Santo Tomas Internment Camp
Santo Tomas Internment Camp, also known as the Manila Internment Camp, was the largest of several camps in the Philippines in which the Japanese interned enemy civilians, mostly Americans, in World War II. The campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila was utilized for the camp, which housed more than 3,000 internees from January 1942 until February 1945. Conditions for the internees deteriorated during the war and by the time of the liberation of the camp by the U.S. Army many of the internees were near death from lack of food.
Santo Tomas Internment Camp
Manila Internment Camp
University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Japanese-occupied Philippines
Lt. Col. Toshio Hayashi
University of Santo Tomas campus
January 1942 – February 1945
more than 3,000 internees
Background[edit]
Japan attacked the Philippines on December 8, 1941, the same day as its raid on Pearl Harbor (on the Asian side of the International Date Line). American fighter aircraft were on patrol to meet an expected attack, but ground fog delayed the Japanese aircraft on Formosa. When the attack finally came, most of the American air force was caught on the ground, and destroyed by Japanese bombers. On the same day, the Japanese invaded several locations in northern Luzon and advanced rapidly southward toward Manila, capital and largest city of the Philippines. The U.S. army, consisting of about 20,000 Americans and 80,000 Filipinos, retreated onto the Bataan Peninsula. On December 26, 1941, Manila was declared an open city and all American military forces abandoned the city leaving civilians behind. On January 2, 1942, Japanese forces entered and occupied Manila. They ordered all Americans and British citizens to remain in their homes until they could be registered.[1] On January 5, the Japanese published a warning in the Manila newspapers. "Any one who inflicts, or attempts to inflict, an injury upon Japanese soldiers or individuals shall be shot to death." But if the assailant could not be found the Japanese "would hold ten influential persons as hostages."[2]
On May 6, 1942, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright who took over the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) after Gen. Douglas MacArthur's departure, surrendered the remaining forces on Corregidor to the Japanese. This was followed a few days later by the USAFFE units in Visayas and Mindanao. There were a few exceptions who took to the forests and mountains to initiate guerrilla warfare against the Japanese occupiers. It was the worst defeat of the United States in World War II.[3]
Internee government[edit]
The internees petitioned the Japanese for the right to elect their leadership and on July 27, 1942, an election was held. Earl Carroll declined to be a candidate. After the votes were counted, the Japanese exercised their prerogative by announcing that Carroll C. Grinnell, who had placed sixth in the election, was appointed as the chairman of a seven-person executive committee.[21] Grinnell, a business executive, would be the leader of the internees for the duration of the war. Grinnell's leadership was controversial. He appeared to many of the internees to be too authoritative in ruling them and too acquiescent to the Japanese, banning community dances, building a recreational shack for the Japanese guards, and setting up an internee court and jail for offenders.[22] Dave Harvey, the most popular entertainer in the camp, satirized the Grinnell government by saying he was going to write a book titled "Mine Camp" and dedicate it to Grinnell.[23]
Worsening conditions[edit]
As the war in the Pacific turned against Japan, living conditions in Santo Tomas became worse and Japanese rule over the internees more oppressive. Prices inflated on soap, toilet paper, and meat as the supply diminished at camp markets and stores. Those without money mostly went without food, although a fund for destitute internees was established. Meat began to disappear from the communal kitchens in August 1943 and by the end of the year there was no meat at all.[27]
A blow to internee living standards was a typhoon on November 14, 1943, which dumped 69 cm (27 inches) of rain on the compound, destroying many of the shanties, flooding buildings and destroying much-needed food and other supplies. The distress caused by the typhoon, however, was soon relieved by the receipt in the camp of Red Cross food parcels just before Christmas. Every internee, including children, received a parcel weighing 48 pounds (21.8 kg) and containing luxuries such as butter, chocolate, and canned meat. Vital medicine, vitamins, surgical instruments, and soap were also received. These were the only Red Cross parcels received by the internees during the war and undoubtedly staved off malnutrition and disease, reducing the death rate in Santo Tomas. For internees (and U.S. military prisoners of war) in the Philippines this was the only aid received during the war. More parcels were not received because the Japanese linked prisoner and internee exchanges with Red Cross aid to internees. American officials such as J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and General Douglas MacArthur objected to proposed prisoner exchanges and the Japanese refused to allow more aid to be delivered without such exchanges.[28]
In February 1944, the Japanese army took over direct control of the camp and dismissed the civilian administrators. Armed guards patrolled the perimeter of the camp and contacts with the outside world for supplies were terminated. The food ration the Japanese provided for internees was 1,500 calories per person per day, less than the modern-day recommendation of 2,000 calories.[29] The Japanese abolished the Executive Committee and appointed Grinnell, Carroll and an Englishman, S. L. Lloyd, as "agents of the internees" and liaison officers with the Japanese.
Food shortages became steadily more serious throughout 1944. After July 1944, "the food at the camps became extremely inadequate, weight loss, weakness, edema, paresthesia and beriberi were experienced by most adults." Internees ate insects and wild plants, but the internee government declared it illegal for internees to pick weeds for personal, rather than community, use. One internee was jailed by the internee police for 15 days for harvesting pigweed. Some of the hardship could have been alleviated had the Japanese allowed the camp to accept food donations from local charities or permitted internee men working outside the camp to forage for wild plants and fruit.[30]
Gardens, both private and community, for food had been planted shortly after the internees arrived at Santo Tomas and, to combat the growing food shortages, the Japanese captors demanded that the internees grow more food for themselves, although the internees, on a 1,100 calorie per day ration by November 1944 were less capable of hard labor.[31]
In January 1945, a doctor reported that the average loss of weight among male internees had been 24 kg (53 pounds) during the three years at Santo Tomas, 32.5% of average body weight. (40% loss of normal body weight will usually result in death.)[32] That month, eight deaths among internees were attributed to malnutrition, but Japanese officials demanded that the death certificates be altered to eliminate malnutrition and starvation as causes of death. On January 30, four additional deaths occurred. That same day the Japanese confiscated much of the food left in the camp for their soldiers and the "cold fear of death" gripped the weakened internees.[33] The Japanese were preparing for a last-ditch battle with American forces advancing on Manila.
From January 1942 until March 1945, 390 total deaths from all causes in Santo Tomas were recorded, a death rate about three times that of the United States in the 1940s. People over 60 years old were the most vulnerable. They comprised 18% of the total population, but suffered 64% of deaths.[34]
Collaborators with the Japanese[edit]
American intelligence investigated and detained about 50 internees suspected of being collaborators or spies for the Japanese. Most were cleared, but a few, although repatriated, had their cases referred to the FBI.[51] Ernest Stanley, the interpreter, was reportedly investigated, but cleared of charges. He later went to Japan as an employee of the U.S. Army and became a Japanese citizen. He married a Japanese woman and took up residence in Tokyo and adopted a son. He lived in Tokyo the rest of his life.[43]
Earl Carroll defended himself and other camp leaders from allegations of collaboration in a series of newspaper articles in which he claimed the internees had waged a "secret war" against the Japanese. That view was generally accepted by Americans, and most internees were given a campaign ribbon for "contributing materially to the success of the Philippine campaign." Carroll and (posthumously) Grinnell received the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian decoration of the U.S. government.[52]
Scholars have characterized the cooperation between the Japanese and the internees at Santo Tomas as "legitimate collaboration. By working with the internees, the Japanese suppressed resistance, isolated Americans from Filipinos, freed up resources, and exploited the camp for intelligence and propaganda. In return the camp obtained greater autonomy, security, and a higher standard of living."[53]