| Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor marked not only America’s entrance to World War II, but catalyzed one of the largest civil rights infractions in United States history. Convinced that those
with Japanese descent (Nikkei) living along the Pacific coast posed a threat to national security, President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 decreed the area a military exclusion zone.
The military subsequently forcefully removed over 110,000 Japanese Americans—over twothirds of whom held U.S. citizenship—from their homes. Unjustly incarcerated into incarceration camps scattered throughout the Midwest, Nikkei spent three years experiencing physical, mental, and cultural degradations. Using unexamined oral histories and other under-utilized primary
source accounts, I use food history as a lens to better understand the Nikkei experience during World War II. With themes including emergency harvest food production, self-sustainability,
and subjection to unfamiliar and culturally insensitive foods, this work makes broader implications regarding labor, race, and loyalty.
Key Words: United States History, Food History, WWII, Japanese American, Incarceration Camps, Food Production, Race |