Rationing, substitutes and black markets

There was a serious shortage of food and other goods. As a result of the war, it was difficult to get supplies from other countries. Very few ships brought foodstuffs to Singapore because there was a shortage of food. The Japanese took fuel and other petroleum products from Southeast Asia for their own use. They also took over much of the foodstuffs and other goods for their army.
Due to the food shortage, essential foodstuffs such as rice, salt and sugar were rationed. Ration cards, which limited the amount of food for each person were given out. Two to three hour queue-ups once a month for basic, low-quality foodstuffs became a normal occurrence.
To cope with the food shortage, people had to live on simple diets and find other food substitutes for scarce food items. Tapioca and sweet potatoes were used as substitutes for rice and palm oil or coconut oil was used as cooking oil. people had to improvise to survive. For example, making condensed milk by putting sugar in fresh milk and cooking it for hours. We made rope from pineapple fibre and paper from pineapple leaves.
Sometimes, people relied on the black market to get their basic necessities. Shopkeepers took the opportunity to raise the price of the items. For example, a dozen eggs could cost $120. The situation was made worse by how the Japanese issued money to beat inflation. The money was called 'banana notes'. Whenever the authorities needed more money, they printed more notes. Later , the notes were printed on low-quality paper without serial numbers, making them easy to forge. As a result, there a lot of banana notes and their value dropped drastically.