Hi-Lites Youth Voice: Mess Halls, Slow-Downs, and the PTA
Mess Halls, Slow-Downs, and the PTA
By Fletcher Hamblen
College of Southern Idaho, Summer Intern, Minidoka National Historic Site
As War Relocation Authority Camps were ordered to begin the process of closing the camps in December of 1944, new mandates and orders began descending from the Washington office of the WRA. One of these mandates was that when a mess hall’s served population reached lower than 125, that mess hall was to be closed. In partnership with that, was the directive to lay off between three and five mess hall staff from all operational mess halls, out of the average 25 mess hall staff members. This forced all mess hall staff members to work more, with less. With a fifth of their staff threatened with losing their jobs, Project Director Stafford sent to the Washington WRA office to delay this directive at Minidoka by sixty days to March 1, 1945. It was accepted, but this was not enough.
On March 1st, the WRA directives caused the closure of three mess halls and laying off 205 of the 1108 mess hall kitchen staff to occur rapidly. Due to this, the Cook’s Union was formed, and immediately they called a Slow-Down Strike, where they served meals at later hours. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were delayed by one to two hours. This directly caused both students and camp laborers to be late in reporting, or not appear at all during the academic day or workday. Camp administration refused to give excused absences for students missing school because of the strike. This caused the validity of Hunt schools into question. If there were not enough attendees, and if those who did attend did not have enough seated class hours, then Hunt High risked losing everything both Incarcaree and WRA school employees had worked so hard for in the past three years, as every student that academic year would lose accreditation for that year, and 101 seniors would not graduate. Due to this, and finding that the Superintendent of Education was out, the Parent-Teacher Association took action into their own hands. In the afternoon of August 3rd, PTA leaders met personally with a Cooks Union leader, informing them of the looming threat of losing accreditation. Not only that, but they were ready to contact both the state PTA and national PTA over this egregious set of circumstances. The leader of the Cooks Union quietly called a meeting of the Union, and an outcome was quickly decided. The Cooks Union would cease operations of the slow-down strike, dissolve themselves, and donate their collective Union treasury, some $30 to the PTA for the Hunt schools.
The desired outcome for the PTA representatives was achieved, with 101 Seniors graduating on June 1, 1945. The Cooks Union decision is emblematic of the ever-prevalent Issei phrases of Kodomo No Tame Ni – “For the Sake of the Children” and Gaman – “Perseverance”. These mindsets of the Issei are easily seen in the resolution of the Mess Hall strike of 1945, that the Cooks Union was ready to lay down the entire purpose of their union so that the next generation could have a better start after resettlement, with a degree in hand for those graduates of the ’44-45 class. It would be seven months from the end of the mess hall strike to the complete closure of Minidoka, and it is without a doubt that those who graduated on June 1st went forward through resettlement to carry on the thought of Kodomo No Tame Ni – For the Sake of the Children.
PTA photo https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-834/