It's easy to laugh the old incidents. But it's pointless without considering the situation at that time. Otherwise, it's like laughing at old movies, saying: "W

It's easy to laugh the old incidents. But it's pointless without considering the situation at that time. Otherwise, it's like laughing at old movies, saying: "Why don't they use cellphone to communicate each other?". The cellphone haven't invented at that time. Japanese navy suffered beriberi for eating milled white rice and nothing else. Because milled rice only diet lacks essential vitamins. But the first vitamin hasn't been found until 1913(Vitamin A). Nobody in the world had a correct knowledge about healthy diet. In this case, eating un-milled brown rice. At that time, majority of them believed that beriberi was caused by some kind of bacteria. So Japanese navy did everything they could do to prevent infection. It was not like they were trying. They didn't know the correct solution. So your next question would be, why didn't they test it scientifically? Well, in 1880, Statistics hadn't been developed like today. So not many people, even the scientists didn't have a proper statistic knowledge like modern scientists today must has or else they are doomed to be called unscientific idiot. You must also consider that at that time, the brown rice was for poor. It's taste aren't that good compared to white rice. Rich people was enjoy eating white rice everyday. Now imagine you were drafted for military, serving for the country, and you can't get a delicious and enough meal. That' a shame. So Japanese navy serve the best meal the traditional Japanese soldiers want, a lot of white rice.