April 1945 Seoul dining: the public endured price-gouging and scraps, while privileged Japanese and Korean collaborator elites drank and feasted behind closed doors

As Imperial Japan’s war effort was collapsing in spring 1945, life in colonial Seoul grew increasingly desperate. Ordinary Koreans were suffering under brutal rationing, food shortages, and the pressures of forced labor, while the colonial press in Seoul still tried to project order. In April 1945, the Keijo Nippo newspaper ran a rare, scathing exposé on the city’s restaurant scene in Jongno and Honmachi (本町), a major shopping and entertainment district along a major thoroughfare bordering today’s Myeongdong. It described ordinary diners facing overpriced scraps and scams, while Japanese and Korean collaborator elites with money or connections went to exclusive spots for liquor and feasts, highlighting both the corruption of wartime society and the everyday struggles of those left outside.

https://preview.redd.it/vlvngjus6mnf1.png?width=1125&format=png&auto=webp&s=8e9e8e6fb7aa6b14fa22c3a51fb0913b16f1a6eb

The accompanying photo shows a line of men waiting in line in front of a sign saying “本日売切中候”, or “sold out today”.

TL;DR: In April 1945, Seoul’s Japanese daily Keijō Nippō blasted restaurants in Honmachi and Jongno for gouging prices, serving lousy food, and only letting in elites with connections. Ordinary diners were turned away or scammed with fake charges and watered-down booze. The paper claimed “nine out of ten” places were frauds and demanded state-run canteens to feed the city fairly.

[Translation]

Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo) April 23, 1945

Restaurants: Trampled in Quality and Quantity (Daytime)
Resentment over the connections-only drinking scene (Nighttime)
Sunday Paper Inspection

These are the times we live in. Nobody expects to eat their fill or drink plenty of liquor, yet even a fraction of that modest wish is rarely satisfied when one walks around the restaurants of Seoul day or night. Displeasure, indignation, and despair—these are the only words that fit the present state of these establishments.

Some voices in the streets are already saying, “They should all be shut down.” If so, then shut them down. If not, at least operate them with some semblance of honest business. That is why this Sunday inspection turns once more to the restaurants.

Honmachi Area

As readers saw in a previous letter to this paper, daytime meals are abysmal—no need to belabor the point. Only those who wander from shop to shop tasting the food can truly grasp it. At its worst, there is the case of a certain restaurant near the police station, whose lunches are so deplorable they defy comment. A careful comparison with the official fixed prices would surely reveal profiteering severalfold. That such a deplorable state of affairs exists even in the vicinity of the very police station that ought to be enforcing the rules shows plainly what can be expected of other shops

Worse still, it is not just that customers are served fraudulent meals; the proprietors act as though they are “allowing” one to eat, with sullen faces, rather than serving them. Not every place is so bad—there are a few conscientious shops, but they are like oases in a desert. The situation is beyond words. So let us leave the daytime scene aside and look at the nighttime scene.

Restaurants fall broadly into two classes: so-called “elite dining” (snow-grade) and “dining for the masses” (moon-grade).

• Snow-grade: with tatami rooms, charging about 1 yen in the morning, 1 yen 50 sen at lunch, and up to 3 yen at night.
• Moon-grade: ordinary eateries, charging about 80 sen in the morning, 1 yen at lunch, and up to 1 yen 50 sen at night.

Within Honmachi precinct there are 170 restaurants, of which 25 are elite-grade and the rest are for the masses. Each employs 2–4 workers, including waitresses and cooks.

Yet in all these many restaurants and with so many women employed, one still cannot enjoy even a single bottle of liquor in peace. But that is when one has at least something to drink. Too often one goes from door to door in vain looking for anything to drink. The wasted time is regrettable, but consider the exhausted industrial soldiers who want at least one drink before returning home—no wonder they persist. Still, about 90 percent of establishments operate on “connections only”: unless you are a familiar patron, you are turned away.

What governs these connections? Money, goods, and power. Waitresses and proprietors compete to attract nouveau riche customers with thick wallets. Salaried men, living on modest monthly wages, will never be of interest to them. Tricks abound: selling black-market foodstuffs at exorbitant prices only to familiar customers, brusquely dismissing strangers by claiming that everything is “sold out,” or by scrutinizing clothing—telling someone without kyahan cloth leggings to go home. Thus, see how a waitress working only one or two hours a night can earn 500 to 1,000 yen a month.

What of the wartime emergency measures that were supposed to stamp out such entertainments? Yet the waitresses still seat themselves proudly at customers’ sides, pouring their drinks. And once you are inside, the dishonesty of the food served leaves no doubt—nine out of ten establishments are sheer fraud in every respect. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say so. And what of the local police precinct that turns a blind eye to this situation?

Jongno Area

What of enforcement here? Out of 48 restaurants, how many conduct business conscientiously? When the wartime emergency decrees swept the entertainment districts a year ago, a rule was laid down in the Jongno district: with every bottle of beer or sake, one dish costing no more than 70 sen. Where has that initial rule gone? Suspicious “set meals” have appeared, costing 1 yen 50 sen, 2 yen, 3 yen, climbing endlessly, while the quality and quantity of the food deteriorate.

If there are no ingredients, then why not just serve none? People can drink without side dishes. Everyone understands that proprietors cannot get by without serving food, but the reality is harsher: they profiteer off each bottle as though it were gold.

One example: the customer is told, “The set meals are sold out, but would you care to at least have a beer?” The customer happily agrees. Yet when the bill arrived, there it was: a charge of 2 yen 50 sen for the set meal. If drinking bars mirror the state of society, then morality has truly collapsed. It is truly heartbreaking.

Other examples abound. Even after a short walk one runs into two shops that keep the front doors locked tight and conduct business only through hidden back entrances, invisible to newcomers. What would happen if an air raid warning were given? In one place, what they called brandy was scarcely enough for two cups, yet sold for 1 yen 20 sen—with food supposedly included. Elsewhere, one could not tell whether hot water had been poured into sake or sake into hot water. As for makgeolli, one had to spend nearly ten yen before feeling any effect. A so-called ‘bottle’ of sake contained barely six cups’ worth. The list is endless.

A Call for Public Eateries

In conclusion: between Honmachi and Jongno there are 218 restaurants. But not all open daily; they cannot operate properly because the rations are too small. Many exhaust a month’s rations in two or three days. Further ration cuts are expected. Yet even such shops still keep staff. The only solution is to swiftly switch to publicly run national restaurants. Reduce the number by half or two-thirds, but run them properly and serve lunch and dinner under a ration ticket system. Abolish meals at inns so that travelers eat at the national restaurants. If the national restaurants are managed by region and time slots, then it should be doable. Seoul could manage about fifty such restaurants.

When designating national restaurants, do not rely on past achievements; entrust them only to those proprietors who are truly conscientious. In this age of scarcity, only with careful planning and bold policy can the diet of 1.2 million residents be safeguarded.

(Photo: a view of a restaurant in the city)

[Transcription]

京城日報 1945年4月23日

食堂：質、量で（公）蹂躙（昼）
（夜）ああ怨めし情実の酒
日曜紙上査察

こういう時世である。腹一ぱい食べ、多くの酒を飲もうという欲張った気持ちは毛頭ないのであるが、現在京城府内の食堂を昼夜歩き廻ってみてもこの気持の十分の一でも果して充たしてくれる店があるであろうか。不愉快、憤慨、そして絶望という文字はまさにこれら食堂に投げかけてやりたいのが偽らざる現状である。

全部廃店すべしという巷の声も聞かないではない。廃店するなら廃店し、やるならやるで、もっと何とか善良な営業から考えてもよさそうなものである。あえてここに日曜査察として繰り返し白羽の矢を食堂部門に向けた所以である。

本町界隈：過日の本紙『的』における投書にみるごとく昼食の粗雑さはここに再びくどくどしく列記するまでもない。食べ歩き廻った者のみが分かることであるが、甚だしいのになると所もあろうに警察署附近の某食堂などの昼食に至っては全く呆れはてて論ずるに足らずと言いたい。綿密に公定価と照合して計算したら恐らく数層倍の暴利は間違いない。取り締まるべき警察署の附近に於いてすらかかる歎かわしい状態であるから、他店は推して知るべしである。それもそういうインチキ甚だしいものを客に食べて貰うのではなくて、食べさしてやるという仏頂面した営業者に及んでは言語道断である。勿論全部が全部というのではない。中には良心的な店もある。それも砂漠の中のオアシスのような有様である。お話にならない。昼はさておいて夜間に覗いてみよう。

大体食堂は二つに分かれている。所謂高級と大衆向との二つである。業者側からいうと雪級（高級）と月級（大衆向）である。雪級とは店内に座敷などを有している店で定まっている。料理値段は朝一円、昼一円五十銭、夜三円以内。
月級はその他の大衆向食堂で、料理値段を朝八十銭、昼一円、夜一円五十銭以内となっている。本町署管内で食堂は百七十軒。その中高級二十五軒、残りが全部大衆向である。

そこに平均運び女及び調理人など従業員が一軒二人乃至四人の割で使用されている。これら多くの食堂であり、多くの女が使われていながら、一本の酒も中々愉快に飲めない。まだ何とか飲めるならよい。数軒の入口を叩き廻って徒労に帰する場合が余りにも多い。その浪費する時間も惜しいが、一日の勤労に疲れた産業戦士たちがせめて一本の酒でも呑んで帰りたい気持を汲めば無理もないのである。顔見知りのお得意さんでなければ絶対に入れないという情実営業が約九割占めているのであるから、ただ普通の通りががりの人が飲めないのは当然である。

情実営業を支配するものは他でもない。金と物と権力である。少しでも多くの金を客から求めんがために業者はじめ運び女はふんだんに札ビラを切る成金的な紳士の獲得に躍起となるのである。だから月に幾ばくかの給料を貰って生活している所謂サラリーマンなる者は永久的にこれら業者の眼中には入らないわけだ。情実営業にも色々と手がある。業者が闇で物資を仕入れて見知りの客と黙約し、法外な値で売り捌く。知らない者は真向から『売り切れ』と言い切って追い返す。売り切れというのがバツが悪ければじろじろと客の服装を見て、脚絆を巻いていないから御帰りなさいという手もある。だから見よ、夜一時間か二時間しか働かない運び女の収入が一ヶ月千円から五百円を下らないのだ。

さらに運び女は堂々とお客の傍らに侍り、お酌をする、あの享楽面に下された決戦非常措置は一体何のための措置であったであろうか。一たん店に入ってみても出す料理の不正、すべての点からみて業者の九割が全然出たらめであるとの断定をして過言ではあるまい。またかかる食堂の現状を看過している所轄署はどうしたことか。

鐘路界隈：所轄署の取締はどうした。四十八軒の食堂のうち良心的な営業方法をとっている店は果して何軒あろう。遊興街に決戦非常措置の旋風が吹いてここに一年ビール、酒を問わず一本につき七十銭以下の料理一皿という最初の規定（鐘路所轄下）はどこへ吹っ飛んだのか。怪しげな定食が続々と現れ一円五十銭、二円、三円と辿りつくところを知らず、それに伴って料理は量質ともに悪くなって行く。材料がないならないでいい。肴なしで酒が飲めないものでもない。勿論承知しておる。料理をださなくちゃ業者はやって行けない。だが現状はそんな生易しいものでない。かんびん一本を虎の子に暴利を貪る。なかにこんなのがあった。

『定食は切れているがビールだけでも飲みますか』と、お客は喜んだ。だが後から勘定書をもらうとちゃんと定食二円五十銭とつけてある。酒場が世相を反映するものとすれば巷はこんなにも道義に欠けているのか。嘆かわしくなる。表門を頑丈な錠で閉めてしまい、初め行った人間には到底探されそうもない裏門を専用に営業している店もちょっと歩いてみただけで二軒ぶっつかった。警報でもあったらどうするのだろう。ある店ではブランデーと称して盃二杯にもならぬ量を一円二十銭で売っていた。そのほかに料理がつく、また酒にお湯をいれたのか、お湯に酒をいれたのかわからぬ代物もある。マッカリなどでも十円位は飲まないと酔いが廻って来ない。とっくり一本というのが盃に六杯分しかはいっていない。数えあげればいくらでもある。

出でよ公営食堂

結論：食堂は本町と鐘路で二百十八軒である。だが全部が毎日やっているわけではない。配給量が少ないため満足にやれない。甚だしい店は一ヶ月分を二、三日間で売ってしまう。これから先も減配は覚悟しなければならぬ。だがそういう店も依然として従業員がいる。一刻も早く公営の国民食堂に切り替えよ。いまの半分にも三分の一にも減らしてしっかりした食堂をつくり昼食、夜食を切符制にする。そして旅館など食事を全廃して旅行者は食堂で食べる、地域別、時間別にすれば出来ないことではない。そうすれば五十軒位でも京城はやって行ける。そして公営食堂の選定にあたっては決して過去の実績によらずあくまで良心的な業者に委かすことが必要がある。乏しい食糧事情だ。緻密な計画と果敢なる施策で百二十万の食生活を護りぬこう。【写真＝街の食堂全景】

Source: National Library of Korea, Digital Newspaper Archive

See also: Imperial Japanese and Korean collaborator elite partied in brothels and luxury restaurants while ordinary Koreans starved in wartime Seoul, early 1945 (link)