A LANGUAGE OF CONVENIENCE

"At various times, the [Japanese] masses were denied everything: soba, sugar, tea, rice. When meat was outlawed, the eating of deer was justified by referring to the creatures by the magical euphemism 'mountain whales.'"

(The above-linked five-page spread in the times on Tokyo cuisine is pretty good, and mostly not written from the "stranger in a strange land" high chair where many Times travel pieces tend to sit. Just fyi.)