Between Famine and Freedom: Food Prices and Hunger during the Indonesian War of Independence

This paper examines the dynamics between hunger and warfare during the Indonesian War of Independence (1945-49). We compiled a dataset comprising over 8,000 prices for staple foods (rice, maize, cassava) covering the entire Indonesian archipelago from 1939-49, allowing us to estimate the effects of the main Dutch military campaigns on food prices. We then use a second dataset on wartime wages to estimate nutritional standards. Our study shows that the war’s impact on food prices was significantly greater than previously assumed, both in and outside Java. We argue that Operation Product was partly motivated by high rice prices, and we demonstrate that these were significantly reduced across Java and Sumatra after the end of the military campaign. Our findings further suggest that local food crises, and possibly famine conditions, occurred across different parts of the archipelago, strongly supporting the notion that food and hunger were central issues during the Independence War.