11-06 | Taneda Santōka | Fourth day without sake | 4 | days | Sake arrived in the evening and he drank it with two visitors | Taneda Santōka, Gochū Nikki 5 [Diary from Within, 5], Shun'yōdō Shoten, 1980 The record for this day |
| 1937-12-16 | Ōsaki Soichi | A night's silver-stripe round herring fishing came to a share of about 1 shō | 1 | shō | Came back with his brother and slept in | Kagoshima Mingu [Folk Implements of Kagoshima] (9), October 1990 The record for this day |
| 1938-08-23 | Chihara Teruichi | Bought his junior Nose ten bottles of beer | 10 | bottles | The ship's canteen. The same age as his younger brother | Chihara Teruichi, Shibaguri [Wild Chestnuts], 1940 The record for this day |
| 1943-04-02 | Tezuka Riyata (dormitory of the old Matsumoto Higher School) | Laid on three hundred torinoko rice cakes for the whole-dormitory party | 300 | items | Could not lay on manjū, bread or Western cakes | Kyūsei Matsumoto Kōkō Seishunki [Youth at the Old Matsumoto Higher School], Kyōdo Shuppan, 1978 The record for this day |
| 1943-04-02 | Tezuka Riyata (dormitory of the old Matsumoto Higher School) | Laid on four hundred nori rolls | 400 | items | They had no salt in them, so each was served dipped in soy sauce | Kyūsei Matsumoto Kōkō Seishunki [Youth at the Old Matsumoto Higher School], Kyōdo Shuppan, 1978 The record for this day |
| 1943-09-19 | Akino Tsuneo (navy) | Put up 10 sen and sweets were handed out | 10 | sen | You ate on command. Eating as you pleased was not allowed | Chi no Sazamegoto [Murmurings of the Earth], 1966 The record for this day |
| 1944-03-15 | Okamoto Jun | Three bottles of beer in the ration; one was enough to feel good | 3 | bottles | There were potatoes and eggs his wife had bought too — "happy to an almost shameful degree" | Okamoto Jun, Jidai no Soko kara [From the Bottom of the Age], Fūbaisha, 1983 The record for this day |
| 1945-01-19 | Hamada Akiko (20, teacher) | Ate seven bowls of white rice with anglerfish hotpot | 7 | servings | Staying at his fiancée's house to prepare for the wedding | Hamada Akiko, Sokai Kyōshi Hatachi no Nikki [Diary of an Evacuated Teacher, Aged 20], Ōmura Shoten, 1994 The record for this day |
| 1945-03-05 | Tamura Tsunejirō | The rationed rice came to 1 gō 8 shaku a day | 1.8 | gō/day | "I am a big eater, so at this rate I shall starve to death" | Tamura Tsunejirō, Shinsan [Bitter Hardship], Minerva Shobō, 1980 The record for this day |
| 1945-06-22 | Yoshihara Sachiko (evacuated schoolchild) | Finished five large rice balls | 5 | items | The lunch for the commemorative march at the founding ceremony of the student corps. There was dessert afterwards too | Toshima no Shūdan Gakudō Sokai Shiryōshū [Materials on the Group Evacuation of Schoolchildren from Toshima], vol. 3, 1992 The record for this day |
| 1945-08-16 | Innami Hirokichi | Received twelve eggs, 3 kanme of potatoes and 3 shō of crushed barley | 12 | items | The day after the defeat, on the way back from reassuring the villagers that "the Americans will not be rough with us" | Jinsei Mandara: Shomin no Nikkishū [Life Mandala: Diaries of Ordinary People], 1975 The record for this day |
| 1952-02-25 | Uchida Hyakken | Drank 3 gō of sake and a bottle of beer, then had dinner from eleven | 3 | gō | Up at noon, to bed past three in the morning. Three pages of manuscript | Shinshū Uchida Hyakken Zenshū [The New Collected Works of Uchida Hyakken], vol. 26, 1989 The record for this day |
| 1980-10-18 | Shimizu Ken'ichi (3) | Drained a glass of orange juice at a coffee shop | 1 | servings | At home his juice is rationed. "The best day ever" | Shimizu Kazuyuki, ed., Ken'ichi, [1981] The record for this day |
| around 1946 | An anonymous author | Made a dubious 6 shō of whisky out of 1 shō of alcohol | 6 | shō | "In the two months it will take to drink it all, let me work out how to live from here" | Preface and afterword notes (an essay from just after the defeat) |
| around 1946 | A character in a language course | A big eater, but seven or eight bowls will usually do | 7-8 | servings | A description in a conversational textbook | Preface and afterword notes (a language course book) |
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1877-03-22 | Matsunaga Yoshimasa | Kimura paid back 5 yen, leaving 15 yen owing | 5 | yen | Repayment of a loan | Sugimoto Mikio, Kiteki Issei Jōkisha Kotohajime [One Blast of the Whistle: The Beginning of the Steam Train], Miki Shobō, 1975 The record for this day |
| 1891-05-23 | A girl who would not give her name | Her donation was 14 sen 1 rin | 0.141 | yen | At a charity concert with over three thousand attending and more than 40 yen donated in all, she was praised as "the greatest giver" | Jogaku Zasshi [The Women's Education Magazine] (268), June 1891 The record for this day |
| 1891-05-23 | The Sendai YMCA | Over three thousand attended the charity concert, and more than 40 yen was donated | 3000 | people | Miyagi Prefecture | Jogaku Zasshi [The Women's Education Magazine] (268), June 1891 The record for this day |
| 1923-02-03 | Sakamotoya (soba shop) | One bowl of duck noodles, 8 sen | 0.08 | yen | A delivery to the government office | Mabashi Nikki [The Mabashi Diary], 1981 The record for this day |
| 1927-10-24 | T.T. (steeplejack) | Drank three cups of 20-sen sake | 0.6 | yen | Seven days' work in a row left him with about 10 yen. He planned to rest until the money ran out | Rōdōsha Seikatsu Chōsa Shiryō Shūsei [Collected Materials from Surveys of Workers' Lives], vol. 10, 1995 The record for this day |
| 1930-11-22 | Imanishi Yanosuke | A can of pineapple and 1 shō of white rice cost the same, 26 sen | 0.26 | yen | Eats pineapple every five days. His wife is angry at "squandering a shō of rice" | Kutō suru Ningenzō: Suiheisha Dōjin no Nikki [Figures in Struggle: Diaries of Suiheisha Members], 1973 The record for this day |
| 1932-02-05 | Ōkura Kimmochi | A ready-made coat at Shirokiya, 68 yen | 68 | yen | "I was startled at what they took. It is expensive" | Ōkura Kimmochi Nikki [The Diary of Ōkura Kimmochi], vol. 1, 1973 The record for this day |
| 1935-12-17 | Mitani Tamiko (Joshi Gakuin) | Received a donation of 1,000 yen from Sōma Kokkō and her daughter | 1000 | yen | No strings attached. There are three students working their way through school living in her house | Mitani Tamiko: Shōgai, Omoide, Iboku [Mitani Tamiko: Her Life, Memories, and Surviving Writings], 1991 The record for this day |
| 1937-02-10 | Yamada Norio | Bought socks at the Morishita shop for 1 yen 20 sen | 1.2 | yen | The same day: the Warō gathering, coffee, a taxi | Anzai Fuyue Zenshū [The Complete Works of Anzai Fuyue], vol. 7, 1979 The record for this day |
| 1939-12-10 | Uehara Yōzaburō | Lost a bet and had to stand a yen's worth in Qingdao | 1 | yen | A bet on which of them would shout "I have waited for this day!" first | Uehara Yōzaburō, Shichōhei (Hi) Nikki [Secret Diary of a Transport Soldier], Kokusho Kankōkai, 1983 The record for this day |
| 1942-04-20 | Koshikawa Kan (army surgeon?, the southern front) | One bottle of beer, one yen | 1 | yen | "Delicious. But expensive" | Koshikawa Kan, Nankai ni Chitta Chichi no Sensō Nikki [My Father's War Diary, Fallen in the Southern Seas], 1992 The record for this day |
| 1942-12-11 | Kawai Eijirō | The rickshaw fare was 80 sen, "a terrible loss" | 0.8 | yen | A day taken up with the hospital and a visit | Kawai Eijirō Zenshū [The Complete Works of Kawai Eijirō], vol. 23, 1991 The record for this day |
| 1945-03-05 | Tamura Tsunejirō | One daikon, one yen | 1 | yen | A rumour that salt too would be rationed | Tamura Tsunejirō, Shinsan [Bitter Hardship], 1980 The record for this day |
| 1948-01-30 | Suzuki Tsumoru (student) | Spent 20 yen on potatoes, 10 yen on tobacco, 7 yen on books | 37 | yen | "This is not a luxury. It is a necessary expense. But I hate seeing the money go" | Suzuki Tsumoru, Kūfuku Nikkishō [Selections from a Hunger Diary], 1994 The record for this day |
| 1954-02-06 | Senoo Girō | Bought Kekkaku wa Kō Sureba Kanarazu Naoru [Do This and Your Tuberculosis Will Certainly Be Cured] for 280 yen | 280 | yen | In hospital. Read it straight through | Senoo Girō Nikki [The Diary of Senoo Girō], vol. 7, 1975 The record for this day |
| 1955-09-14 | Mugenkin | While everyone else had a 200-yen dinner, made a dinner of 13 yen's worth of milk | 13 | yen | Could not raise the 5,000 yen for a three-wheeler licence. Later sold a radio and got it | Mugenkin, ed., Fūju no Nageki [The Lament of the Wind in the Trees], 1985 The record for this day |
| 1960-03-06 | Kishigami Daisaku | Bread 15 yen, croquettes 20 yen, vegetables 50 yen | 85 | yen | Four days earlier he bought three volumes of the collected Sōseki | Kishigami Daisaku, Mō Hitotsu no Ishi Hyōji [One More Declaration of Intent], Daiwa Shobō, 1973 The record for this day |
| 1966-09-17 | Kogure Waichi | His daughter's flat: 10,000 yen a month in rent, 35,000 yen in key money, 10,000 yen in agent's fee | 35000 | yen | One newly built six-mat room, toilet outside, sink included | Kogure Waichi, Waga Jinsei wa Kawara no Ishikoro [My Life Is a Pebble on the Riverbed], 1989 The record for this day |
| 1994-11-02 | Yokoi Nobuyoshi (police officer) | Lent out 1,000 yen from the public-assistance fund | 1000 | yen | The fare home for a boy who had lost everything he had. The lunch came out of his own pocket | Jikei [Self-Policing] 76(1), January 1994 The record for this day |
| 1946 | Rōdō Kumiaihō no Kaisetsu [A Commentary on the Labour Union Law] | Raised to 1 yen 50 sen a copy because printing wages had soared | 1.5 | yen | Apologized in the preface for the price rise since the book was planned | Kikuchi Isao, Rōdō Kumiaihō no Kaisetsu [A Commentary on the Labour Union Law], Nihon Sangyō Kyōgikai Shuppanbu, 1946 |
| 1946 | The Marine Meteorological Society | Plans to raise the subscription to about 20 yen a half-year | 20 | yen | The revived issue, after the Kobe air raids destroyed the offices, the stock and the printer | Umi to Sora [Sea and Sky] 25(3), 1946 |
| 1946 | The author of an exam study guide | Student living costs run to 500 yen a month | 500 | yen | "A headache for the middle-class students who make up eight tenths of the student body" | Haginoya Akira, Kōtō Senmon Daigaku Yoka Juken no Shin Shidō [New Guidance for Higher Technical and University Preparatory Entrance Exams], Jiyū Kenkyūsha, 1946 |
| 1946 | An observer of village theatre | Tips at an amateur play came to twenty-odd thousand yen | 20000+ | yen | "As to what on earth went on there, those who know, know" | Horio Tsutomu, Nōson Engeki [Village Theatre], Mizuhosha, 1946 |
| 1946 | A certain publisher | About eighteen years ago, a yen bought a book of over five hundred pages | 1 | yen | "I feel sad about a world in which only shabby books can be made" | Preface and afterword notes |
| recalled in 1961 | A member of a hospital department | Drank away the 300-yen fee for a clinical paper on a new drug with his colleagues in the department | 300 | yen | It later reached the professor's ears and became an issue | Nihon Yakuzaishi Kyōkai Zasshi [Journal of the Japan Pharmaceutical Association] 13(6), 1961 |
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1918-02-24 | Wakayama Bokusui | Could not write a single one of the five hundred sheets of manuscript paper he had brought | 500 | sheets | Stayed about twenty days at the Meijikan | Wakayama Bokusui, Bokusui Zenshū [The Complete Bokusui], vol. 4, 1929 The record for this day |
| 1929-10-02 | Shibata Shunkō | A limit of two commemorative postcards and twenty stamps per person | 20 | sheets | Went round the post offices on the day the Ise Shrine rebuilding commemorative stamps went on sale | Sun'yō Shumi [The Postcard Hobby] (133), October 1929 The record for this day |
| 1946-10-05 | Takeuchi Yoshimi | Won ten cigarettes in the tobacco lottery (his mother drew twice and lost both times) | 10 | bottles | The same day, three pages of translation | Takeuchi Yoshimi Zenshū [The Complete Works of Takeuchi Yoshimi], vol. 15, 1981 The record for this day |
| 1947-02-01 | Kuroda Saburō | Bought ten books and left one behind at the shop | 10 | volumes | The coat at the dressmaker's was still not finished past the promised date | Kuroda Saburō Nikki [The Diary of Kuroda Saburō], postwar vol. 1, Shichōsha, 1980 The record for this day |
| 1945-04 | Sokuratesu [Socrates] (Sakurai Shoten) | Six thousand copies were caught in the bombing at the bindery, and the reprint burned as well | 6000 | copies | Published at last on the third attempt | A. E. Taylor, trans. Hayashi Takeji, Sokuratesu [Socrates], Sakurai Shoten, 1946 |
| 1945-04 | Enshutsu Nyūmon [An Introduction to Directing] (Kasumigaseki Shobō) | The first printing of three thousand copies was finally ready in April 1945 | 3000 | copies | A5 format. "For wartime publishing, a fine thing one could be satisfied with" | Kitamura Kihachi, Enshutsu Nyūmon [An Introduction to Directing], Kasumigaseki Shobō, 1946 |
| 1945 | Meijigawa [The Meiji River] (Fujitani Sūbunkan) | The publishing association approved five thousand copies, but they burned along with the stereotype plates | 5000 | copies | Five hundred pages of other manuscripts burned at the same time | Kishi Tetsuo, Meijigawa [The Meiji River], Fujitani Sūbunkan, 1946 |
| 1946 | Egeresu Iroha [An English ABC] (Fugaku Honsha) | Only fifty copies were privately issued, printed by the author himself | 50 | copies | "Regretting that it was held by so few, we asked leave and published it" | Kawakami Sumio, Egeresu Iroha [An English ABC], Fugaku Honsha, 1946 |
| 1946 | Nihon Rikkōkai | Printing costs have reached more than ten times what they were before the war | 10 | times | At the time of publishing Fifty Years of the Rikkōkai. The photographic plates were nearly unusable | Nihon Rikkōkai Sōritsu Gojūnenshi [Fifty Years of the Nihon Rikkōkai], 1946 |
| 1946 | Keisho no Seiritsu [The Formation of the Confucian Classics] (Zenkoku Shobō) | A manuscript of more than five hundred sheets on the institute's 200-character paper | 500 | sheets | Records that heavy quality paper in shiroku-bai format was used for the proofs, calling it "a joy beyond hoping for" | Hiraoka Takeo, Keisho no Seiritsu [The Formation of the Confucian Classics], Zenkoku Shobō, 1946 |
| 1943-1944 | Abe Kichizō, Shōgi Geppō [The Shogi Monthly] | Kept a shogi magazine going for twenty-three years | 23 | years | "Our printer is actually in the black in the months when the monthly does not come out" | Shōgi Geppō [The Shogi Monthly] NDL |
| 1922-03 | Fūun Tenchi Shinpō [The New Report of Wind, Cloud, Heaven and Earth] (the forerunner of Shōgi Geppō) | Issued twice a month at 6 sen | 0.06 | yen | On a single sheet: notices of shogi tournaments, results, and problems | Shōgi Geppō [The Shogi Monthly] NDL |
| 1944-1945 | Tsuchiya Bunmei, Araragi | The December 1944 issue reached readers in March 1945 | 3 | months late | After that it effectively ceased publication | Araragi NDL |
| 1945 | Tsuchiya Bunmei, Araragi | Printer and publisher burned down four times over | 4 | times | April 13 Tokyo Shōken, May 25 the publisher's office, around June 20 Toyohashi, July 9 the Sasaki printworks in Sendai | Araragi NDL |
| 1945 | Tsuchiya Bunmei, Araragi | With Seijisha's help, printed a report issue of about eight pages | 8 | pages | The only issue they managed to bring out among the ruins | Araragi NDL |
| 1938-1942 | Paper controls on newspapers and magazines | Controls began in July 1938; by the end of 1942, down 40% | 40 | % down | The suspension of third-class mail came on top of it | From the piece 〈The People Who Wanted to Keep Publishing Magazines Even in Wartime〉 |
| 1946-1953 | Fujimori Seiichirō | Brought out his one-man magazine Dokuritsu [Independence] up to issue 278 | 278 | issues | A former navy flag officer, he kept pressing the question of the Emperor's war responsibility | From the piece 〈The People the War Made Stupider〉 |
| 1952 | Kurihara Hikosaburō | Secured permission to forge three hundred swords to mark the peace | 300 | swords | The sound of sword-forging, silenced by the GHQ ban, came back | From the piece 〈The People Who Wanted to Keep Publishing Magazines Even in Wartime〉 |
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1898-03-16 | Terada Torahiko | Got into bed and suffered with a couple of mosquitoes flying about | 2 | animals | The day of the algebra exam | Terada Torahiko Zenshū [The Complete Works of Terada Torahiko], literary series, vol. 12 The record for this day |
| 1909-07-05 | Yamashita Tomizō (61) | An 8-shaku serpent and a great eagle with a 3-shaku beak were locked in a fight | 8 | shaku | * Hearsay in a magazine article and possibly exaggerated. He took the eagle alive | Tanken Sekai [The World of Exploration] 8(3), August 1909 The record for this day |
| 1920-06-04 | Shimemura Keitarō | Plans to build the dozen or so he has up to seventy | 70 | birds | The chicks burst into the kitchen and knocked over the teapot | Shimemura Keitarō, Yōton Shiryō Koyasu Nikki [Pig-Farming Materials: The Koyasu Diary], 1921 The record for this day |
| 1920-08-03 | Kawanishi Ryōkichi | Watched a cicada emerge from 17:00; at 20:55 the shell and the body parted | 235 | minutes | Another fifty minutes until the wings had spread | Rika Kyōiku [Science Education] 8(7), July 1925 The record for this day |
| 1940-08-21 | Ōta Sōho | Someone brought him a bantam with an eye disease, the fourth so far | 4 | birds | "The bank is turning into a quarantine ward for sick bantams" | Kakeaoi 37(10), October 1940 The record for this day |
| 1942-04-20 | Koshikawa Kan | Two chickens left; one gets eaten today, so one remains | 2 | birds | "Go requisitioning in the village and there are no chickens left. They must have hidden them" | Koshikawa Kan, Nankai ni Chitta Chichi no Sensō Nikki [My Father's War Diary, Fallen in the Southern Seas], 1992 The record for this day |
| 1945-01-25 | Wakabayashi Naoyuki (middle-school student) | A bull a good five or six metres long came charging with its horns up | 1 | head | The bull was caught at the second level crossing on the Odakyū line | Ano Koro: Sensō Taikenki [Those Days: Accounts of the War], Machida City, 1992 The record for this day |
| 1980-06-12 | Fujishima High School, Fukui Prefecture | A duck and her young, twelve in all, walked across the courtyard | 12 | birds | The next year, a school award from the Wild Bird Society of Japan | Hyakusanjūnenshi [A Hundred and Thirty Years], 1988 The record for this day |
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1908-05-21 | Horiuchi Reiji (post office clerk) | A customer brought in two hundred passbooks | 200 | volumes | The supervisor was off sick, so he was alone. "Not even a minute's rest to be had" | Teishin Kyōkai Zasshi [Journal of the Communications Association] January (42), January 1912 The record for this day |
| 1908-05-21 | Horiuchi Reiji (post office clerk) | Just before closing he was asked to process sixty new applications and fifty passbooks together | 60 | items | The relief when the cash matched the balance became something he never forgot | Teishin Kyōkai Zasshi [Journal of the Communications Association] January (42), January 1912 The record for this day |
| 1906-11-09 | Morita Raishikyū (on the Shikoku pilgrimage) | There were about fifteen pilgrims at the temple lodging | 15 | people | A lavish meal: a main tray, a second tray, and four dishes to go with the drink | Tsurumura Matsuichi, Morita Raishikyū, 1979 The record for this day |
| 1929-07-23 | Chŏng Sŏkhŏn (graduate) | Was given 500 tsubo of paddy and 820 tsubo of dry field | 820 | tsubo | Was told, "of the six places I have seen in the county, your land is the best" | Chōsen Nōkaihō [Bulletin of the Korean Agricultural Association] 3(10), October 1929 The record for this day |
| 1939-05-02 | The Matsusaka Young Men's Association | Eleven of them cycled 15 ri there and back to Ise Shrine | 15 | ri | Youngest 17, oldest 59, nobody dropped out. Left at 8, back at 17 | Konkōkyō Seinen [Konkōkyō Youth] (June issue) (138) The record for this day |
| 1938-06-29 | Ihara Waichi | In the flood the water stood a shaku and more above the road | 1 | shaku | His father claimed he was off to a chanting lesson and went drinking | Yono Shishi [History of Yono City], supplementary vol. 3, 1993 The record for this day |
| 1975-12-18 | Nitobe Ineko | Rebuilt the room for the first time in the fourteen years since moving in | 14 | years | The third year since her mother's death | Nitobe Ineko, Ineko no Omoidegusa [Ineko's Sheaf of Memories], 1988 The record for this day |
| 1984-04-29 | Higashioka Tomiichi (head of an agricultural cooperative) | Threw ten bales' worth of rice cakes to a crowd of over a thousand | 10 | bales | A hundred and fifty guests, and a four-to cask broken open | Higashioka Tomiichi, Kumiaichō Nikki [The Cooperative Chairman's Diary], [1988] The record for this day |
| 1944 | The shortwave radio circle in Tendō, Yamagata | Gathered in the small hours to listen to foreign broadcasts | 5 | people | The text says "four people", so the count varies between sources. They escaped discovery when M, the special police officer, was transferred out | Kaisō no Saitō Ichirō [Saitō Ichirō Remembered], 1982 NDL |
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Former Japanese soldiers from Gifu | Seventeen of them in all toured the old battlefields in China over eight days | 17 | people | Youngest 68, oldest 80 | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 (the quoted source is not public) |
| 1991 | Former Japanese soldiers from Gifu | Proposed handing out a shō or two of sake to the village where they had been stationed | 1-2 | shō | Sweets and chocolate for the children | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| 1991 | Former Japanese soldiers from Gifu | Gave the Chinese guide 10,000 yen as a tip | 10000 | yen | Left saying, "it was a tour that stayed with me" | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| present | The PL Kyōdan | The Tower of Peace, the interdenominational monument to the war dead of all nations: 180 m | 180 | m | Taller than the San Jacinto Monument (172.92 m), the tallest memorial tower in the world | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| present | Germany | More than a hundred thousand stumbling stones (Stolpersteine) | 100000 | items | Given as an example of something Japan cannot match in numbers | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| present | Japanese memorial tours | More than four hundred memorial monuments in the Philippines alone | 400 | monuments | Counting other countries too, the quantity is considerable | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| 1945-08 | Ozaki Yukio | At 86, submitted a written opinion titled Bunka to Sensō wa Ryōritsu Shiezaru Mono [Culture and War Cannot Coexist] | 86 | years old | An extraordinary session at the appointment of the Higashikuni cabinet. He argued that where the colonies belonged should be for their inhabitants to decide freely | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| 1945-08-15 | Kudō, a woman teacher in Noda, Karafuto | Watched a forlorn Bon dance on the night of the defeat | 1 | items | "Even the beat of the drum had no strength in it; only the ring of people swayed, with hollow faces" | From the piece 〈A World Championship of War Remorse〉 |
| Date | Who | Item | Figure | Unit | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Kume Makoto, Ejison Monogatari [The Story of Edison] | "A defeated Japan that must feed eighty million people packed together" | 80000000 | people | An expression of the fear of a small country | Kume Makoto, Ejison Monogatari [The Story of Edison], Hoshi Shobō, 1946 Read the preface |
| 1946 | Konno Eikichi, Sanchi Nōsaku to Zōrin [Mountain Farming and Afforestation] | Forest halved to about a million chōbu, while the population, at seventy or eighty million, is about twice what it was at the time of the wars with China and Russia | 2 | times | A sense of the population with the repatriates added in | Konno Eikichi, Sanchi Nōsaku to Zōrin [Mountain Farming and Afforestation], Kasumigaseki Shobō, 1946 |
| 1946 | Honda Seiroku, Kokubō no Shokuseikatsu [Eating Through Want] | The territory has gone back to its area of seventy years ago, and the population is a little over twice what it was then | 2 | times + | As the premise for preaching a life of getting by on little | Honda Seiroku, Kokubō no Shokuseikatsu [Eating Through Want], Ōbunsha, 1946 |
| 1946 | Kansho no Jōzu na Tabekata [How to Eat Sweet Potatoes Well] | In an average prewar year, 63 million koku of rice was consumed | 63000000 | koku | The starting point for food calculations after the defeat | Hisamune Takeshi and Honzawa Shūdō, Kansho no Jōzu na Tabekata [How to Eat Sweet Potatoes Well], 1946 |
| 1946 | Kansho no Jōzu na Tabekata [How to Eat Sweet Potatoes Well] | The government survey put the previous year's actual harvest at 43 million koku | 43000000 | koku | Noted alongside: "the real figure is presumed to be some 10 million koku higher" | Hisamune Takeshi and Honzawa Shūdō, Kansho no Jōzu na Tabekata [How to Eat Sweet Potatoes Well], 1946 |
| 1946 | Kansho no Jōzu na Tabekata [How to Eat Sweet Potatoes Well] | The government asked for imports of 18.7 million koku (3 million tons) | 3000000 | tons | Hoover held that 870,000 tons would do | Hisamune Takeshi and Honzawa Shūdō, Kansho no Jōzu na Tabekata [How to Eat Sweet Potatoes Well], 1946 |
| 1946 | Preface to Kōtō Sūgaku Nyūmon [Introduction to Higher Mathematics] | A harvest of 60 million koku of rice was near certain, and a ration of 2 gō 5 shaku was expected | 2.5 | gō/day | "At last we can settle down and study" | Ōkōchi Osamu, Kōtō Sūgaku Nyūmon [Introduction to Higher Mathematics], Corona, 1946 |
| 1953 | Fujimori Seiichirō, "Young Men, Rise" | Argued that even carrying on the decisive battle at home, an army of five hundred thousand or a million could have been kept up | 500000-1000000 | people | The grounds for the case for a decisive battle at home. The author judges it "insane" | Nihon oyobi Nihonjin [Japan and the Japanese] 4(1), January 1953 NDL |
| 1947-08 | The research bureau of Jiji Press | "Have you read or heard the text of the new constitution or explanations of it?" — yes, 59.7% | 59.7 | % | The opinion poll itself was carried out as an exercise in democracy | Counted as of 2026. From the piece 〈I Read All 5,728 Prefaces and Afterwords〉 |
| 1946-12-16 | Mainichi Shimbun | The constitutional revision: a success 35%, broadly a success 57% | 92 | % | More than 90% received the new constitution favourably | From the piece 〈I Read All 5,728 Prefaces and Afterwords〉 |
| 1946-11〜1947-05 | NHK, Gaitō Rokuon [Street Recordings] | The new constitution: goes too far 25% / about right 50% / does not go far enough 15% / no opinion 10% | 50 | % | An in-house survey that stated plainly it used no statistical method | From the piece 〈I Read All 5,728 Prefaces and Afterwords〉 |
| 1945-1946 | Hakuun Karo (Toyoshima Yoshiaki) | Editor of a gas trade paper, 62 at the time | 62 | years old | An example of someone whose argument did not change between wartime and after | Nihon Gasu Gijutsu Kyōkaishi [Journal of the Japan Gas Technology Association] NDL |
| 1946 | Takachiho Nobumaro (peer and entomologist) | "Looking back over my eighty-odd years of life" | 80 | years old | Lamented that the loss of territory had put Czech-made insect pins out of reach | Takachiho Nobumaro, Ōrei Senwa [Tales from Warbler Ridge], 1946 Read the preface |
| died 1990 | Tsuchiya Bunmei | Lived to 101 | 101 | years old | What lay behind the tenacity of a man who kept looking for a printer no matter how often he was burned out | From the piece 〈The People Who Wanted to Keep Publishing Magazines Even in Wartime〉 |
Even for the same item, the figure differs by who did the counting and in what year. "Contemporaneous figures" are those published between 1945 and 1949; "later recounts" are those settled afterwards.
| Category | Item | Figure | Counted by, and when | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air raids | Tokyo: injured / affected / homes burned | about 150,000 / about 3 million / about 850,000 | Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage | Later recount |
| Repatriation and demobilization | Japanese living overseas at the end of the war (about a tenth of the population then) | about 6.6 million | Ministry of Health and Welfare | Later recount |
| Repatriation and demobilization | Total repatriates (about 3.1 million military and civilian employees + about 3.18 million civilians) | about 6.29 million | Ministry of Health and Welfare summary / 6,290,702 as of the end of 1976 | Later recount |
| Repatriation and demobilization | Japanese by region: Manchuria / Dalian (Kwantung Leased Territory) / remaining in Korea | about 1 million / about 200,000 / about 850,000 | Ministry of Health and Welfare | Later recount |
| Repatriation and demobilization | Total army strength at the end of the war (of which about 2,388,000 in the home islands) | about 5.47 million | Demobilization records | Contemporaneous figure |
| Repatriation and demobilization | Total navy strength at the end of the war (of which about 1,972,000 in the home islands) | about 2.42 million | Demobilization records | Contemporaneous figure |
| Repatriation and demobilization | Number who had completed demobilization or repatriation by December 31, 1947 | 6.24 million | Ministry of Health and Welfare | Later recount |
| Repatriation and demobilization | Internees in Siberia | about 575,000 | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare estimate | Later recount |
| Repatriation and demobilization | Total prisoners held by the Soviet forces (a different source) | 611,237 | A source of different provenance | Accounts vary |
| Mobilization | Strength at the end of the war (against 1930: army about 25 times, navy about 27 times) | Army about 5,472,000 / Navy about 2,417,000 | Demobilization records | Contemporaneous figure |
| Mobilization | Number of students mobilized for labour | over 3.4 million | Nara Prefectural Library and Information Center | Later recount |
| Mobilization | The Women's Volunteer Corps (about 160,000 nationwide in February 1944) | 470,000 at the end of the war | Yamakawa Nihonshi Shōjiten [Yamakawa Concise Dictionary of Japanese History] | Later recount |
| Economy | National wealth lost (about 26% of total assets at the end of the war) | 4.24 trillion yen (at 1948 prices) | Economic Stabilization Board, 1949, appendix "Summary Table of Damage to National Wealth" | Contemporaneous figure |
| Economy | National wealth lost (a different cited figure, about 25% of the whole) | about 65.3 billion yen (at end-of-war prices) | Ōbayashi Corporation, A Hundred Years | Accounts vary |
| Economy | Rise in the consumer price index (October 1945 to April 1949, three years and six months) | about 100 times | On an official-price basis | Later recount |
| Economy | Rise in the wholesale price index, 1945 / 1946 / 1947 | 6.5%／51.6%／17.0% | Estimates by Oguro Kazumasa and Hattori Takahiro (Hitotsubashi University) | Later recount |
| Economy | Black-market rice against the official price (October 1945, the Kitakyushu case) | up to 49 times | Various surveys | Contemporaneous figure |
| Economy | Recovery of output: mining and manufacturing / real GNP | Back to prewar level in October 1950 / in fiscal 1951 | Ōbayashi Corporation, A Hundred Years | Later recount |
| Physical damage | Homes lost to war damage | about 2.2 million | Ōbayashi Corporation, A Hundred Years | Later recount |
| Physical damage | Fall in housing stock (including forced clearance) | about 14 million → 11.35 million | Ōbayashi Corporation, A Hundred Years | Later recount |
| Physical damage | Merchant fleet (third largest in the world when the war began) | about 6.3 million tons → about 1.5 million tons | NYK Maritime Museum | Later recount |
| Physical damage | Ships lost in total, and the value of the damage | 15,518 vessels / about 6.56 billion yen | Economic Stabilization Board, 1949 | Contemporaneous figure |
| Food and daily life | Average calorie intake in Japan (1946) | 1,903 kcal | A level regarded as starvation | Contemporaneous figure |
| Food and daily life | Ration standard for staple food (late and missed deliveries were the norm) | 2 gō 3 shaku a day | The rationing system | Contemporaneous figure |
| Food and daily life | Rice output, 1950 / 1967 | 9.38 million tons / 14.45 million tons | Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries | Later recount |
| Food and daily life | War orphans: total orphans / of them, orphaned by the war / of them, orphaned in repatriation | 123,511 / 28,248 / 11,351 | Ministry of Health and Welfare, Children's Bureau, national orphan census (as of February 1, 1948, excluding Okinawa) | Contemporaneous figure |
| Territory and population | Share of the former Japanese territory lost (Korea, Taiwan, southern Karafuto, the South Sea Islands and so on) | about 44% | Related to the San Francisco Peace Treaty | Later recount |
| Territory and population | Value of overseas assets lost | about 23.7 billion dollars (379,499 million yen) | Ministry of Foreign Affairs materials and others | Later recount |
| Territory and population | Reparations: the Philippines / Burma / Indonesia / Vietnam | 550 million / 200 million / 223.08 million / 39 million dollars | Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Later recount |
| Territory and population | Total population just after the end of the war | about 72 million | Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications | Later recount |
| Territory and population | Population growth rate 1945-49, and total population in 1950 | 3.2% a year on average / 84 million | Statistics Bureau (MIC) and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism | Later recount |
| Territory and population | The 1945 census | Cancelled because of the war situation | Replaced by the population surveys of 1945 and 1946 | Contemporaneous figure |