How Instant Ramen Saved Lives
- Ryan Wu
- 14 hours ago
- 2 min read
Hamburg steaks? Yakitori? Gyudon?
Where were these meaty dishes in post-World War II Japan? The country had suffered its most devastating loss to date, and it had spent all its food and resources into keeping up the war it had just lost. Where there were once homes and businesses were rubble, ash, and starving people. Japan struggled with food shortages and relied on the victorious Americans for basic aid, and there was no room for meat.
For one Taiwanese-Japanese businessman named Momofuku Ando, aerial bombings had destroyed the factory and two office buildings that he had built. He was walking around the firebombed and frigid streets of Osaka when he stumbled across a group of people gathered in the wreckage behind a train station, lined up outside a makeshift ramen stall and waiting for something to eat.
He thought to himself, “People are willing to go through this much suffering for a bowl of ramen?”
He pondered about the quintessential Japanese comfort food. Sure, everyone liked it, but not everyone could make it so easily. After all, not a lot of people in postwar Japan could afford either the time or money to make their own broth, noodles, or toppings from scratch. From there, Ando sought out to create the perfect food to solve Japan’s hunger problem: it had to be delicious, nonperishable, quick to prepare, affordable, and safe to eat.
He tried for a year in a shed behind his house, but he could never seem to preserve ramen noodles while keeping their texture intact. Then, by chance in 1958, Ando dropped the noodles into the hot tempura oil his wife was preparing. He discovered that the oil had dehydrated them and formed small holes that helped them cook quickly, leading to the invention of instant noodles.
When his first product, Chikin Ramen, launched in 1958, it was initially viewed as a luxury due to its higher price compared to fresh ramen from local shops. Still, consumers quickly embraced the convenience of preparing it at home, and sales soared. Instant ramen soon became a staple in Japan, paving the way for a thriving industry.
Today, more than 100 billion servings of instant ramen are served per day, the World Instant Noodles Association reports. They’re crucial in the fight against starvation, and they wouldn’t have been possible without one aspiring Japanese man and his wife.
Ryan Wu is a rising junior at Hunter College High School in New York, New York. He has participated in the highly selective Science Honors Program at Columbia University since 2024, where he studied university-level topics such as immunology, toxicology, bioengineering, and biotechnology. He currently serves as the layout editor and writer for EATS Food Magazine.
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