For every pound of supplies the Japanese transported to their island garrisons, many of whom—at Rabaul, for instance—spent the second half of the war engaged in subsistence vegetable gardening rather than combat operations, the United States shipped two tons to its own forces. American reluctance to feed their men on local supplies was increased by the shortcomings of some nations’ canning processes: eight U.S. airmen died in an outbreak of botulism after eating Australian tinned beetroot. American specialists were thereupon dispatched to raise local standards. Maj. Belford Seabrook, of the
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