How did World War II impact the development of Japanese whisky?

Speaking of this topic, it's quite interesting. The impact of WWII on Japanese whisky, simply put, was like a double-edged sword: it almost destroyed it, yet in some ways, it also made it. Let's look at it separately, and you'll understand.

First, During the War: A "Distorted" Prosperity

Think about it, what's the first thing that happens in wartime? Resource control. All imported goods, including Scotch whisky, were essentially cut off.

• No Competitors, Became the "Only Choice": Before, if Japanese people wanted whisky, they could buy imports. Once the war started and import channels closed, the only option was domestic whisky. Suddenly, nascent distilleries like Yamazaki and Yoichi found themselves without competitors, and orders poured in.

• The Military Became a Major Client: The military was the largest consumer group at the time, especially the navy. Whisky was considered a morale-boosting military supply, distributed in large quantities to officers. So, distilleries had no trouble selling; in fact, demand often outstripped supply.

Sounds good, right? But hold on, behind this prosperity lay huge "pitfalls."

• Quality Plummeted: During wartime, food was paramount. Barley for whisky production was strictly rationed, prioritized for military and civilian food supplies. What could distilleries do? They had to find other ways. They started using various available substitutes like corn, millet, and even sweet potatoes for brewing, then blending it with rectified alcohol. Oak barrels were also extremely scarce, so aging was largely out of the question.

  What was produced then could hardly be called "whisky" in the strict sense, and its taste was predictably poor. But because it was wartime, people were just glad to have something to drink, and there were no other options. This led to the deep-seated negative impression among the general public that "Japanese whisky = cheap, low-quality liquor."

Second, After the War: Reconstruction and Transformation from the Ruins

The war ended, leaving Japan in ruins, but for the whisky industry, new challenges and opportunities emerged.

• The Inertia of Low-Quality Liquor: In the immediate post-war period, everyone was poor, with low purchasing power. The wartime-produced "third-grade whisky" blended with alcohol, being cheap, continued to dominate the market. This was very painful for distilleries that wanted to stick to traditional craftsmanship and make good whisky. The good whisky you painstakingly brewed with barley and aged for several years in oak barrels was expensive and simply couldn't compete with those cheap blended spirits.

• New Trends Brought by American Soldiers: After the war, American troops entered Japan, bringing their culture, and of course, their liquor—Bourbon whisky. This was the first time Japanese people widely encountered a style other than Scotch whisky. At the same time, to cater to these affluent Americans and Japanese people imitating Western lifestyles, various bars and clubs began to emerge. This created new consumption scenarios and a cultural atmosphere for whisky. Shinjiro Torii, the founder of Suntory, seized this opportunity, opening numerous "Torys Bars," making whisky drinking fashionable.

• Economic Recovery, Return to Quality: With Japan's miraculous economic recovery (1960s-70s), people had more money, and their tastes began to improve. People were no longer satisfied with cheap blended spirits and started seeking genuinely high-quality products. At this point, distilleries that had continued to adhere to traditional brewing methods during difficult times, such as Suntory and Nikka, finally put their high-quality aged spirits, quietly stored away, to good use. They began to release true single malts and high-aged blended whiskies, instantly capturing the market and reshaping the image of Japanese whisky.

In summary:

WWII acted like a cruel "filter."

1. In the short term, it gave Japanese whisky a "protective shell" free from foreign competition, allowing this young industry to survive and not be stifled in its infancy.
2. But it also forced distilleries to produce low-quality spirits, digging a huge hole for its reputation that took decades after the war to slowly fill.
3. Post-war reconstruction and Westernization, by a strange twist of fate, created new cultural ground and markets for whisky, ultimately prompting Japanese whisky to transform from a "cheap substitute" into a "high-quality art form," eventually astonishing the world decades later.

So, it can be said that without WWII, the Japanese whisky industry might not have achieved its later scale; but also because of WWII, it went through a very winding and painful detour concerning quality and survival.