On August 15, 1945, at the end of World War II, Japan faced a tragic collapse of its economy and a devastated landscape. One misfortune followed another for about one and a half decades after the war. A succession of mega-scale typhoons and extraordinarily intense rainfall in the rainy season caused severe floods. Throughout the nation, urban areas and rice fields were inundated and destructive landslides killed over 1,000 people in a year. People also faced starvation from a food crisis.