The Farmer

With the men joining the military or guerrilla forces, the responsibility of trying to keep the economy alive in an agricultural country fell largely upon the women. Women have been tilling the land since the beginning of time, but especially during the war they were left to tend to their family’s farms and were also made to work in plantations that were being run by Japanese companies. The image shows a woman farmer carrying locally-grown cotton to be used for making threads and cloth, goods “which will find a ready market within the Co-Prosperity Sphere.”