Japan was in the process of burning it's way through Burma, which is before that time was a massive producer of rice. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-26937-2_...) South-east asia suddenly lost something like 5 million tonnes of rice production in the space of two years.

Yes, the war time administration fucked up, but to say "its always the British" is reductionist and also sidelines some of the most brutal civilian subjugations of WWII.