There have been countless books about the sub-human brutality of the Japanese to their prisoners-of-war, nearly all of which have been written by Soldiers. There have been few, if any, books which describe what it is like for a woman and her teenage daughter to find themselves suddenly swept in the holocaust of the war in the Pacific. For this reason the story if Isla Corfield is of exceptional interest. Captured by the japanese when the evacuee ship from Shanghai was diverted to the Philippines, Mrs Corfield and her daughter Gill found themselves interned with 3,500 other men, women and children at Santo Tomas, Manila's erstwhile University. The extraordinary way of life which evolved within the camp becomes gradually understandable as each person's character is related to the situation in which they find themselves: and gradually, as the entrepreneurs get into their stride, there emerge in microcosm all the 'amenities' of life 'outside the wire'- from restaurants to brothels. In 1944 the Corfields are moved to Los Baanos, a new camp in the country, where conditions are appalling and many die of starvation. But at last rescue comes at the hands of the U.S 11th Airborne Division in the form of a combined air/sea/land rescue operation of split-second efficiency, and the 2000 survivors are literally snatched from the jaws of death. This is the first time that a detailed account of this remarkable operation has been published. Celia Lucas has used the 36 exercise books which Isla Corfield risked death to keep to tell this very remarkable story of a mother and daughter who managed to preserve their sanity, their standards and their sense of humour when the world around them suddenly went mad.

When Manila fell to the Japanese in January, 1942, the Van Sickles were among the enemy aliens taken by the victors to the campus of Manila's University of Santo Tomas, where they were to remain unwilling "guests" for more than three years. This is a fascinating, detailed and insightful account of life in a civilian concentration camp as gripping and readable as any tale of adventure.

In 100 Miles to Freedom, U.S. Marine Bob Holland tells the story of the release of 3,700 American civilian prisoners of the Japanese at Santo Tomas University Internment Camp in Manila, the Philippines. Until their miraculous rescue on February 3, 1945, these civilians had been interned for more than three and a half years. This wartime account is complete with interviews of several prisoners describing their experiences and hardships in the camp, as well as black-and-white photos depicting Marines and prisoners during this tumultuous event in history. Discover why Brigadier General Robert E. Galer says that through this book, we can know and better appreciate what our proud and dedicated generation of true Americans did for our country.

To bring with them. It was six months before the Japanese gave them even a meagre food allowance - 25 cents a day for adults. In Santo Tomas, Emily Van Sickle says, the prisoners "learned many things, some funny, some tragic, that are no part of a normal college curriculum." This is a fascinating, detailed and insightful account of life in a civilian concentration camp where each day saw a battle for survival. The prisoners - 5,000 at the outset - thrown on their own.