Why can you eat soybeans now?: The Story of Jotaro Yamamoto and Manchuria soybeans

Natto and Okara

Japanese Foods made from Soybeans
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Hi, Dear Folks!

A really interesting article has been serialized in the blog of Nezusan, Yoshiyuki Onagi. This seems to be very helpful for people all over the world to know what happened in the Japanese society during the WWII and after. So, I translated it into English by using the Google translator with some corrections.

山本条太郎と満洲大豆のお話

The Story of Jotaro Yamamoto and Manchuria soybeans

http://nezu3344.com/blog-entry-4317.html

While drinking beer, eating bean sprouts, eating natto rice, pecking tofu, I'd love to talk to friends and family about soys and Manchuria.

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Why was Manchuria, originally a deserted wilderness, developed so rapidly since the days when Japan was involved?

There are a lot of things about Manchuria from politics and military, but there are few things that have been unraveled from the economic aspect, so let's think about this.

The answer is in soybeans.

It was in the middle of the Meiji era in Yamataro Jotaro, who was the first trading company man in Manchuria.

A man who later became Mantetsu Governor.

He was born in 1867(Keio 3) as a son of a Samurai of Fukui Han, who was born in the former Mitake-cho, Fukui prefecture(formerly Fukui Han (feudal domain)).

In 1880, I entered Kyoritsu School (currently Kaisei High School) in Awajicho, Kanda, Tokyo at the age of 12, but he dropped out in two years because he was sick.

He gave up his school studies, and went to the Yokohama branch of Mitsui Hiroyoko (currently Mitsui Bussan = Mitsui & Co., Ltd.).

He was chosen to transfer to the Shanghai branch when He was 21 years old.

Here too, he was bought a great business talent.

In 1890 (Meiji 23), when he was 23 years old, the office of Mitsui Branch Manager was built at the intersection near Shanghai French Concession.

This building is on a land of 10,000 tsubo (1 tsubo = 3.30579 square m), with a three-story main building and annex, and additional buildings, a vast garden with a pond, a greenhouse, a lawn baseball field and five tennis courts.

From there to the entrance of the main building, there was a path of 100 meters, and 280 cherry trees over 30 years old were planted.

Here, a garden party was held in March every year, and 2,000 public and private people from Japan and abroad were invited.

It was said that those who were not invited to this garden party at that time were not socially recognized as gentlemen.

For that reason, careful consideration and painstaking efforts were made in the selection of invited guests, but it was Jotaro Yamamoto who completely managed this.

Anyway, he was so smart, polite and well-worked.

Because of that kind of person, he must have been waiting for the guest's entertainment.

In 1901, Taro Yamamoto was appointed the 3rd Shanghai branch manager at the young age of 34.

At the time, the Shanghai branch manager's company housing was stopped as a branch manager exclusive car in the garage with one bulletproof cadillac for eight people, one buick for eight people, two medium-sized vehicles.

It was an era when only a rich man or a minister can buy the car itself, otherwise not so.

The fact that we were able to have so many cars was that the Mitsui & Co. Shanghai branch was very capable.

The car windshields were all 3 centimeters thick, and the doors were heavy enough to blow out if the doors were opened inadvertently.

However, because the car is so heavy and does not run 1 kilometer of liter, it seems that Jotaro used only ordinary cars on which salesmen ride.

Cars for salespeople are dangerous because they are not bulletproof, but they are light and run well.

I think it's interesting to see the character of Jotaro, who prioritizes action over safety.

Jotaro Yamamoto, who became the head of the Shanghai branch, is the first Japanese trading company to board Manchuria.

At that time, Manchuria was a semi-desert area with no greenery that would allow a vast wasteland to spread.

Of course, crops cannot be made.

However, Jotaro noticed that soybeans were slightly cultivated in this wasteland.

Soybean is a temperate, subtropical plant.

Manchuria is a subarctic.

The weather conditions are not suitable.

However, with soy beans at the top, so-called leguminous plants have root nodules that grow on the roots.

Since rhizobia grows, something like a bump is made at the root.

Rhizobium that grew in the bumps excretes organic substances such as ammonia from the nitrogen sucked from the air by soybeans and the water sucked from the ground.

Because this organic matter is used as a nutrient source, soy grows even in stale land.

Jotaro Yamamoto took notion of this.

He examined the climate and examined the possibility of breeding, and thoroughly explored the possibility of soybean cultivation in Manchuria.

What Jotaro is interesting is that while studying soybean growth in Manchuria, that is, when soybeans are not yet in the production stage in Manchuria, he was quickly working on market development.

In 1920, he moved to Britain and gained the exclusive right to sell Manchurian soybeans in Europe.

At that time in Europe, there was no custom of eating soybeans, and soy was grown exclusively for oil and fuel.

Feed this.

Jotaro is instructing how to process soy and cooking, and is selling soy throughout Europe.

In this way, Manchurian soybeans, which were only a few tons in size, are now widely cultivated with the product name “Manchudai soy” named by Yamamoto Jotaro.

In 1927, when he was appointed as the president, Manshuria's soybean production reached 5 million tons per year.

Of this, 4 million tons are for export and 2 million tons for Europe and America.

It was 2 million tons for Japan.

Manchuria has become the world's largest soybean producer.

In Manchuria, Japan gained all rights to the Manchurian Railway from Changchun to Journey, with the victory of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.

In 1906, the next year, Minami Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd. (Mantetsu) was established.

As you can see from a little thought, even if there is a railroad, if you just run the train where the earth is spreading, you will not produce any profit.

Before the Russo-Japanese War, Russia made such a full-fledged full Mantetsu because of military invasion of China, Korea, Japan, and southward policy.

However, this Mantetsu was used by Japan for consumer use, that is, for industrial development in Manchuria.

Anyway, soybean has opened an infinite market in Europe.

Soy beans sold only if they were made.

More than 80% of the harvest was exported as commodities.

We make it because it sells.

We sell because we make.

For this purpose, the wasteland is developed.

Farmland expands as it is cultivated.

As farmland expands, railways will be needed to carry the produced soybeans.

So Mantetsu extended like Amoeba throughout Manchuria.

Many goods and people gathered at the terminal station where the lines intersect.

In this way, Manchuria, which was only a deserted desert just 20 years ago, was transformed into a large green farmland in a short period of time.

Farmers in Manchuria sell soy and wheat and say they ate corn and millet.

It sold so much.

Soybeans have become golden for the residents of Manchuria.

According to records at that time, soybeans account for more than 50% of Manchuria's foreign trade.

Mantetsu, run by Japan, does not just encourage soy cultivation.

In Dalian, an “Agricultural Experiment Station” and a “Central Experiment Station” were constructed, but the “Agricultural Experiment Station” is conducting soybean variety improvement and cultivation tests, and the “Central Experiment Station” is conducting research on the use of soybeans.

Research and development here is a modern method for producing soybean oil (salad oil).

Thanks to this, salad oil is now hydrated on the table all over the world.

It is said that there were more than 1,000 people at the central laboratory at that time.

In addition, the Mantetsu Central Laboratory has developed artificial fiber with soy protein, water-based paint, technology development of quick-brewed soy sauce production method, soy bean oil, fatty acid and glycerin production method, lecithin production method, vitamin B extraction, they have established a manufacturing method for stachyose.

Research on biofuels using soybean oil as a raw material, which is currently making a big fuss in the world, was the world's leading researcher at the Mantetsu Central Proving Ground.

Not only that, there are 90 facilities across Manchuria that are related to the Agricultural Experiment Station.

There are about 1,000 published research reports, 349 patents, and 47 utility models.

The state of the laboratory is introduced in the novel by Soseki Natsume.

Mantetsu's passion for soybeans was not very common.

In Manchuria, the expansion of soybean farms, the development of related industries, and the development of terminal stations that serve as relay points for production grains, the city becomes a town and the population increases, so the power, transportation, and distribution that people use And other industries developed.

A big city was born in Manchuria.

And Japan aimed for five-way republic and racial equality in Manchuria.

In Japan, Manchuria was ruled out based on the following three items:

1. Many people except for the evil that the development of resources is monopolized by some classes, with the founding spirit of abolishing the corruption of bad warlords and government officials and creating an ideal homeland of ethnic cooperation through ancient royalism to be able to receive eternal happiness of a lot of people

2. Opening doors, seeking capital throughout the world with a spirit of equal opportunity, and making the properly effective use of the technical experience of each country.

3. Aim for self-sufficiency.

In order to realize this ideal, Japan formulated a five-year industrial development plan for the construction of Manchuria, and provided Manchuria with a tremendous amount of 4.8 billion yen.

In addition to agricultural products such as soybeans and wheat, they nurtured industries such as iron, coal, electricity, liquid fuel, automobiles and airplanes.

In addition, Japan focused on human resource education in Manchuria.

This is because human resource development is indispensable for the development of the Manchuria economy.

If you keep your promises and keep your time, you can take the “natural thing” for granted, and if you don't have the spirit of ingenuity and public service, there will be no economic development.

This is the opposite of Japanese education today.

It is reasonable for the Japanese economy to decline.

In Manchuria, with the promotion of agriculture, industry, education and urban development, the total length of the Mantetsu route exceeded 10,000 km in 1939, and there were 2 bus routes. It has reached 5,000 km.

The domestic air route by Manchuria Air Transport Company was also stretched around like a net.

Manchuria has grown as one of the world's leading economic powers.

However, it was “extraordinary” for the United States and Britain who aimed at colonial control of the vast land from China to Manchuria.

Because, for example, the UK imports a large amount of soybeans from Manchuria.

Then, if Manchuria is placed in its own territory, that is, if it is placed in the state of complete free trade and TPP, all the profits generated will be in their own country.

And if you're a colony, you don't have to pay a colored race.

If that happens, labor costs will decrease and profits will double.

Similarly, for the United States, which does not yet have control over the continent at that time, controlling Manchuria would control the world's table with the cultivation of soybeans, corn and wheat produced there.

At that time, the United States colonized islands in the Philippines and the Pacific, but those islands cannot manage farms that require vast estates.

No one turns around to the poor.

However, people gather where people make money and have money.

Some people try to take it away.

People and countries are the same.

When Manchuria became rich, the West ran out of the water.

Manchuria has a high degree of people and a well-developed industry.

If this is taken away as a colony, prosperity will be promised to the country that took it.

At the same time, Russia has been applying southward pressure to Manchuria.

This was not only a threat to Japan, but it was also a threat to the United States and Great Britain, who were under substantial control of the central and southern parts of China.

Because Comintern, born in Russia, disturbs peaceful security and kills people.

Furthermore, the US, which was still an emerging country at the time, wants a colony all over Asia.

The United States now makes soybeans, corn, and wheat in its own country, but if you make a nation of the yellow race that spreads the vast land into a colony, you will not work as if you sweated yourself.

But you can use colored to make crops on their land.

In fact, in front of you, the wasteland of Manchuria was spreading as a magnificent farmland.

The desolated land has become a brilliant and fertile land.

Moreover, soybeans are originally subtropical.

If so, if you make this in China instead of Manchuria, the yield will not be the story of Manchuria on the edge of the north.

The market has already been created in Europe by Japan.

Just like John Wayne, if you take this with a gun, you can eat a lot of food without having to do the labor that is "the original sin of mankind", and you can enjoy the luxury.

One of the things that was done there was the ABCD siege.

As stated above, the basis of Manchuria's economy is soybeans, but in Manchuria, the soil is originally acidic.

Soy cultivation required the soil to be alkaline.

In order to improve the acidic land to alkali, a large amount of phosphorus was required, but Manchuria at that time was imported from the United States.

The US has unilaterally discontinued this.

Soybean is the basis of Manchuria economy.

Soybeans cannot grow without phosphorus.

Manchuria economy loses its foundation.

At the same time, this has a significant impact on the Japanese table.

This is because Japanese people consume soybeans like miso soup, soy sauce, and tofu like staple foods.

The same is true for Army and Navy food.

For Japanese people who were hungry with Manchuria soy, US export restrictions on phosphorus were just a big deal.

It must be remembered that one of the reasons why Japan had to decide to start the Great East Asia War was the factor of restricting the export of phosphorus in Manchuria.

However, the United States and Britain's prospects to reach out to the Manchurian land from the continent of China and colonize it were crushed by the struggle of the Japanese army during the Great East Asia War.

The United States and Britain who tried to eat without working due to colonial rule eventually ended up not only sacrificing many lives but also giving up everything in the colony.

Were they really regrettable?

As soon as the US dispatched GHQ to Japan, it brought back all the crops and new species that Japan had studied in Manchuria and Japan.

And this was cultivated on vast farmland in the United States.

They were strong crops in the wasteland.

As a result, the United States is now the world's largest agricultural nation.

Not only that, losing Japan continues to interfere with agricultural policy, and as a result, wheat and soybeans are now structured so that no matter how much Japanese farmers produce Japanese farmers cannot be rich.

Thanks to this, wheat fields and soybean fields that used to be seen all over Japan have almost disappeared nowadays.

Japan consumes 4.34 million tons of soybeans annually, of which 4.2 million tons depend on imports.

Japan is now the world's third largest soybean importer.

Moyashi is made by germinating soybeans in a dark place.

If you harvest unripe soybeans along with their branches and boil them, they are bean snacks.

When ripe soybeans are squeezed, soybean oil (salad oil) is produced.

When fermented by steaming, fermented with miso, soy sauce and natto bacteria is natto.

When ripe soybeans are squeezed, soy milk and the remaining residue are okara, and the surface film that warms the soy milk is yuba, and the one that is hardened with bittern is tofu.

Deep-fried tofu is baked tofu, baked tofu, boiled tofu, and frozen to make Koya tofu.

Today, Japanese people process and eat soy beans in various ways because soy is an old and familiar food for Japanese people.

And so far, Japan is the only place where we have so many varieties of soybeans.

While drinking beer, eating bean sprouts, eating natto rice, pecking tofu, I'd love to talk to friends and family about soy and Manchuria.

* This article is a renewal of an article from February 2011.

Thank you for reading.

This is a real history about Soy and Soybeans.

As the Westerners or foreign tourists all know, the Japanese are originally vegetarians eating Soybeans for protein nutrition during more than thousands years. So, there are so many types of foods made from Soy and Soybeans.

Soybeans that you eat now are all made in Japan or made by Japanese, namely, by Jotaro Yamamoto.

Salute a great Japanese, Mr. Jotaro Yamamoto!

Iyasaka! Cheers！