During World War II the Japanese imprisoned more American civilians at Manila's Santo Tomas prison camp than anywhere else, along with British and other nationalities. Placing the camp's story in the wider history of the Pacific war, this book tells how the camp went through a drastic change, from good conditions in the early days to impending mass starvation, before its dramatic rescue by U.S. Army "flying columns." Interned as a small boy with his mother and older sister, the author shows the many ways in which the camp's internees handled imprisonment--and their liberation afterwards. Using a wealth of Santo Tomas memoirs and diaries, plus interviews with other ex-internees and veteran army liberators, he reveals how children reinvented their own society, while adults coped with crowded dormitories, evaded sex restrictions, smuggled in food, and through a strong internee government, dealt with their Japanese overlords. The text explores the attitudes and behavior of Japanese officials, ranging from sadistic cruelty to humane cooperation, and asks philosophical questions about atrocity and moral responsibility.

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.

The collection includes scrapbooked documents and items collected by Edgar and Elizabeth Begole, who were detainees in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Japanese-occupied Manila, Philippines from January 1942 to February 1945. There are also two booklets commemorating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the internment camp and two background articles about the camp printed from the Internet.

Jean-Marie Faggiano and her family were living in the Philippines when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. The following month, she and her family, along with over 3,600 other non-national civilians, were forced to surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army and live as civilian prisoners of war in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila. In Through My Mother's Eyes, you will experience how a young girl and her family were able to survive their thirty-seven month ordeal until their nick-of-time rescue by American forces on February 3, 1945. Through My Mother's Eyes is a story of a world rampant with sickness, starvation, and brutality, but it is also an incredible story of love, courage, and enduring faith.