Former internee Janice Crabb’s Polio Story

Janice Crabb in The Winona Daily News 10 January 1950Former Santo Tomas Internment Camp (STIC) internee, Janice Lee Crabb, tells her personal experience with polio in an article which appeared online in the WinonaPost, (Winona, Minnesota). The article, titled To vaccinate or not, appeared on 22 January 2025.

Janice’s parents, Dorothy and Robert Crabb, were interned in STIC when Janice was born on 22 January 1942. Janice states that “I was 9 months old and just beginning to walk. There was no epidemic. My mother went to three other doctors before she finally believed it, and that was mostly because that woman doctor had two children who’d also had it.”

She goes on to state “I reveal all this because since Dr. Salk discovered his vaccine, there are no more polio epidemics! I am now 82 years old, soon to be 83. I thank the universe that my three children did not have to go through the anguish my parents did and that I have been able to live long enough to enjoy my own grandchildren into their adulthood.”

Photograph courtesy of The Winona Daily News (Winona, Minnesota) of 10 January 1950
Click to read the entire article.

CPOW 2025 Reunion Notice

STIC liberation with children on a liberator tank in front of main buildingAs was announced last year, the CPOW.org 2025 Reunion will be held in Sacramento, California, on February 21st thru 23rd at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Sacramento Riverfront Promenade. This special event is to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of the civilian and POW camps in the Philippines. The preliminary schedule and registration form is displayed below. Just click on the form to print or download. Following that, a registration form for joining CPOW, or for renewing your membership, is supplied.

CPOW 2025 Preliminary Reunion Registration
CPOW 2025 Membership Form

Download both forms in PDF format

Link to the January 2025 issue of Beyond the Wire

Passing of ex-internee Martha Collins Blanchard

I am saddened to announce the passing of of ex-internee Martha Collins Blanchard on 8 January 2025 in Vero Beach, Florida. Martha was born in Shanghai, China, in 1929. In early 1942, “Marty” and her mother, Dr. Martha Dyer Collins, were interned in Santo Tomas Internment Camp (STIC). They had been on their way to the United States when the War broke out. Her father, Dr. Daniel Joseph Collins, was interned in China.

The family was reunited when they were repatriated on the S.S. Gripsholm, which arrived at New York City, Dec. 1, 1943. After repatriation Martha attended the University of Michigan and St. Lawrence University.

The family is mentioned in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri) article of 5 December 1943 titled “St. Louis Woman Missionaries Tell of Life in Jap Prison Camps.”

Link to her full obituary at Legacy.com.