Lorenzen, his mother, and his sister had been interned in Santo Tomas since January 1942. The family had been caught in the crossfire of the beginning of the war in the Pacific, having left China via ship shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Lorenzen’s father worked in China and remained behind there, while Lorenzen, his sister, and his mother ended up in the Philippines.[5]

Liberation Celebration at Santo Tomas Internment Camp, Manila, 1945. Gift in Memory of Sgt. Lyle E. Eberspecher, 2013.495.1118

Therese Wadsworth Warne, born in February 1934 in the Philippines, whose father worked for Del Monte Foods, was also interned in the camp. After liberation, according to Warne in an oral history, “everybody was so excited, they just sat up all night talking.” The moment of liberation remains a prominent memory for former internees, but the road to that moment was a years-long journey for them.

The Internment of Allied Civilians in the Philippines

Since 1935, the Philippines had been a Commonwealth of the United States, with potential independence planned for 1946. In 1941, with tensions rising in the Pacific, the US Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) was formed under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. On December 8, 1941, Japanese forces landed in the Philippines, and in January 1942, Manila fell to the Japanese. The last of the USAFFE surrendered on May 6, 1942. Thousands of American and Filipino troops died or were executed in the Bataan Death March.

Allied civilians living in the Philippines were taken by surprise by Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Many expected a quick resolution to the invasion and assumed the Americans would quickly defeat the Japanese. American civilian Margaret Sams wrote, “Americans couldn’t be taken over by the Japanese, no matter how many of them there were and how few of us there were.”[6] However, shock set in when the Americans were defeated, General Douglas MacArthur departed the Philippines (with promises he would return), Allied civilians were rounded up and imprisoned, and pledges of American help fell short. Months of internment stretched into years for the civilians caught up in the global war.

Santo Tomas Internment Camp Entrance, Manila. Gift in Memory of Sgt. Lyle E. Eberspecher, 2013.495.880

Some of the children in Santo Tomas were even held there without a parent. Henry Sioux Johnson was 13 years old when the war in the Pacific broke out. He was born of an American father and a Chinese mother, and he was evacuated from Shanghai to Los Angeles via ship with a few of his siblings right before the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the ship never made it past Manila, as the war had broken out. Johnson was then sent to Santo Tomas with his siblings, the oldest of whom was 22 years old. His father had previously passed away and his mother stayed behind in China.^[7]

In addition to Allied families and other civilians caught up in the war in the Pacific, Santo Tomas also housed American POW female nurses, including 77 US military nurses, known as the Angels of Bataan and Corregidor.[8] Other women who had been captured were also in the camp, including Marie Adams, field director for the American Red Cross.[9]

In 1943, as Santo Tomas became more crowded, the Japanese opened Los Baños camp, south of Manila, moving some internees there, including US Navy nurses.[10] This camp was liberated in a raid on February 23, 1945 by the 11th Airborne Division and Filipino guerillas. Howard Hart, born in 1938, described his experience of liberation from Los Baños in an oral history. According to Hart, during the raid, an American paratrooper picked him up and “kept saying, ‘I’m going to take you home, kid. I’m going to take you home.’”

Carving Out a Life within Internment

Although life was extremely difficult in Santo Tomas, where internees faced hunger, crowded conditions, illness and disease, and an uncertain future, internees attempted to create aspects of community that mirrored their former lives. For example, journalist internees created a newspaper, first known as Internews. Moreover, adults attempted to create structure for the children in the camp, including formal schooling and organized extracurricular activities.

Santo Tomas Internment Camp Internews. Gift of Maureen Matthews, 2017.123.001

Early on, some children were sent to a boarding school outside of the camp in Manila, the Holy Ghost Convent, where they received extra food, schooling, played sports, and participated in other activities. Filipino pediatrician Dr. Fe del Mundo played a role in directing the school and aiding internee children, caring for children and pregnant women until the Japanese no longer allowed her to.[11] Children including Angus Lorenzen were sent to the school at Holy Ghost, but Lorenzen was unhappy there and begged his mother to allow him to go back to the camp, which she agreed to.[12] Karen Kerns Lewis, then nine years old, also attended the Holy Ghost school, but she did not have a good time despite the luxuries the school provided in contrast to camp life, and she missed her mother, who ended up bringing Lewis back to the camp.[13]

Lewis noted that adults in the camp provided schooling and other activities for the children. She recollected that “everyone made a point of keeping busy. The ever resourceful grownups of Santo Tomas made sure there was no shortage of enrichment or extracurricular activity, and they marshalled their talents and resources into an amazing menu of education and entertainment for adults and children alike.”[14] Reflecting on her experience, she stated, “I look back with awe and respect for those amazing teachers, so challenged, so inspired, and so brilliant, who, with so little, taught us so much.”[15] Lewis enjoyed aspects of being in the camp as a child, including having access to friends of all backgrounds and being able to choose her free time activities. For example, she enjoyed climbing trees and designing paper dolls with her friends, in contrast to her structured life before internment.[16] She stated, “I was in prison, but I was truly free.”[17]

Lorenzen wrote in his memoir that he would attend school in the camp for half a day; the rest of the day was spent hanging out with “packs of five or six” boys of his own age, playing games such as kick the can and exploring the camp.[18] Lorenzen stated in an oral history that in the beginning, he was not scared of the Japanese, as they were generally friendly to children. However, this changed when three young men attempted to escape from the camp and were captured, tortured for days, and then shot and killed. After this instance, children feared the Japanese and hid from them. Teenagers often roamed the camp in large groups, but some also participated in organized activities, such as a Junior League, run by nine teenage girls, which the internees’ newspaper Internews reported about on March 24, 1942.[19]

Bamboo mug from Bill Phillips (Met his future wife Ellen Thomas in the camp when they were teenagers). Gift of Mark Kevin Phillips, Kristyn Leigh Phillips, and William Scott Phillips, 2019.241.001

Sometimes, children’s play was influenced by the war and the circumstances of being imprisoned, including playing guards and inmates, or even imitating Japanese soldiers marching.[20] Moreover, as American military action in the Philippines increased, such as air raids on Manila, children even collected shrapnel pieces for fun.[21]

Shrapnel pieces collected in Santo Tomas by Harry Robinson, an American civilian internee, born in 1927 in Manila. Gift in Memory of Carmen Trebilcot, 2021.262.003-.004

As months turned into years of internment, conditions in Santo Tomas steadily worsened. In February 1944, the Japanese military took over direct control of the camp, dismissing the civilian committee that had played a role in self-governing the camp. Food became increasingly scarce, and most internees focused on attempting to survive on starvation rations as their health deteriorated. In June and July 1944, according to a report by the camp medical staff, the condition of children and young people in the camp was seen as “most unsatisfactory and even alarming.”[22]

Lewis noted that both adults and children would collect recipes, writing: “We had gone crazy from hunger and didn’t know it.”[23] Parents and other adults also gave up some of their own meager rations to give to the children in the camp, often to the detriment of their own health.[24] According to Albert E. Holland, who kept a diary of his experiences in Santo Tomas starting in November 1944, adults still made gifts for children in the camp for Christmas in 1944. He wrote, “It is wonderful what the women are making for the children out of nothing.”[25] Internees gained some hope as Americans began to make gains in the Philippines, as they noticed American planes over the skies and heard rumors of the invasion of Leyte in October 1944.

“Roll Out the Barrel”: Liberation and Repatriation

American Civilian Internees Rescued from the Japanese at Santo Tomas University at Manila in the Philippines in 1945. US Army Signal Corps Photograph,Gift of Donald E. Mittelstaedt, 2008.354.557

Shortly before liberation on February 3, 1945, American pilots dropped a goggles case with a message to the internees: “Roll out the barrel. There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight!”[26] The Flying Column then raced into Manila, reaching Santo Tomas. The 44th Tank Battalion crashed through the gate and two tanks were the first to enter the camp, “Battlin’ Basic” and “Georgia Peach.” Unfortunately for the internees, although they were liberated, the Battle of Manila raged around them, and the campus was caught in the crossfire of shelling. Leanne Blinzler Noe, born in June 1933, recalled in an oral history about how she and her sister were hit by shrapnel from the shelling after liberation in Santo Tomas. 

Three 1st Cavalry Soldiers Killed in Fight for Santo Tomas are Buried on Grounds in Manila in the Philippines on February 5, 1945. US Army Signal Corps Photograph, Gift of Donald E. Mittelstaedt, 2008.354.650

Lorenzen wrote in his memoir that although Santo Tomas had “become a full-fledged military encampment,” for him as a child, he found that “it was like living in Disneyland—all that military equipment just waiting to be inspected and soldiers happy to explain how everything worked.”[27]

Tragically, some internees died after liberation due to the battle or the effects of near starvation. John Bradley, who was born in 1936 in Manila, lost his father after being liberated from Santo Tomas. In an oral history, he explained how his father got appendicitis as a result of the rich rations he received after liberation. His father then had surgery, but the field hospital where he was recovering was shelled, and he passed away a few days later from shock and malnutrition. However, for Bradley as a child, liberation was not only marked by the tragedy of his father’s death. He also recalled how he spent time with American soldiers, and even got jeep rides and souvenirs from some, having “a lot of fun.”

Eventually, the American troops and Filipino guerillas defeated the Japanese and liberated Manila after a horrific urban battle that left 100,000 Filipino civilians dead. American civilian internees were repatriated to the United States, journeying across the ocean via ship. The Red Cross provided clothing for the liberated Americans. Elizabeth Vaughan’s two children received wool Red Cross jackets, which also had a stuffed animal and a stuffed doll in the pockets.[28] After a long ship journey, formerly interned children then disembarked onto the shores of the United States, entering a new phase of their young lives.

Erica Lansberg is not an employee of DPAA, she supports DPAA through a partnership. The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DPAA, DoD, or its Components.