Small items like you stated "cigarettes" became a luxury and a comfort item back then. Cooking oil, salt, sugar, and such also. Black market did flourish. My mom and my dad both experience WWII during the occupation of the Philippines by the Japanese. My dad's brother paid for his life under a Japanese sword, beheaded after the Japanese found out that he had helped an American soldier escape. My dad joined a guerilla unit after hearing the news his brother has been killed. Lived a couple of years in the jungle fighting. My mom told me of the atrocities that the Japapnese soldiers engaged in while the occupation. Babies getting tossed up in the air and getting bayoneted on the way down, rape of women, public beheadings to show the towns people what happens when you help a American soldier, and so on. Unfortunately there were also Filipinos that sided with the Japanese but justice was soon served when the Philippines was liberated by the American soldiers. Those Japanese colaborators met their fate via the blade of a bolo, knife, bamboo spear, or a bullet.