NPR on hot dogs and Japanese culture
NPR has an article about the effect of American internment and occupation on Japanese and Japanese-American cuisine:
Shousei Hanayama, the priest at the Buddhist Temple in Watsonville, Calif., remembered that after the war, American soldiers in Okinawa brought hot dogs and introduced them into the island culture.
Hanayama noted that hot dogs are still a part of the Japanese culture, pointing to the story of Takeru Kobayashi, who can eat 63 hot dogs in under 12 minutes. The winner of six consecutive Nathan’s Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contests, Kobayashi revolutionized and popularized competitive eating with a technique called “Japanesing,” separating hot dog from bun as he crams to victory.
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