This is another way in which the prisoners at camp could work at the mess halls. These two men cooked food in bulk amounts in order to feed their entire block. Each block had a kitchen.
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Food (Jack Iwata - A Kitchen at Manzanar)

One major change of camp life was the fact that meal preparation and service were now communal activities largely out of women's control. This picture shows two men cooking in a kitchen at Manzanar. Meals in the camp were not very satisfactory, as they were poorly planned and cooked. Nakano notes that “a lack of understanding on the part of the [camp] administrators… is revealed in their failure to enlist women as head cooks. With their experience of having cooked for work gangs or their extended families, [the women] commanded more knowledge and skill about the myriad needs of cookery” (Nakano 144). Women, Issei or Nisei alike, served largely supplementary roles in mess halls.
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Description
Photo of 2 men in a kitchen preparing food. One man is pouring some food out of one bowl into a pan.

Caption
One of the many kitchens at the Manzanar War Relocation Center. Relocation centers, commonly called "Camps" were divided into blocks and each block had a kitchen. Circa 1942.

copy negative

Manzanar, Calif., c. 1942

(93.102.17)

Gift of Jack and Peggy Iwata

Jack Iwata Collection

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