Lunchbox Lecture: Mealtime in the Mess Halls: Food in the Japanese American Incarceration Camps of World War II

During World War II, 120,000 Japanese Americans attempted to adjust to their lives behind barbed wire at one of 10 incarceration camps—and this included encountering new food served in the mess halls.

By Stephanie Hinnershitz, PhD, Senior Historian, Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, The National WWII Museum

During World War II, 120,000 Japanese Americans attempted to adjust to their lives behind barbed wire at one of 10 incarceration camps—and this included encountering new food served in the mess halls. Thousands of Japanese Americans ate staples like SPAM and hot dogs for the first time and also grew more familiar fruits and vegetables in small victory gardens while in the camps. They experienced wartime changes in the food they ate and the culinary traditions they struggled to keep alive when faced with limits on their freedom.

This program is proudly sponsored by AARP Louisiana.