{"id":6502,"date":"2022-08-16T10:59:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T17:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philippineinternment.com\/?p=6502"},"modified":"2023-03-05T10:10:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T18:10:30","slug":"stic-signature-songs-and-sources-by-martin-meadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philippineinternment.com\/?p=6502","title":{"rendered":"STIC Signature Songs (and Sources) by Martin Meadows"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Music in a WWII Internment Camp<\/h3>\n

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Introduction.<\/strong> \u201cMusic is the art of arranging sound. It is one of the universal cultural aspects of all human societies\u201d (Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Similarly, music is also a key element \u2014 interestingly, perhaps oddly \u2014 of internment-camp life, although that is not always fully acknowledged, or even recognized. As such, music is one component in such camps of what I call the Diversion Factor. The latter encompasses those activities that can serve at least two important functions: acting as a unifying element for camp prisoners; and offering them distractions from the burdensome reality of captivity. The concern here, in other words, is only with those activities that can unify and\/or be enjoyed by a camp\u2019s inmates as a whole, as distinguished from their purely personal or group pastimes\/distractions (card games, chess, reading, etc.).
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\nThe next section will trace the nature and scope of the Diversion Factor in a particular internment Camp, to provide context for examining that Camp’s musical component (Camp is capitalized to distinguish it from the generic internment camp). But to begin with, three points of clarification relating to the title are in order. First, for anyone unfamiliar with the subject, the acronym STIC refers to Manila\u2019s Nipponese-controlled Santo Tomas Internment Camp (a.k.a. Manila Internment Camp). STIC’s 4,000 or so civilian inmates \u2014 Allied-country nationals, mostly Americans \u2014 endured over three years of privation (1942-1945), culminating in starvation rations, during World War II (WWII).
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\nSecond, the term \u201cSignature Songs\u201d refers to those musical works I consider to be the most reflective and representative of everyday Camp existence, and thus in a sense also of Camp history in general. In effect, the four compositions I have selected as Signature Songs are the equivalent of Camp theme songs, even anthems, and as such their study can provide insights, for former internees and especially for non-internees alike, into the nature of Camp life. Rephrased to drive the point home, this survey of the most noteworthy STIC-related music seeks to portray its role in and significance for Camp life \u2014 as based, again, on my own judgment.
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\nThird, this study aims to ascertain the sources \u2014 meaning the composers and the recording artists \u2014 of the four Signature Songs. For this account goes beyond simply identifying and describing the songs in question. The fact is that information about sources \u2014 aside from being worthwhile (to some) for its own sake \u2014 can provide additional insights into Camp history. Last (and surely least), the very process of seeking such information (regardless of success) serves to satisfy my personal interests, including my sense of order. But enough of preliminaries; we now turn to the substantive portions of this STIC-music retrospective.
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\nThe STIC Context.<\/strong> STIC’s four Signature Songs will be discussed after presentation of some essential context. Based on personal experience, it is a simple matter to discern the major components of the Diversion Factor in STIC, of which there were four. Granted, some might propose others, such as that of education; but that affected segments of the Camp separately, and not the Camp as a whole. Nor is it plausible to believe that most non-adult students viewed the educational process as a pleasurable diversion rather than as an inevitable fact of pre-adulthood. Regardless, the first two components, of the four to be examined, provided by far the most popular Camp diversions, as indicated next.
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\n(1) Indisputably one of the two most popular of the Diversion Factor\u2019s four components \u2014 easily ascertained by audience turnout \u2014 was the entertainment provided by motion pictures. During the first two years of STIC\u2019s existence (actually, mostly during the second year), there were 24 screenings of pre-WWII U.S. movies. Often those movies were preceded by Nipponese propaganda films; to put it charitably, in effect the latter served as (unwelcome) substitutes for the \u201cselected short subjects\u201d \u2014 newsreels, cartoons, etc. \u2014 that were commonplace in that era. [Note: It should be pointed out that movie-sourced music was ineligible for consideration as Signature Songs.]
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[Sidebar.<\/font> Should there be any question as to their number, I have a list of those 24 movies \u2014 on which, for example, the first title is The Feminine Touch<\/em>, a 1941 film that starred Rosalind Russell and Don Ameche. Coincidentally, during the nearly two months between liberation and my family’s departure from STIC, the U. S. military also showed 24 movies (much more recent ones, of course), whose titles I also recorded. Note: I penciled in both lists in a parallel row on the back of page 8 of a neatly-penned pre-WWII Santo Tomas U. chemistry exam, which I scrounged after class one day on the fourth floor of the Main Building.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 
\n(2) At least as popular as the movies, if not more so, were the Camp\u2019s much more frequently-presented stage shows. (These were a.k.a. floor shows, variety shows, and \u2014 by F. H. Stevens \u2014 vaudeville shows.) These productions of course relied exclusively on internee talent. There were many kinds of programs \u2014 plays, sketches, comedic skits, quiz contests, concerts, etc. They were organized primarily by a pre-war professional entertainer, the widely beloved David Harvey MacTurk (sometimes misspelled McTurk). Known almost exclusively by his professional name of Dave Harvey, he headed the Camp\u2019s Entertainment Committee, among other things (more on him below, and in a future article).
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[Sidebar.<\/font> At first, stage shows were held in the cramped quarters of the West Patio within the Main Building. Eventually both the stage shows and the movies were presented, respectively, on the platform and on the screen that internees constructed on the west end of the plaza in front of the Main Building. That location came to be known as \u201cThe Little Theater Under the Stars.\u201d It was around the plaza that many internees (often including me) would assemble before they were allowed to place their chairs on the plaza itself; they gathered early in order to be able to reserve the most favorable spots for viewing the evening\u2019s entertainment.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(3) A third component was that of sports activities, some of which often attracted relatively sizable audiences. These included most of the so-called major sports (and others as well), including basketball (with leagues for both males and females, further divided into age groups); baseball; softball; soccer; football (I recall teams called Packers and Bears, named after U. S. pro teams); and even boxing (males only \u2014 that was long before female boxing entered the sports scene). [Note: I have a complete list of the starting five players on all the basketball teams in the age-group league in which I participated.]
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[Sidebar.<\/font> Sports events were held on the spacious front grounds of the Camp \u2014 basketball southeast of the Main Building (on an earthen court), and field events to its southwest. Boxing was staged in the evenings in a location called \u201cThe Starlight Arena,\u201d south of the Main Building, surrounded by trees. According to my copy of a \u201cBoxing Program\u201d for 26 March 1943 (\u201cprogram price 10 centavos\u201d), the weight categories of the participants that evening ranged all the way from atomweight (40-49 pounds) through electronweight, paperweight, fleaweight, gnatweight, antweight, mothweight, junior flyweight, flyweight, bantamweight, and junior welterweight; categories ranging up to heavyweight were not scheduled that evening.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 
\n(4) The fourth component \u2014 at last we cut to the chase \u2014 was music, which served as a Camp-wide diversion through two major sources. One involved the aforementioned stage shows, which are self-explanatory as a source of music, especially via the many concerts \u2014 both choral and orchestral \u2014 that were presented, in addition to the other kinds of entertainment listed earlier. The other major source of music was the Camp\u2019s public-address system, which was hooked up to an array of strategically-located loudspeakers. This source was important enough to merit additional attention.
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\nThe public-address system served at least three major functions: (a) disseminating Camp news, announcements, and orders, from both Nipponese and internee leaders; (b) presenting various kinds of entertainment, including 90-minute evening recorded \u201cconcerts\u201d (more on that later); and (c) arousing the Camp every morning, by playing a musical number (about which also more later). And in addition, the public-address system came to be used in a much more interesting \u2014 musically interesting \u2014 manner, as described next.
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\nDuring the third year of internment, as U. S. forces drew closer to the Philippines in 1944, internee disc jockeys employed a clever musical method to inform internees about the war in a way that the Nipponese would not understand. As F. H. Stevens explains in his indispensable book Santo Tomas Internment Camp: 1942-1945<\/em>, \u201cThe title[s] of the records played called attention to some news topic[s] of the day.\u201d He provides a number of examples of such records as they related to both Camp and non-Camp developments, the latter dealing entirely with the war. [Note: here is a link to Stevens\u2019 lengthy bio, found on Tom Moore\u2019s website: https:\/\/cnac.org\/emilscott\/stevens01.htm<\/a> .]
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[Sidebar a.<\/font> Stevens\u2019 examples include: when it was rumored that Hitler had been killed, \u201cThe Wicked Witch Is Dead\u201d; when American planes began bombing in the Manila area, \u201cPennies From Heaven\u201d; when there was a lull in the bombing, \u201cLover Come Back to Me\u201d; when the Nipponese military took full control of the Camp, \u201cWho\u2019s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf\u201d; when internees were ordered to turn in all of their money, \u201cI Got Plenty of Nothing\u201d; and \u201cThere\u2019s Something In the Air\u201d when an American pilot dropped goggles into the Main Building\u2019s East Patio, with the famous attached note indicating that liberation was close at hand.] <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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[Sidebar b.<\/font> There are three versions of that famous note’s message that I know of. All versions agree that the note said \u201cRoll out the barrel,\u201d and they agree that there was a second sentence (that may or may not be true; I did not see the note). But they disagree as to what it said \u2014 \u201cThe gang\u2019s all here\u201d; \u201cSanta Claus is coming Sunday or Monday\u201d (it turned out to be Saturday night); and \u201cThere\u2019ll be a hot time in the old town tonight.\u201d As a result of this apparently unresolved issue, whenever I refer to the note I simply cite its first \u2014 perhaps its only? \u2014 line (as I did in a short piece, \u201cSanto Tomas Liberation,\u201d which Cliff Mills reproduced, from the Amcham Philippines Business Journal<\/em>, on his Philippine Internment<\/em><\/a> site).] <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 
\nBut while outwitting their captors in the manner Stevens describes certainly helped to boost internee morale, obviously the cited records, played only transiently as they were, cannot validly be regarded as a significant part of STIC history. But this study seeks to show that four compositions in particular do meet that criterion and thus qualify as Signature Songs. Of those four, moreover, in my opinion at least two indisputably would merit inclusion in a hypothetical STIC Hall of Fame (musical or otherwise). I also believe (without evidence) that most STIC alumni would agree (or would have agreed, had they been asked) on those two songs. They also might even agree on the other two songs \u2014 depending, of course, on how persuasive their ensuing coverage is. Regardless, a reminder is in order before we proceed \u2014 all such judgments are purely personal, based on my own assessment of the historical record. Now on with the (musical) show.
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\n\"Rhapsody<\/a>
\n Signature Song #1.<\/strong> The first of the four songs is the only one that was written and composed entirely by STIC internees. Moreover, its two creators clearly intended it to serve as the equivalent of a STIC anthem, as its title \u201cInternee Song\u201d indicates. Thus it would seem to be an exemplification of a Signature Song, which is why it is included herein and why it is the first of the four to be discussed. On the other hand, how, if at all, do the preceding statements square with the fact that, as best as I have been able to determine, until as recently as 2013 \u201cInternee Song\u201d had been virtually unknown to \u2014 and in any case unmentioned by \u2014 STIC alumni?
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\nTo deal with that problem requires answers to three basic questions, as follows: (1) What circumstances enabled \u201cInternee Song\u201d to emerge from obscurity and (re)gain recognition in 2013? (2) How and why did a composition now deemed to be a Signature Song happen to lose \u2014 or, perhaps more accurately, fail to gain \u2014 recognition in the first place (as claimed above)? (3) Who were the individuals \u2014 in other words, the sources \u2014 primarily responsible for both the song\u2019s creation and its revival? These questions will be answered in turn.
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\n(1) As noted, \u201cInternee Song\u201d was virtually unknown anywhere, including the U.S., until 2013 (for reasons explained below). Undoubtedly it would have remained in limbo had not an Australian digital publication, Come the Revolution<\/em>, published an article on 26 April 2013 entitled \u201cWar camp mass has Aussie premiere.\u201d Written by Alex Mitchell, it included background on STIC, accounts of the two creators of the Mass (of whom more below), and also the lyrics of \u201cInternee Song\u201d (which could have implied a connection between the two compositions, as discussed further below). The occasion for the premiere was that it was the 70th anniversary of the first and only previous performance of the Mass, which took place on 25 April 1943, in the Fathers Garden adjacent to STIC grounds. Shortly thereafter, \u201cInternee Song\u201d debuted at a Camp concert on 22 May 1943. (The Australian angle is explained below.)
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\nYet despite the publicity it received in Australia, \u201cInternee Song” might well have continued to languish in obscurity in the U. S. \u2014 except for one noteworthy development. Cliff Mills, while doing research on another subject in 2015, fortuitously came across the Mitchell article. He thereupon posted a report of his discovery, entitled \u201cThe STIC Internees\u2019 Song,\u201d on his Philippine Internment<\/em> site on 11 March 2015. Yet despite what I considered to be its obvious significance, I observed no online reactions whatsoever to Cliff’s post. That fact \u2014 the import of something that did not happen, somewhat reminiscent of Holmes\u2019 dog that did not bark \u2014 could be interpreted (and I choose to so interpret it) as consequential: in this case, as confirmation of the song’s former obscurity.<\/p>\n

[Sidebar.<\/font> Cliff\u2019s post on Philippine Internment<\/a> is reproduced below.<\/p>\n

The STIC Internees\u2019 Song
\nby Cliff Mills<\/ul>\n

While researching the background of Santo Tomas internee Blakey Borthwick Laycock, who was executed by the Japanese in 1942, I came across a 2013 article titled War camp mass has Aussie premiere<\/em><\/a> about a song for the internees written by entertainer Dave Harvey and composer Mario Bakerini-Booth. According to the article, “It was absolutely predictable …”
\nRead more of this post<\/a><\/p>\n

Cliff Mills | March 11, 2015 at 2:54 pm | Categories: Articles, Internee stories | URL:http:\/\/wp.me\/p49RCb-mD<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(2) Once \u201cInternee Song\u201d had been rediscovered, another question almost inevitably arose: if that song indeed had been little-known or unknown among former internees, as appeared to be the case, how is it possible to explain such an apparently puzzling situation concerning a composition explicitly intended to be the STIC anthem? Following are some plausible reasons.<\/p>\n