Is Spam Musubi Japanese?
I disagree partially. Spam wasn’t invented until 1937 nor really known in the islands until the height of the Second World War. Due to the severe prejudice against the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, most Japanese descendants avoided doing or making things that were very traditional Japanese in nature during this time period. Musubi is an extremely common traditional Japanese food, eaten throughout the nation made with a wide range of ingredients to compliment the 2 essential ingredients: cooked rice and nori. They stopped doing Japanese things due to the internment of all the Japanese Americans living on the west coast of the US, many of their family members. Many feared it might happen there as well, so tried to act as "American" as much as possible to show their loyalty (though it turned out their fears were unfounded as they weren’t interned because a.) the military and civilian economy depended upon the Japanese descendant’s labor, a third of the Hawaiian population and b.) Lt Gen Delos Emmons commander of all forces in Hawaii had a very different view of the Japanese immigrants than Gen DeWitt)
Spam musubi was probably created in Okinawa as right after the war as most all rations were being supplied via the Occupation forces more so than in any other part of Japan or Hawaii. Spam would have been in large quantities of those rations as source of meat. The musubi being essentially the sandwich of Japan was and still is a common food eaten throughout the day all over Japan… With most supplies in food supplies rationed… it was a cheap and easy to make a meal with the plethora supply of Spam at that time and their rationed bags of rice. Being an essential part of the Japanese diet musubis are known to made out most anything, incorporating whatever widely available ingredients…At that time period imported rice and the canned ingredients (why else do you think Japanese have such a love of canned corn and tuna) provided by the occupation forces makes it likely it started there rather than Hawaii that despite wartime rationing still had a large supply of traditional locally produced products available. I imagine the recipe travelled with families that later joined their Hawaiian cousins, among the military forces (which, like now, large percentage end up marrying Japanese after extended tours) and the many other Japanese and Okinawans working for the military that ended up following them back to Hawaii The use of Spam in musubi quickly died off in Japan when the supply of Spam became difficult and expensive to acquire, especially when the crackdown on black market rackets started to occur in 1948-9 and the fact that cheaper, local ingredients started reappearring back on mainland Japan. But due to the contiuned occupation of Okinawa until 1972 and the still large concentration of US Forces there I imagined that Spam musubi became ingrained in the Okinawan culture as it is still widely found on the island… but it is nowhere near as popular as it is in Hawaii mainly due to Spam’s high cost in Japan.
I imagine by that time the taste had caught on more in Hawaii which its 1/3 Japanese descended population was no longer afraid of producing traditional Japanese cuisine. This is due to the fact that was probably profitable to make it by then because of the the high number of service members returned through Hawaii after tours in Japan. Many had developed a taste for Japanese cuisine and sought it out. Since Hawaii had much cheaper access to Spam and the huge population of Japanese descendants, probably ingrained this unique blend of 2 different cultures’ commoner’s cuisine into a 3rd culture’s, the rich cultural tradition of Hawaiian cuisine. So yes Spam musubi is a at minimum partially Japanese in origin as the musubi is a very essential part of Japanese cuisine. However I can’t say for certain that the use of Spam was first incorporated in the musubi in Japan…hard to say… maybe it is an example of a simultaneous creation on both the islands…(but seeing how it is still is prepared there in a very a traditional Japanese way with Japanese seasoning and nori binding it to the rice, leads me to believe if it wasn’t FIRST made in Japan it was at least created by very traditional Japanese cooks; whether the first inventors were born in Hawaii or had immigrated there is of little consequence)
Yes, the existance of the Spam musubi is entirely dependent of its fond appeal in the Hawaiian Islands. So I’d say, while its origins are definitely Japanese, it is exists today much because of its wide appeal in Hawaii. It is a Hawaiian food much like Tempura is Japanese…(Tempura’s is truly Portuguese in origin but it is no where deeply and widely appreciated in Portugal as it is appreciated and taken to an art form as it is done in Japanese culinary culture)
Not really – it was invented in Hawaii, probably by immigrants of Japanese descent. Spam was virtually unknown until fairly recently in much of mainland Japan. (Spam is fairly popular in Okinawa, which was occupied until the 1970s by the United States and still has a U.S. military base. It’s also very popular in South Korea. Both regions, as far as I can find out, got their Spam habit from Americans.) I’m sorry to say I just can’t make myself like Spam in any form—I’ve tried! No need to worry, there are plenty of Spam Musubi recipes online, like this recent one on Lunch In A Box, as well as on Cooking Cute.
