Online Videos page updated

I have recently updated the Online Videos page to include more items by, and about, ex-internees. These videos come from a variety of sources, including YouTube, Vimeo, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), among others. The page also includes a video of an ex-STIC internee interviewing other ex-internees. If anyone knows the name of the interviewer, please send a message to me via the Comments page. [See below for update!]

Unknown STIC interviewer, 1945

Unnamed STIC interviewer, 1945

The list of individuals include:

  • Frank Woodruff Buckles
  • Ed Cadwallader
  • Lillian Rose Goynes
  • Samuel Weir Hamilton
  • Eleanor Herold Heimke
  • Lotte Cassel Hershfield
  • Louise Howard Hill
  • Catherine Cotterman Hoskins
  • Mary Jane Bellis Laznibat
  • Angus Lorenzen
  • Prof. Martin Meadows
  • Patricia Chittick Remley
  • James Stewart & Judy Stewart Harding
  • Prof. Rupert Wilkinson

Other contributions are always welcome. Link to the Online Videos page.

Update: Martin Meadows has identified the unnamed interviewer as Clarence Alton Beliel, aka “Don Bell.” Thanks, Martin! George Baker and Angus Lorenzen also recognized Don Bell correctly.

2019 Books!

Following are the books, fiction and non-fiction, released in 2019 that involved the civilian internment camps or World War II in the Philippines. The abstracts are provided either by the author or the publisher. I hope to make this annual review of books a regular column.

A Child’s Life — Interrupted by the Imperial Japanese Army
by Robert Anthony Wheeler, Santo Tomás and Los Baños internee

Childs-Life-2019-Robert-Wheeler-coverRobert A. Wheeler was born in Manila, the Philippine Islands, where his normal childhood changed drastically when the Imperial Japanese Air Force bombed the city on December 8, 1941, the day after their planes destroyed United States battleships at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands.Bob, his younger brother, Albert, their American father and German stepmother were incarcerated first at Santo Tomas University and later in the Los Banos internment camp, where they spent more than two years with two thousand other Allied men, women, and children, trying to survive on sparse diets under brutal captors.Then, on February 23, 1945, “Angels” came from heaven above to liberate the internees held at Los Banos. Paratroopers from the 11th Airborne Division, particularly the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, rescued the prisoners, who were immediately evacuated to U.S. lines aboard Amtracs by the 672nd Amphibious Tractor Battalion.Repatriated to the United States in April 1945, the family finally settled in California but never forgot the men who saved their lives.

========================================

Along the Broken Bay [Fiction]
by Flora J. Solomon

December 1941. War has erupted in the Pacific, spelling danger for Gina Capelli Thorpe, an American expat living in Manila. When the Japanese invade and her husband goes missing, Gina flees with her daughter to the Zambales Mountains to avoid capture—or worse.

Desperate for money, medicine, and guns, the resistance recruits Gina to join their underground army and smuggles her back to Manila. There, she forges a new identity and opens a nightclub, where seductive beauties sing, dance, and tease secrets out of high-ranking Japanese officers while the wildly successful club and its enemy patrons help fund the resistance.

But operating undercover in the spotlight has Gina struggling to stay a step ahead of the Japanese. She’s risked everything to take a stand, but her club is a house of cards in the eye of a storm. Can Gina keep this delicate operation running long enough to outlast the enemy, or is she on a sure path to defeat that will put her family, her freedom, or even her life at risk?

========================================

Wonks [Fiction]
by William Reese Hamilton, Santo Tomás internee

World War II, The Philippines. Johnny Oldfield tells what it’s like to grow up in a Japanese prison camp, his pivotal teenage years filled with danger and defeat, adventure and intrigue, cruelty and betrayal, starvation and death, survival and liberation.Johnny calls himself a WONK (from the Chinese won gau, yellow dog) a mongrel running with a pack of rebellious kids and viewing his society from the ground up. Separated from his father by the Japanese invasion, he gets his life lessons from a diverse cast of characters: his mother Ruth, a nurse with a strong and independent spirit; Harry Barnes, a storyteller who arrives from China carrying the urn of a friend’s ashes; Southy Jack, an ex-pro boxer who trains boys in the manly art; Polecat, a mestizo pal with an all-consuming hatred for the Japanese; the Colonel, a wise old plantation owner who gives advice on survival; Haverford, a disgruntled alcoholic from Manila’s high society; and Abiko, the feared officer of the Japanese camp guard.This dramatic tale is played out in the heart of Manila, a city once called “the Pearl of the Orient,” now being destroyed by massive bombing, strafing, artillery barrages and mortar attacks.

William Reese Hamilton spent his childhood in North China and the Philippines, where he and his family were captured and imprisoned by the Japanese Army for more than three years in Santo Tomas Internment Camp, Manila. Reese has translated this experience into a new work of fiction, Wonks, inspired closely by the years he spent locked away in Santo Tomas, facing danger and defeat, adventure and intrigue, cruelty and betrayal, starvation and death, survival and, ultimately, liberation.

========================================

A Reckoning : Philippine Trials of Japanese War Criminals
by Sharon W. Chamberlain

After World War II, thousands of Japanese throughout Asia were put on trial for war crimes. Examination of postwar trials is now a thriving area of research, but Sharon W. Chamberlain is the first to offer an authoritative assessment of the legal proceedings convened in the Philippines. These were trials conducted by Asians, not Western powers, and centered on the abuses suffered by local inhabitants rather than by prisoners of war. Her impressively researched work reveals the challenges faced by the Philippines, as a newly independent nation, in navigating issues of justice amid domestic and international pressures.

Chamberlain highlights the differing views of Filipinos and Japanese about the trials. The Philippine government aimed to show its commitment to impartial proceedings with just outcomes. In Japan, it appeared that defendants were selected arbitrarily, judges and prosecutors were biased, and lower-ranking soldiers were punished for crimes ordered by their superior officers. She analyzes the broader implications of this divergence as bilateral relations between the two nations evolved and contends that these competing narratives were reimagined in a way that, paradoxically, aided a path toward postwar reconciliation.

========================================
Philippine Birthmark: The Story of William Singleton Carroll His birth and first three years as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines 1941-45
by McLean Goodpasture Carroll

Philippine Birthmark tells the story of William Singleton Carroll’s birth and first three years as an unwilling captive of the Japanese in Manila during WWII. Little is known of the bombing of the Philippines taking place the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. This narrative will shed light on the conditions suffered by many Americans in Manila at Santo Tomas Internment Camp from January 1942 to February 1945.

Read the review by Angus Lorenzen published in Beyond the Wire (The BACEPOW newsletter).

John “Jigger” Jay, accountant and cartoonist

By profession, British internee, John Leslie “Jigger” Jay, was an accountant. But he also proved to be an apt cartoonist of daily life at Santo Tomás, and later Los Baños internment camps. His most prominent work was in How We Took It, poems by Alfred J. Stahl and published in New York in October 1945. Jigger traveled on the S.S. Admiral E.W. Eberle leaving Manila on 10 April 1945, arriving in San Pedro, California, on 2 May 1945. He was repatriated on the R.M.S. Scythia leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 10 May 1945, arriving in Liverpool on 25 May 1945, en route to Banstead, Surrey.

Illustration from "How We Took It"

Two pages from “How We Took It,” 1945, by Alfred J. Stahl and John L. “Jigger” Jay

STIC place-mat, by John "Jigger" Jay

STIC place-mat, created by John “Jigger” Jay.
Click on image to expand to see the great detail.


If anyone has more information about Jigger or his work, please use our “Comments” form.

British Commonwealth Civilian Deaths in the Philippines

During World War II, there were approximately 93 civilian deaths in the Philippines from British Commonwealth countries. They are broken down as follows: 67 British, 13 Canadians, 11 Australians and 2 New Zealanders.

The following table details the date and cause of death for each person, if known. After 8 December 1941, a small number joined either the guerrillas or the U.S. Army. Subsequently, a number of them were killed by the Japanese or died on “Hell Ships” while being transported to work camps outside of the Philippines.

All of these names will be incorporated into the next revision of the “In Memoriam” page.

NAMENATIONALITYINTERNMENTDATE OF DEATHCAUSE OF DEATH
Aaron, Margaret Elizabeth BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-06-11Carcinoma of uterus
Andrews, ElviraBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-01-24Died of coronary thrombosis
Aplin, Ada AloysiaBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-03Missing, believed killed by the Japanese
Baker, Mary KleinBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-10-10Died of Tuberculosis
Boniface, Mark BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-01-15Died of carcinoma of tuberculosis
Bridle, Arthur AustralianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-03Died of heart disease
Burwell, Walter SimondCanadianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-12-30Died of tuberculosis
Carpenter, William GeorgeAustralianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-08-08Died of paralysis
Carter, Bessie EnaAustralianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-12-16Died of pneumonia
Clear, Charles Arnold BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-05Died of coronary occlusion
Cooke, Doris AnneBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-10-17Died of septicemia
Cooper, Arthur Joseph BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-01-04Died of beri-beri
Crichton, Alexander MartinBritishDavao POW Camp1944-09-07Died in the sinking of the Shinyo Maru
Crook, Thomas H.BritishPOW Camp 7 Corregidor1944-10-24Died in the sinking of the Arisan Maru
Cruz, Emmie Davis BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-09Died of malnutrition
Deuchars, William McGregorBritishNot interned1942-04-16Died as a result of the sinking of the Yu Sang in Mariveles Harbour
Douglas, Francis (Father)New ZealanderNot interned1943-08-27Executed by the Japanese
Farnes, Walter StanleyBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-06-07Died of pneumonia
Fletcher, Thomas Henry BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-02-15Executed by the Japanese for trying to escape
Fong, Olive AustralianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1943-05-09Died of tuberculosis
Fox, Hubert ThorntonBritishNot Interned as of July 1, 19441945-02-12Killed by the Japanese
Fox, Nattie Perez RubioBritishNot interned1945-02-12Killed by the Japanese
Gamble, Cecil Reginald "Rex"AustralianNot interned -- Guerrilla1943-09-30Killed in enemy action
Garrett, Guy WatkinsBritishNot interned1942-03-01Killed by the Japanese
Gillies, John BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-08-07Died of heart failure
Gomm, Albert B.CanadianCabanatuan POW Camp1944-10-24Died in the sinking of the Arisan Maru
Grant, WilliamBritishCabanatuan POW Camp1944-10-11Died in the sinking of the Arisan Maru
Hair, HelenBritishNot Interned as of July 1, 19441945-02-12Killed by the Japanese
Hair, John McGavinBritishCabanatuan POW Camp1945-01-25Died in the sinking of the Enoura Maru
Hall, Consuelo McMickingBritishNot interned1945-01-31Executed by the Japanese
Harris, Winifred Jean BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1943-03-26Died of tuberculosis
Harvey, Charles StevensonBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-07-24Died of heart failure, anemia
Herridge, James Russell BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-03-11Unknown
Higham, Frederick James BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-01-25Died of beri-beri
Hill, Enoch BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-01-30Died of anemia
Hocking, Leonard WilliamBritishDavao POW Camp1944-09-07Died in the sinking of the Shinyo Maru
Hoey, Thomas BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-08-29Died of heart failure
Hollyer, William George BritishLos Banos Internment Camp1944-12-09Died of hernia
Johnston, AbagailBritishNot interned1942-04-16Died of Tuberculosis and malnutrition
Johnston, JeanBritishNot interned1942-02-05Died of heart disease
Kingcome, Ernest AstellBritishBaguio Internment Camp1943-06-14Died of malnutrition
LaFerriere, Lucien (Rev.)CanadianNational Psychopathic Hospital1945-02-09Executed by the Japanese
Lamy, Leo (Rev.)CanadianNot interned1942-12-19Died of Malaria
Laycock, Blakey BorthwickAustralianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-02-15Executed by the Japanese for trying to escape
Lea, Edward BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-24Died of malnutrition
Leblanc, Omer (Rev.)CanadianNot interned1942-08-15Executed by the Japanese
Lees, James AndrewBritishNot interned1942-04-16Killed by the Japanese
Luyendyk, Mary WilhelminaCanadianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-03-26Unknown
Lynch, Thomas T.AustralianCabanatuan POW Camp1944-12-15Died in sinking of the Oryoku Maru
MacGavin, William BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1943-11-29Died of high blood pressure
Mahoney, James CyrilBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-09Died of malnutrition
Marcuson, PaulBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-08-04Died of duodenal ulcer
Mason, John RobertBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-04-02Unknown
Maxwell, Stanley EdwardBritishDavao POW Camp1944-09-07Died in the sinking of the Shinyo Maru
McAvoy, Dora Blanche AustralianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1943-11-01Died of cancer
McCann, Henry EdwardBritishNot interned1942-05-03Died of tumors
McCannus, William BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-09-04Died of unrecorded
Miller, Robert MacVinnieBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-05-07Died of cardiac arrest
Morris, Garnet Green IICanadianBaguio Internment Camp1945-01-09Died in the sinking of the Enoura Maru
Morris, Margaret Helen "Dolly"CanadianBaguio Internment Camp1944-01-27Heart attack
Murray, William R.CanadianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-04-26Died of unrecorded
Newson, Clement Charles BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-07-14Died of cancer
Newton, Alexander Cochrane BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-04-28Died of coronary thrombosis
O'Kelly, Philomene Ursula (Sister)BritishNot interned1945-02-10Unknown
Palmentar, StanleyBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-10Died of malnutrition
Peacock, Charles SamuelBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-01-30Died of beri-beri
Poirier, Leo (Rev.)CanadianNot interned1942-08-15Executed by the Japanese
Ralston, Robert Sr.BritishSanto Tomas Internment Camp1945-02-10Died of malnutrition
Redfern, VictoriaBritishNot interned1945-02-14Killed in action
Robyns-Owen, OwenBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-01-09Accidental death
Salwood, HerbertBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-10Died of malnutrition
Shaw, John RoyCanadianSanto Tomas Internment Camp1945-01-21Died of old age, starvation
Shrubsole, Cyril Arthur JohnBritishNot interned1944-01-05Presumed killed by the Japanese
Struth, James BarkerBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-06-26Unknown
Telford, William AustralianBaguio Internment Camp1943-05-03Chronic prostatic hypertropy cardia vascular renal disease
Tomkins, John FrederickBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-09Malnutrition; Cancer of intestines
Trimble, Paul HenryAustralianBaguio Internment Camp1942-08-11Ciliana of brain
Walford, Guy BritishSanto Tomas Internment Camp1945-01-14Died of coronary occlusion
Walford, Harold "Laddie"BritishNot Interned as of July 1, 19441945-02-09Missing -- presumed killed by the Japanese
Walford, Nancy Page "Dyney"BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-09Missing -- presumed killed by the Japanese.
Walker, Herbert Bateman BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-11-16Old age
Wallace, WilfredBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-08-01Died of pneumonia
Webb, Mary LumleyBritishNot Interned as of July 1, 19441945-06-23Unknown
Weeks, Henry Edward BritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-02-15Executed by the Japanese for trying to escape
Weichel, RichardBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-02-10Died of malnutrition
Weir, John N.CanadianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-09-14Died of pneumonia
Whittle, Harold AllanBritishNot interned1942-04-09Died in the sinking of the Yu Sang in Mariveles Harbour.
Wightman, George M.BritishDavao POW Camp1944-09-07Died in the sinking of the Shinyo Maru
Williams, Caroline Ada "Carrie"AustralianSanto Tomás Internment Camp1944-12-07Died of unrecorded
Williams, Hugh HoskingNew ZealanderLos Baños Internment Camp1945-01-01Acute colitis
Williams, Thomas EllisBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1942-09-12Died of pulmonary oedema
Woodfine, RobertBritishSanto Tomás Internment Camp1945-03-31Unknown
Yearsley, Robin W.CanadianTokyo POW Camp (Shinjuku)1945-01-26Unknown

More articles involving former internees

Following are some 2015-2016 articles involving former internees of the civilian Philippine camps:

My Experiences in Manila,
G. R. Horridge

This document, by British internee G. R. Horridge, was written shortly after the end of the War and is provided courtesy of Mr. John Horridge.

George Horridge, pre-WWII

George Horridge, pre-WWII

So many people have asked me about life in an internment camp and if the Japanese ill-treated us, that I have decided to try and give a brief description of the civilian internment camps as I found them in Los Banos and Manila during my three years of internment also a few notes on how I came to find my way into internment in Manila.

When war broke out I was on my way from Shanghai to Sydney via Singapore. I left Shanghai on the “Anhwei” which was one of the last ships to leave and carried about 500 passengers, most of whom had British passports. The bulk of the passengers were housed in the holds of the ship and slept on bunks set up in tiers. In Hong Kong I transferred to the “Anshun”, also bound for Singapore, with 200 Chinese deck passengers on board, but with more cabin space available for European passengers. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour we were south of Haiphong and were instructed by the British Naval Authorities to make for Philippine waters, which we did.

We arrived in Manila Bay about 8 a.m. and found the Harbour crammed with shipping and more streaming in all the time. At one o’clock the Japanese raided Cavite Naval Yard with a flight of 27 bombers and a few minutes later another group of similar size sprinkled the harbour with light bombs. Our ship, the “Anshun” was hit by two bombs and set afire, three people were killed, and about a score wounded. The next day all passengers were discharged, and the ship went out into the Bay again. I heard later that this ship sailed the next night along with many others, and finally reached New Guinea. It appears that she was sunk in Milne Bay and has just recently been raised.

After leaving the “Anshun”, I managed to get accommodation at the Bay View Hotel where I stayed until the Japanese entered Manila on January 1st. The American troops evacuated the city and withdrew to Bataan where they held out against the Japs until May 1942. This gave the Japs a free entry into Manila, which they took over in a perfectly orderly manner. All citizens were asked by the Mayor to destroy stocks of liquor and this order was carried out by the majority of Europeans.

About 150 of us were confined to the Hotel for 3 days and were then taken to Villamore Hall. There we spent one night sleeping on the floor or sitting up on school benches whichever one preferred. We were given one tin of soup during the 24 hours. Next day we were transferred to St. Tomas University, which place had been designated as the main civilian internment camp in the Philippines.

St, Tomas was built as a day university and as such was ill-suited for the accommodation of 3500 boarders, men, women and children. It cannot be compared in general layout with universities in Europe or America. Toilet facilities were inadequate, and there were no showers or baths except in the gymnasium, until we installed them ourselves, and no cooking facilities except those in a small cafeteria which normally supplied ices, cakes, coffee etc. to the students. There was also no dining room and people had to eat off their beds until dining sheds could be built outside.

One of the worst features was the overcrowding and the lack of privacy. Eighteen inches between beds was the order in the mens’ rooms, but the women managed to get a little more room, although even so there was little room in which to dress.
Continue reading

Los Baños book now available!

Bestselling author Bruce Henderson’s new book, Rescue at Los Baños is now available on Amazon and other websites. The history and conditions of Los Baños Internment Camp are detailed, but the rescue of the 2,147 American and Allied prisoners is the highlight of the book. Some of the internees mentioned in the book include Ben Edwards, Dr. Dana Nance, Jerry and Margaret Sams, Terry Santos, Margie Whitaker and Dorothy Still. The appendix includes the camp roster originally compiled by Carol Terry in February 1945.