Elizabeth Lautzenheiser Irvine was born in July 1927 in Baguio, Philippines [Annotator's Note: Baguio, Luzon, Philippines]. Irvine's parents met in the Philippines, having both moved there to teach. The United States government sent teachers to the Philippines to open schools. Her father arrived in 1916 and her mother arrived in the early 1920s with her grandmother, who was also a schoolteacher. Her parents met at a teacher's camp in Baguio. They married in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] at the Union Church. Her uncle also lived in the Philippines, as a code clerk for the United States government. When Irvine was four years old her family was transferred out of Baguio, and they took a year's leave of absence to go back to the United States. They traveled back to the Philippines to Iloilo [Annotator's Note: Iloilo City, Philippines]. Her father was principal of the Iloilo High School, and her mother principal of the Iloilo Normal School [Annotator's Note: now West Visayas State University, La Paz, Iloilo City, Philippines]. Her grandmother [Annotator's Note: Nancy Belle Norton, earned the Medal of Freedom, later called 'Angel of Bataan'] taught at a school on a different island, where she also lived. Irvine lived in Iloilo until she was ten years old. They cohabited a house with another family, then moved to a home with only her mother and father. Her neighborhood was not densely populated, it was very different from neighborhoods in the United States. Her two best friends Inocencia [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity] and Flacertina [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity] lived in an upstairs apartment near the marketplace downtown and a nipa hut [Annotator's Note: bahay kubo, or nipa jut; stilt house indigenous to the Philippines] by the river, respectively. Irvine was the only American attending school there. From Iloilo her family was transferred to Manila. Her new home was on a side street from the main road, with about six houses facing each other. Irvine's neighbors were a mix of everything. Her father was a principal at a larger first through twelfth grade school and her mother taught at the Philippine Normal School [Annotator's Note: now Philippine Normal University in Manila, Luzon, Philippines]. Her grandmother did not live with them again until her sixties when she retired. Irvine's school had a symphony orchestra where she learned how to play the cello. Manila was very safe, her and her friends went where they pleased because crime was not an issue. They would go roller skating and pool their money together to rent bangkas, a type of Philippine canoe. There was an American School, and an American Society that held events for the children. Her school was very international with students from China, Portugal, and Germany. There were not any Japanese children at school. There was a lot of resentment towards the Japanese because of the stories fueled by Japan's invasion of China at the time [Annotator's Note: Second Sino-Japanese War; 1937 to 1945]. Irvine attended Bordner School, a first through twelfth grade school. She and her family integrated with the Filipinos very well. The movies shown in the theaters in Manila were all American movies.

Elizabeth Lautzenheiser Irvine and the people in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] were very concerned about what was going on with the Japanese aggression in China, but never thought it would affect them personally. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines [Annotator's Note: Fall of the Philippines, invasion by the Empire of Japan, 8 December 1941 to 8 May 1942], people were very afraid because they knew what had happened during the Rape of Nanking [Annotator's Note: also referred to as the Nanking (Nanjing) Massacre, 13 December 1937 to January 1938]. Due to the Philippines being across the International Date Line, they did not know of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] until 8 December 1941. A teacher called Irvine's father at three in the morning. The teacher's son, a member of the United States Navy, called and told her about the attack. The children still went to school that morning but were sent home soon after. That same day they were bombed. Irvine's grandmother [Annotator's Note: Nancy Belle Norton, earned the Medal of Freedom, later called ‘Angel of Bataan'] came across some GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] that had been bombed out of their base. Her grandmother brought them back to her house to let them shower and to feed them. The bombing was close to where Irvine was, but they did not experience it firsthand. Irvine and her parents took shelter in a bank vault when a building directly across the river suffered a direct hit, the shockwave threw her off of the sandbags she was sitting on. She later found out that she had some classmates killed in those initial bombings. It was hard to use the radio to understand the scope of what was happening. They heard over the radio when Bataan fell [Annotator's Note: Battle of Bataan, 7 January to 9 April 1942; Bataan, Luzon, Philippines]. Confusion ensued over the following days after the bombings started. Ships down at the docks were doing their absolute best to get rid of their cargo as soon as possible. There was no sort of lockdown in place, Irvine watched the planes bombing the city with her grandmother. [Annotator's Note: Irvine laughs.] Germans in Manila were interned during the early days, which was difficult to see as many of her friends were German. Many Europeans fled to Manila to escape Germany's sweeping invasions, so they already heard firsthand accounts of what was happening in Europe. She found the notion of the invasions and the displacement of people scary. The German community in Manila were divided between being pro- and anti-Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler], and the ones who were anti-Hitler were having worse time in the internment camps. Irvine knew a German boy who was sent back to Germany to join the German youth group [Annotator's Note: Hitler Youth or Hitlerjugend; Nazi Party youth organization]. School was closed, so Irvine spent her days packing up in an effort to protect her belongings and visiting friends using the still running city transportation. The subject of evacuating Manila to go to the United States never came up with her family. The ships in the harbor were leaving as fast as they could, as the Japanese were bombing the harbor. American businessmen formed a committee in Manila and requested that American women and children be evacuated on the large ships leaving the Philippines. Their request was denied, and Americans were not allowed to be evacuated, as it would set a bad example for the Filipinos. Those ships ended up leaving the harbor with no passengers. The Czech [Annotator's Note: Czechoslovakian] refugees from Germany volunteered to fight with MacArthur's [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] men in Bataan.

When the Japanese ceased the bombing [Annotator's Note: Fall of the Philippines, invasion by the Empire of Japan, 8 December 1941 to 8 May 1942], Elizabeth Lautzenheiser Irvine and her family feared for what was to come. The Japanese earned a brutal reputation for abusing civilian populations due to what they did during the Rape of Nanking [Annotator's Note: also referred to as the Nanking (Nanjing) Massacre, 13 December 1937 to January 1938]. A group of businessmen in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] formed a committee that came up with the idea to intern civilians at Santo Tomas University [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Luzon, Philippines]. Citizens were sent to the camp as soon as 1 February [Annotator's Note: 1 February 1942]. Irvine and her family did not leave the house during the Japanese invasion of Manila. Her grandmother [Annotator's Note: Nancy Belle Norton, earned the Medal of Freedom, later called ‘Angel of Bataan'] did not want to stay in the house [Annotator's Note: Irvine laughs], and instead opted to visit wounded soldiers in the hospital and volunteer her help. Irvine worried about what was going to happen, while her parents worried about her grandmother. The Japanese labeled interned civilians as "enemy interned nationals." The first two years of interning civilians, the Japanese did not consider the elderly as a risk. This allowed Irvine's grandmother to stay outside of the camp, as they did not want to bother interning older people at first. A Japanese officer came to the Irvine's house and informed them that they were going to be processed. Once registered, they were loaded into a truck and dropped off on a street corner. The Japanese told them someone would come pick them up, but nobody came by. They eventually made their way to Santo Tomas University to be interned. They found friends who had already staked out a living space in a second-floor classroom. The civilians were originally told to bring enough for three days, which became a joke among the internees. The Japanese did not provide food for the first couple of days. They were only allowed to bring in what they could carry, so the three day supplies were extremely meager. The Santo Tomas Internment Camp was huge and filled with people. Their sleep was often interrupted by soldiers coming in and out of their sleeping quarters. The Philippine Red Cross came in and set up a coffee line in what was called the Ed Building, which later became the commandant's office. Irvine and her family were constantly looking for friends to show up and trying to figure out who was already there. Her best friend shared the sleeping quarters with her family and the others. Confusion defined the first few days in the camp, there was no law and order. The Japanese forced the internees to bow to any soldiers they came across. Their captors thought that the internees were not bowing properly, so they were forced to take bowing lessons. [Annotator's Note: Irvine laughs.] Men and women were separated by rooms, and each room elected a room monitor. The room monitor had to call roll in the evenings, assuring that everyone was still there. Three young men [Annotator's Note: Thomas Henry Fletcher, Henry Edward Weeks, and Blakely Borthwick Laycock] attempted to escape the camp, but were caught and executed. After the first attempted escape, the Japanese announced that they would execute the room monitor responsible for any future escapees. The Japanese forced a minister [Annotator's Note: Owen A. Griffiths] and the head of the internee committee [Annotator's Note: Earl Carroll] to watch the executions.

Elizabeth Lautzenheiser Irvine and the other internees were very leery of their Japanese captors. They were not all bad. Some showed a more friendly and humanitarian side, but generally the internees [Annotator's Note: at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Luzon, Philippines] avoided interaction with the Japanese. Irvine herself avoided personal interaction with the Japanese. Missionaries were not interned at first. Irvine had friends who were children of some missionaries who came to visit, so she walked with them towards the front gate. It started to rain as she was telling her friends goodbye, so she stood underneath a tree near the gate. Irvine witnessed a Japanese officer named Abiko [Annotator's Note: Japanese Army Lieutenant Nanakazu Abiko] and other Japanese soldiers chase down and beat a Filipino man to death. Abiko was infamous at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp for treating the internees poorly. Irvine did not personally see any more instances of brutality but heard of others happening. As she was an only child, the only immediate family she had in the camp was her mother and father. After two years, they brought everyone else into the camp, which included her grandmother who was originally not interned because the Japanese did not want to intern the elderly. Her father's brother, employed by the United States High Commissioner's office before the war, was also interned at the camp. The camp was mostly made up of Americans and British, but there were some Dutch and Norwegians there as well. All the United States Navy nurses from the naval base, and all the Army nurses from Corregidor [Annotator's Note: Corregidor Island, Luzon, Philippines] and Bataan [Annotator's Note: Bataan, Luzon, Philippines] were interned as well. The Navy nurses eventually volunteered to be moved to Los Baños [Annotator's Note: Los Baños Internment Camp, Los Baños, Luzon, Philippines] when it opened, to set up a hospital there. The Army nurses stayed and worked in the camp [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp] hospital. Irvine ended up working in the hospital serving meals, her mother was a nurse's aide. Everyone over the ages of 14 or 15 were forced to find some sort of job. Irvine sorted meals based on a patient's needs and delivered them within the hospital. The patients in the hospital were other internees. Irvine became friends with the Army nurses who worked in the hospital with her. Her grandmother [Annotator's Note: Nancy Belle Norton, earned the Medal of Freedom, later called ‘Angel of Bataan'] volunteered in the Allied hospital since the war started, so she already knew several of the nurses when she was finally interned at the camp.

Elizabeth Lautzenheiser Irvine began attending school in the internment camp [Annotator's Note: the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines]. The Japanese forbade the internees from teaching certain classes such as chemistry and other lab classes. Several interned airmen from Pan American Airways [Annotator's Note: Pan American World Airways] taught math classes to the high school students. School did not take up the entire day, Irvine often had to do her job at the internee hospital in the morning, go to school, and then go back to work. The internees eventually opened a library on the first floor of the school. Eventually Irvine's father, accompanied by a Japanese officer, was allowed to take a truck to Bordner's School to get books and textbooks. When Irvine first entered the camp, it was run by Japanese civilians, but later on the Japanese military took over. The military was much stricter than the civilians. With the military takeover, they brought everyone left out of the camp inside. There was no more communication with the outside. They put barbed wire on top of the walls of the camp. Irvine's grandmother [Annotator’s Note: Nancy Belle Norton, earned the Medal of Freedom, later called ‘Angel of Bataan’] came to visit from time to time. They would meet her at the commandant's office and be allowed to visit with her. In one instance, her grandmother severely injured her foot, and the camp allowed Irvine's mother to leave the camp for a couple of days to take care of her injured grandmother. Irvine similarly was allowed to leave on a pass. She saw all her old friends who were not interned while outside of the camp. The Japanese Navy impounded their old home, so her grandmother stayed at an apartment in a different area. Irvine visited with her friends and went to the movie theater with them one night to see an American movie. The camp had an entertainment committee, who was able to find American movies to show them. The Japanese also showed some Japanese movies and Japanese newsreels, one of which was the sinking of an American ship. The entertainment committee did what they could. Along with showing movies, they built a stage and put on a variety of shows for the camp. An entertainer named Dave Harvey [Annotator's Note: David Harvey McTurk] had been interned with them and put on shows to entertain other internees. Irvine's grandmother often left supplies for her and her parents. These supplies would be checked by the guards then given to the internees. This was done through what was called "the package line" at the front of the camp, it was a lifesaver for a lot of people. Her grandmother was extremely involved in helping internees and POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war], and she was visiting all of the prison camps. Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] created the Medal of Freedom for those who helped during the war, and her grandmother received this honor. After World War 2, she attended many ex-POW banquets and reunions and was often the guest of honor at these functions. At the time, Irvine and her family did not know what her grandmother was doing exactly. The Japanese even went so far as to billet [Annotator's Note: lodge military personnel in a nonmilitary facility] two officers in her apartment to keep track of her. Her grandmother received supplies from other civilians to bring into the camps, but never kept any of their names in case the Japanese decided to start targeting people helping POWs. Irvine's grandmother became good friends with the Japanese officers, notably a lasting friendship with Captain Nogi [Annotator's Note: Captain Nogi Naraji; Japanese Army Medical Corps] who oversaw Bilibid Prison [Annotator's Note: Old Bilibid and New Bilibid Prisons, Muntinlupa, Philippines]. Irvine never had the chance to talk to her grandmother about what she did after the war. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings during the interview.] Irvine only heard stories from other people about what her grandmother did because her grandmother never talked about it.

During Elizabeth Lautzenheiser Irvine's early days in the internment camp [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Luzon, Philippines], they received cots from the Philippine Red Cross. And eventually her grandmother [Annotator's Note: Nancy Belle Norton, earned the Medal of Freedom, later called 'Angel of Bataan'] sent in two beds. Most people had beds of some sort by this point. The camp was intensely crowded. There was no extra space as they had to allow for walkways through the rooms. Later on, when the crowding became too extreme, people were allowed to build shanties on the grounds outside. Filipinos from outside the camp sold materials to the internees. The shanties were built on stilts to keep them off the wet ground. They were mainly made of bamboo and nipa [Annotator's Note: nipa palm]. These makeshift houses soon turned into neighborhoods with their own mayors and names such as "Glamourville" and "Froggybottoms". Not much was inside Irvine's shanty: a kitchen table, some chairs, and a chest. The shanties were mainly used to eat and gather in, they could not be slept in. There were open patios in the main buildings, and some people built their shanties there. Most were scattered throughout the grounds outside of the buildings. When the Japanese began forcing more people into the camps the internees were allowed to sleep in the shanties, as long as they could see into them from the outside. Originally the camp operated by issuing meal tickets to the internee. A regular kitchen crew prepared the meals, a variety of foods of decent quality. But the standard gradually fell year after year, and by year three there was no meat, no fresh food, and they had run out of salt and sugar. Internees began receiving only one meal a day, what they called lugaw [Annotator's Note: also spelled lugao; Filipino rice gruel or porridge]. Their lugaw was prepared by boiling a small amount of rice in a large amount of water with no seasoning. There was a camp garden, where internees could apply for land to plant crops. Irvine's father immediately applied for as many plots as they could get, and her grandmother sent in seeds for them to plant and cultivate. Her grandmother also helped other elderly people inside the camp, giving them what food the family could spare. After the war her grandmother received letters from them saying that they owed their lives to her generosity.

Elizabeth Lautzenheiser Irvine and other internees [Annotator's Note: in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines] were not legally allowed to keep up with news about the war. However, there were some internees who were radiomen before the war. These radiomen managed to build a radio that they kept hidden, they received news and gave it to Don Bell [Annotator's Note: Clarence Alton Beliel]. Bell made announcements over the camp's PA [Annotator's Note: public address] system. The radiomen gave him information which he then gave to the civilians through subtle wording in his regular PA announcements. One such announcement was that the civilians of the camp heard a rumor of Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] being invaded by the Americans. He confirmed this rumor by adding "…better Leyte than never" to an announcement regarding punctuality. The Japanese eventually realized there was a radio somewhere in the camp, and they searched the internees' belongings trying to find it. The radio was never found as it was almost always disassembled, and the individual pieces hidden when not in use. The internees always thought that the American military would liberate the camp, but for years Irvine later had traumatic dreams of never being liberated. The internees knew the American military was getting closer and closer. The Japanese controlling the camp forbade those interned from even looking up at the American planes within view. The Americans arrived in the night [Annotator's Note: 3 February 1945], but all Irvine could hear was shooting and what sounded like tanks. They still had no idea what was happening until the Americans broke down the front gates and were inside the camp. She did not recognize the new American Army uniforms, as they looked so different before the war. Irvine also saw how yellow the soldiers were from taking Atabrine [Annotator's Note: trade name for mepacrine, or quinacrine; an anti-malarial medication] to ward off malaria. The soldiers proved a stark contrast to the emaciated and skinny people of the camp. When the soldiers came into the camp, Abiko [Annotator's Note: Japanese Army Lieutenant Nanakazu Abiko] feigned surrender but was trying to conceal a live grenade in his hand. The Americans shot him, and he was brought to the camp hospital where he died. The head camp doctor [Annotator's Note: Dr. Theodore Stevenson] was jailed at that time for refusing to alter death certificates that attributed camp deaths to starvation and malnutrition. It was complete chaos for the internees, the Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] guards all retreated to the Ed [Annotator's Note: short for Education] Building. The American soldiers could not fire into the building as there were internee hostages in there, a standoff ensued for a couple of days until a deal was struck between the Allies and the Japanese. The Japanese and camp interpreter Stanley [Annotator's Note: Ernest Stanley] walked out of the building peacefully. Photographs of this event were featured in LIFE Magazine [Annotator's Note: issue from 5 March 1945]. The camp was completely free after this negotiation. After the liberation, Irvine continued to work in the camp hospital. She became friends with the American GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] she met. As there was still fighting in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines], they could not yet leave the camp as it was not safe. Irvine would receive passes allowing her to leave the camp for a certain amount of time, she smudged the hours on her pass until it became illegible and went traveled around Manila as much as she wanted. The American soldiers were not supposed to give rides to civilians, so to get around that they would give her a helmet and a jacket so the MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] would not catch them. The Santo Tomas Camp was shelled after its liberation [Annotator's Note: 3 to 10 February 1945]. The attack completely came out of nowhere, killing soldiers and internees. The artillery strikes lasted for a week until the Japanese doing it were forced to stop by the encroaching Allied military. A dud [Annotator's Note: an explosive that fails to explode] landed so close to Irvine's parents that it showered them with gravel upon landing. Once the shelling stopped, the internees began to enjoy a more regular life where they received better food and care and were allowed to leave the camp with their passes. One of the times Irvine snuck off with the GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] to explore Manila they visited the Walled City [Annotator's Note: Intramuros, a district of Manila], sneaking in through a hole in the wall left by a shell and went to a hospital where there were dead bodies everywhere. They left by crawling under a gate, and while leaving the Walled City they noticed a sign behind them saying "Entry Forbidden. Danger. Stay Out."

Elizabeth Lautzenheiser Irvine and the other internees at Santo Tomas [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines] were finally allowed to leave the camp after the fighting in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] was finally over. The Army nurses were flown to Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] and then to the United States. The harbor in Manila was not usable until the sunken ships were removed. Irvine's parents were reassigned teaching jobs and stayed in the Philippines until the Philippine government declared its independence. Her parents wanted to stay and reopen schools, but they were not allowed to work for the Philippine government. Irvine, her mother, and her grandmother [Annotator's Note: Nancy Belle Norton, earned the Medal of Freedom, later called 'Angel of Bataan'] left the Philippines while her father stayed an extra year to help with the United States War Claims Department. At the age of 19 Irvine moved to the United States, which was a foreign country to her. It took a lot of adjustment to start life in the United States. The first thing she and her family did was visit her relatives in the United States, and then she enrolled in college at Walla Walla, Washington. Her parents continued teaching and were eventually reassigned to the Apache Reservation in Arizona [Annotator's Note: Fort Apache Reservation, Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties, Arizona]. Irvine had no idea that Japanese Americans were interned on United States soil. Irvine has revisited the Philippines several times since leaving after World War 2. Manila was completely destroyed and is different from how it was before the war. She found Leyte to be more similar to the Manila she remembered when she younger. Irvine had no strong feelings about the Japanese, and her grandmother became close friends with Dr. Nogi's [Annotator's Note: Captain Nogi Naraji; Imperial Japanese Army Medical Corps] family over the course of the war. Dr. Nogi, like many Japanese officers, was convicted of war crimes and sent to Sugamo Prison [Annotator's Note: in Tokyo, Japan] for some time. Her grandmother sent things to Nogi's wife, who sent things back in return. Nogi eventually visited the United States and met with Irvine's parents in California. Irvine says that when you know individuals it is difficult to see all of them [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] as horrible people. She says that the defenders of Corregidor [Annotator's Note: Battle of Corregidor, 5 to 6 May 1942, Corregidor Island, Luzon, Philippines] and Bataan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Bataan, 7 January to 9 April 1942, Bataan, Luzon, Philippines] did a better job than anyone could have expected of them. She has a great deal of gratitude for the 1st Cavalry [Annotator's Note: the 1st Cavalry Division]. Her time in the camp made her very conscious of avoiding the waste of food. She is a staunch supporter of the American military. She thinks that they would have never left the camp without their rescue. Irvine stayed close friends with Frank [Annotator's Note: last name unknown] of the 1st Cavalry and the gunner of the first tank that broke the gates of Santo Tomas down. Her time as an internee left her with a great deal of sympathy for those from war-torn areas and refugees. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings during the interview.] Irvine believes that World War 2 is history lesson that should be studied today, that they [Annotator's Note: America and the Philippines] were caught completely unprepared. She affirms that institutions such as The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] are important because otherwise people will shrug off the importance of the lessons the war taught us. Knowing history better prepares us for the future.