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- LIFE Santo Tomas Delivered 1945-03-03
[LIFE Magazine 1945, "Santo Tomás Is Delivered" by Carl Mydans, p 25–29] (Caption in photo) "Ernest Stanley was one of the interned Workers. He was fluent in the Japanese language and became the interpreter between the internees and the Japanese. During the liberation of Santo Tomas, his diplomacy probably saved many lives." (Caption below photo) _____________________________________________________________ (Caption below Photo) "March through Manila, led by Brady (left), Hayashi and Stanley, took the Japanese through deserted streets. Near the end of the march some Filipinos ran across the road and the nervous Japanese soldiers broke for cover. Shamed by loss of face, Hayashi and his officers, who were left standing in the road, coaxed their men out and went off toward their own lines." - LIFE Santo Tomas Delivered 1945-03-04
[LIFE Magazine 1945, "Santo Tomás Is Delivered" by Carl Mydans, p 25–29] (Caption - left photo) In the main patio the internees go on with the quiet routine of their prison lives while the Japanese are still holding out in the Education Building next door. Below is the university gym, where 400 sick old men live. Many of the men are too weak to leave their beds. Sometimes, there were as many as 600 of them in this one big room. (Caption - Top Right) A sad-eyed mother sits on a step with her children outside one of the university buildings. Many children were born during the internment. ________ (Caption in middle of page) "After the first shock of happiness, the Americas in Santo Tomas found that one day of freedom could not repair the damage of 37 months of imprisonment. Their bodies were still wasted by hunger. The youths, were pale and gangling and the old people were shrunk to the bone. Hundreds of the internees were feeble and sick with diseases of malnutrition. The children, who were fed the best, were the healthiest. Imprisonment had left other marks. There were some people who walked staring straight ahead, without looking to the right or left. When correspondents spoke with them, they shuffled with a strange restlessness. Everyone walked with the deliberate tread of people whose movements are limited by walls. There was also a tired politeness, something gentle and hopeless about their manner. Very few of the Americans interned in Santo Tomas plan to come back to the United States. Their home is Manila. Said one old man, "We know our boys are doing their darnedest to clear the Japs out of there, but we can't help wishing they'd hurry." _________ (Caption -Photo Bottom right) "An emaciated father feeds his son out of a tin can. Note that the children, given the best food in camp, look better than the men or women. " - LIFE Santo Tomas Delivered 1945-03-05
[LIFE Magazine 1945, "Santo Tomás Is Delivered" by Carl Mydans, p 25–29] (Photo caption) "Two starved men sit outside university's gym-hospital. They are Lee rogers (left) a retired employee of Cavite Navy Yard, and John C. Todd, a miner. When Rogers entered Santo Tomas, he weighed 145 pounds. Now he weighs 90 pounds. Todd dropped from 198 pounds to 102. Behind them is one of the vegetable gardens which internees grew to keep themselves alive." - Life Magazine cover
[LIFE Magazine 1945, "Santo Tomás Is Delivered" by Carl Mydans, p 25–29] Several Workers were among those who were interned by the Japanese for over 3 years during WWII. They were liberated in March 1945 (Pages 1-5 follow) - Life Mag page 1
[LIFE Magazine 1945, "Santo Tomás Is Delivered" by Carl Mydans, p 25–31] Caption below photo "February was a month of new battles for U.S. forces. The biggest battle was being fought on Ger- many's Western Front, where the Allies began a new winter offensive last week. The sharpest was being 'carried to the Japanese on the tiny island of Iwo, only 675 miles from Tokyo). The war passed great emotional milestones in February too. Manila was taken and its starving U.S. prisoners were rescued. In Manila the emotion ran highest at the place where the greatest number of imprisoned Americans were kept. This was Santo Tomas. When the Americans first reached Santo Tomas on the night of Feb.3, it was quiet and dark in the camp. There were a few scattered shots from the Japanese until tanks broke through the wooden fence. A few minutes later one of the internees appeared and said, "I'll lead you in." Among the first men into the camp was LIFE Photographer Carl Mydans. When Mydans walked into the main building, where he and his wife had spent the beginning of their internment three years ago, he was greeted by a hysterical crowd. The 3,700 Americans who had spent three years in Santo Tomas were finally delivered. The men who liberated Santo Tomas had sighted on their objective from 60 miles away. Six days before the main U.S. forces entered Manila, Brig. General William C. Chase of thee 1st Cavalry Division picked a mechanized squadron of 700 men to crash through the university grounds. Charging down the roads and carabao paths, the squadron brushed through most Japanese positions on the way. When it encountered heavy Japanese fire the men dismounted and worked with tanks to push through. Wherever the column stopped, ecstatic Filipinos came out with flowers and eggs for the soldiers. In the evening of the third day, the Americans broke into Santo Tomas." - Life Magazine page 2
[LIFE Magazine 1945, "Santo Tomás Is Delivered" by Carl Mydans, p 25–29] (Caption below Top Photo) "American hostages line the windows of Santo Tomas Education Building on the morning after U.S. troops entered the university. Hiding behind the window sills on the floor below are Colonel Hayashi's 65 men. Lieut. Colonel Charles E. Brady went into the building to talk with the Japanese. Hayashi fingered his pistols menacingly but agreed to come out with his men." ___________ (Caption in middle of page) "A strange episode of war followed the U.S. entry into Santo Tomas. When the U.S. tanks first burst in, some of the Japanese in the camp were captured. But 65 of them, commanded by a correct little Japanese lieut. colonel named Hayashi, retreated into the university's Education Building, taking 221 internees with them as hostages. When the Americans asked the Japanese to surrender, Colonel Hayashi answered, "It is not compatible with Japanese military doctrine." After a day of negotiating to save the hostages' lives, the Americans agreed to conduct the Japanese out of Santo Tomas to within a few hundred yards of their own lines. At dawn the next day the Americans, holding their rifles ready, formed on both sides of the Education Building door, marched the Japanese out of the university grounds." ________ (Caption above bottom photo) "The Japanese leave the university in the dim light of early morning. At the right, holding his trousers to keep them out of the mud, is Ernest Stanley, a missionary who worked as an interpreter during the talks between Colonel Brady and the Japanese. At the left is Colonel Brady. The Americans marched in two columns, one on each side of the departing Japanese."