Editing Manzanar (section)

=== Food ===
[[File:Mess Hall Line.jpg|thumb|right|Waiting for lunch outside a mess hall at noon on July 7, 1942]]
The barracks at Manzanar had no cooking areas, and all meals were served at block mess halls.<ref name="nps manzanar daily life"/> The mess hall lines were long and stretched outside regardless of weather.<ref name="nps manzanar daily life"/><ref name="kikuchi memories 2007 npr"/> The cafeteria-style eating was named by the 1980s Congressional Committee on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) as a cause of the deterioration of the family due to children wanting to eat with their friends instead of their families, and families not always being able to eat together.<ref name="caam kim food 20170213"/><ref name="heitz 2019"/> There was a strict meal schedule, with one young detainee noting "We eat from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM o'clock in the morning 12:00 PM-1:00 PM in afternoon and 5:00 PM-6:00 in night and on Sunday we eat 8:00 AM-9:00."<ref>{{cite journal | title=Letter from Yoshi Sugiyama to Claire D. Sprauge, June 5, 1942 | url=https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/sprague/10/ | journal=Claire B. Sprague Collection | date=June 5, 1942 | access-date=February 19, 2021| last1=Sugiyama | first1=Yoshi }}</ref> Food at Manzanar was based on military requirements. Meals usually consisted of hot rice and vegetables, since meat was scarce due to [[rationing]].<ref name="Reflections7" />

In 1944, a chicken ranch and a hog farm began operation, providing the camp with meat.<ref name="CAE171"/> As many of the internees were farmers, they used their knowledge of fertilizers, irrigation, land reclamation, and cultivation to successfully grow productive gardens.<ref name="heitz 3"/> They made their own [[soy sauce]] and [[tofu]].<ref name="Reflections7" /> Many families had small gardens outside their barracks.<ref name="heitz 4">Heitz, p. 4.</ref>

The food varied in quality, but was mostly substandard compared to the food the internees ate prior to incarceration.<ref name="caam kim food 20170213">{{cite web |url=https://caamedia.org/offthemenu/2017/02/13/victory-gardens-behind-barbed-wire-japanese-americans-recall-eating-in-camp/ |title=Victory Gardens Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese Americans Recall Eating In Camp |first=Heidi |last=Kim |date=February 13, 2017 |publisher=Center for Asian American Media |access-date=June 5, 2020 |archive-date=March 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316205447/https://caamedia.org/offthemenu/2017/02/13/victory-gardens-behind-barbed-wire-japanese-americans-recall-eating-in-camp/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Togo Tanaka]] described how people "got sick from eating ill-prepared food."<ref name="latimes obit togo tanaka 20090705"/> Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga described trying to take care of her newborn daughter, saying that the child was so sick that, while "[m]ost infants double their weight, birth weight, at six months", her daughter "had not doubled her weight in a year".<ref name="caam kim food 20170213"/>

The food in Manzanar was heavily [[Starch#Food|starchy]] and low quality, including [[Vienna sausage#North America|Vienna sausages]], canned [[Green bean|string beans]], [[Hot dog#In the United States|hot dogs]], and [[apple sauce]].<ref name="caam kim food 20170213"/> Outside of the sausages and hot dogs, meat was rare, usually consisting of chicken or mutton that was heavily breaded and fried.<ref name="kikuchi memories 2007 npr">{{cite AV media |first=Frank |last=Kikuchi |year=2007 |title=Frank Kikuchi Describes the Food at the Manzanar Camp in California |url=https://www.npr.org/player/embed/17335538/17358613 |access-date=June 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605232228/https://www.npr.org/player/embed/17335538/17358613 |archive-date=June 5, 2020 |format=audio |time=0:18–0:59 |publisher=[[NPR]] }}</ref> Frank Kikuchi, an internee at Manzanar, stated that some of the newspapers lied to the American public by telling them that the "Japs [in the camps] are getting steaks, chops, eggs, or eating high off the hog."<ref name="kikuchi memories 2007 npr"/> Camp, school, and individual gardens eventually helped supplement the menu in the mess halls.<ref name="caam kim food 20170213"/> Internees also snuck out of the camp to go fishing, often bringing back their catches to the camp.<ref name="caam kim food 20170213"/>

[[Harry Ueno]] accused camp administrators and leaders in the [[Japanese American Citizens League]] (JACL) of stealing food meant for the internees and then selling it on the [[black market]].<ref name="caam kim food 20170213"/> During the [[#Manzanar Riot|December 1942 camp riot]], Ueno was arrested for allegedly beating another internee who was a member of the JACL.