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Causes and consequences of the Great Vietnam Famine, 1944–5

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  • Gregg Huff

Abstract

This article analyses Vietnam's 1944–5 great famine, which, even beyond its sheer scale of a million deaths, is historically important as instrumental in the August 1945 Viet Minh and communist revolution. It is argued that typhoons which struck coastal areas resulted in a shortfall of available food and were the proximate cause of famine. The Japanese in occupation of Vietnam, the American government directing attacks on the transport system, or the country's French colonial administration could have acted to limit, or even reverse, the famine. However, under the pressure of war, no government or institution opted for an effective famine alleviation strategy. That was also true of Asia's other great Second World War famines in Bengal, Henan, and Java, which paralleled Vietnam's both in causation and in feasible avoidance strategies. In Vietnam, differences in endowments and entitlements largely explain who died in the famine.

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  • Gregg Huff, 2019. "Causes and consequences of the Great Vietnam Famine, 1944–5," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 72(1), pages 286-316, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:72:y:2019:i:1:p:286-316
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12741
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    1. Amartya Sen, 1981. "Ingredients of Famine Analysis: Availability and Entitlements," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(3), pages 433-464.
    2. Sen, A., 1991. "Wars And Famines: On Divisions And Incentives," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1537, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    3. Stark, Oded, 1984. "Rural-to-Urban Migration in LDCs: A Relative Deprivation Approach," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(3), pages 475-486, April.
    4. Xin Meng & Nancy Qian & Pierre Yared, 2015. "The Institutional Causes of China's Great Famine, 1959–1961," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(4), pages 1568-1611.
    5. Bowbrick, Peter, 1986. "The causes of famine : A refutation of Professor Sen's theory," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 105-124, May.
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    2. Bassino, Jean-Pascal & van der Eng, Pierre, 2019. "Japan and the Asian Divergence: Market Integration, Climate Anomalies and Famines during the 18th and 19th Centuries," CEI Working Paper Series 2018-18, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    3. Kersti Lust & Martin Klesment & Hannaliis Jaadla, 2023. "Social inequalities in famine mortality in the manorial system of the tsarist Russian province of Livland in the mid‐1840s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(4), pages 1333-1356, November.
    4. Miikka Voutilainen, 2022. "Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(2), pages 503-529, May.
    5. Cahit Guven & Trung Hoang & Muhammad H. Rahman & Mehmet A. Ulubaşoğlu, 2021. "Long‐term effects of malnutrition on early‐life famine survivors and their offspring: New evidence from the Great Vietnam Famine 1944–45," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 1600-1627, July.

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