Hanoi was the largest city in Vietnam and the whole famine was centered here.
At this point in history, Japan and France both had taken control of the leadership in Vietnam for their own war benefit.
1945
France and Germany started demanding food and other products leaving little for the citizens. They also demanded increased growing of cash crops instead of food.
Then what am I gonna eat?
give us the rice! were being attacked so we need more.
In a letter by a Vietnamese man named Di Ho he describes an encounter where Japanese soldiers raided the marketplace and emptied it of food without paying for anything. This is another cause that helped lead to famine.
Yup, lets go.
Alright, I think we got everything
Towards what would have been the end of the famine, a flood hit Vietnam lengthening it it making it even harder to grow food and rice to sell to the people.
Although there are no permanent records of exactly how many people died, Vietnam has estimated that it could have been up to 2 million people that died of starvation during this famine.