Greg Woodham was born in Baguio, the Philippines in September 1937. In 1931, his mother had accepted a position to teach in Korea for the children and staff of a mining company. She taught for the company for five years. His father was a mining engineer by trade and moved to the Philippines in 1935 during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. He worked for a French mine in Korea. His parents met at a social event and married in October 1936 in Yokohama, Japan, where they also honeymooned. The newlyweds returned to Korea. They stayed until June 1937 and then moved to the Philippines because they could see that the Japanese, who occupied Korea at the time, were becoming increasingly hostile towards the French mining company. His father found a job at the Benguet Mining Company in the Philippines. His father was assigned to a mine in Baguio and the only road into the area was very dangerous and tortuous, so his mother lived in a hotel for two weeks before Woodham’s birth. Woodham and his family lived in Baguio for four years until they fled to Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines] when the Japanese invaded the Philippines. At the mining camp, the families lived in dwellings that resembled row houses, and then later built individual homes. They had a Filipino house cleaner, cook, and nanny employed at their home. His family were members of a country club, and the mining company supplied a bus or car for transportation into town. They enjoyed Filipino living immensely. Woodham’s mother told him that they used the same babysitter that also watched MacArthur’s [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] son.

Greg Woodham was a small child living in the Philippines prior to World War 2. On 22 December 1941, his mother received a call at five in the morning and was told to evacuate the mountain [Annotator’s Note: in Baguio, the Philippines] and to be ready to leave in one hour for Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines]. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] had declared it an open city [Annotator’s Note: in wartime, a city that has abandoned all defensive efforts, generally in the event of the imminent capture of the city to avoid destruction]. They were only allowed to bring one small suitcase per person. The women and children were loaded into a bus to be taken down to the city, while the men had to walk down the mountain as fast as they could. Woodham’s father arrived in Manila five days after he and his mother reached the city. They stayed at a hotel and watched the Japanese bomb the harbor. They often ran for a nearby bomb shelter during this time. His father [Annotator’s Note: who worked as a mining engineer for the Benguet Mining Company] helped Army engineers blow up bridges near Manila. Then, on New Year’s Eve 1941, Woodham’s father left his wife and child to help blow up the mines with the Army engineers in Corregidor [Annotator’s Note: Corregidor, the Philippines]. They never saw him again. Woodham does not remember his father at all because he was young when he left. He does recall seeing the Japanese airplanes swooping down and bombing Manila as he and his mother ran for the air raid shelter. After his father left, Woodham and his mother stayed in their apartment most of the time. On 2 January, [Annotator’s Note: of 1942] Manila was considered occupied by Japan. On 5 January, there was a knock on Woodham’s door. Two Japanese military personal asked him and his mother to come with them and register as enemy aliens. They were loaded into a car and taken to Santo Tomas [Annotator’s Note: 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 2.]. He and his mother were put into a room filled with other mothers and their children.

Greg Woodham and his mother were interned at Santo Tomas [Annotator’s Note: 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 2.] after the Japanese took over the Philippines in January 1942. He and his mother were put into a room filled with other mothers and their children. They were given a small, designated area, and that is where they lived for the next three years. He was given a steel bed with some mosquito netting. His mother’s bed was a more camp-like bed with a mattress that always attracted bedbugs. The large room that he lived in was always loud. Later, he and his mother were able to split a shanty with another family, named the Elliotts [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling]. They were friends from the Benguet Mining Company in the Philippines [Annotator’s Note: Woodham’s father worked for the Benguet Mining Company in the Philippines before the Japanese invaded the country]. The camp was packed with people. There were about 3,600 internees. Everyone 16 years and older were required to work, so his mother taught school as a substitute teacher. Woodham had free reign of the camp. He often played marbles with his friends and was a competitive player. Woodham did not attend school the first year because his mother was optimistic that the war would be over within a year, and that they would not be in the camp for very long. He completed the first grade in camp. The first couple of years were not too bad. He received enough food because there were vendors that sold food and other items. His mother sent out a note to someone who went into the city and brought her back goods. Illness and lack of health became an issue not long after the camp began. In February 1944, the last year of camp life, the Japanese military took it over because they thought the civilians were too lax. The Japanese had heard an internee made a radio to listen to outside news and they did not like that. Camp life really went downhill from that point on. The internees were required to be present for inspection every morning and roll call every evening. The internees were required to bow to Japanese military, or they would be slapped. Food became scarce, and most people were given only 700 calories a day. People became desperate and began stealing goods from others. When she became ill with dengue fever and could no longer care for him, Woodham’s mother sent him to an orphanage in Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines] run by Catholic nuns. He was returned to Santo Tomas when she was healthy.

Greg Woodham and his mother were interned at Santo Tomas [Annotator’s Note: 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 2.], while his father was taken prisoner and sent to a POW [Annotator’s Note: prisoner of war] camp in Cabanatuan [Annotator’s Note: Cabanatuan, the Philippines]. His mother received letters from his father from time to time. His father was later put on a hell ship with 1,800 other prisoners bound for Japan. Their ship was torpedoed and only eight men survived. After the war, one of the survivors who knew his father came to their house, and told them what happened. Woodham felt it gave his mother a sense of closure. She resumed teaching and he continued his education in Columbia City [Annotator’s Note: Columbia City, Indiana]. [Annotator’s Note: interviewee takes a break because he becomes very emotional at 0:41:36.000.] In February 1945, his mother woke him up on the day of liberation. The American military had arrived with a big tank. The soldiers gave the kids candy bars. It was an exciting day, even if his mother would not let him check out the commandant’s body. The camp turned into a medical camp for the troops, and Woodham liked to hang out with the American soldiers. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] came into the camp and there was a celebration. About a month after liberation, the military began evacuating the internees back to their home country. He and his mother were flown to Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines] and a week later boarded a troop ship and sailed to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. After going through customs, his mother was deemed a refugee which she resented because she was an American. They left San Francisco, stopped in Chicago [Annotator’s Note: Chicago, Illinois] to see his aunt, then arrived in Columbia City. They stayed with his grandmother for some time. His mother found a job as an elementary school teacher. Woodham met his wife in second grade. He played basketball and ran track and field.

Greg Woodham found that no one inquired about his time in the Philippines and when he was older, they only desired an editorial. While he was interred at Santo Tomas [Annotator’s Note: 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 2.], the Japanese guards were friendly to him and often gave him a rice ball. [Annotator’s Note: video break at 0:58:45.000.] Woodham did not suffer, but later realized that the adults had suffered for the benefit of the children. After the war, his mother suffered no residual effects from the war, except that she was very frugal. Woodham grew up feeling a desire to support his family by fishing and hunting. He does not think his experience in the internment camp has affected him too much. He was an average student in high school and went to college on a scholarship. He worked as a camp counselor during the summers to help pay for school. He also grew crops and worked in a men’s clothing store. Except for the loss of his father, it was a tolerable experience in the internment camp. There were very few events that scared him. Woodham believes that there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. The Japanese guards in the internment camp often referred to the Japanese-Americans in internment camps in the United States. His family watched World War 2 begin in Korea as the Japanese took over with their mission to take the Asiatic countries. He is very grateful that his hometown of Columbia City took them in after World War 2, and he regrets not knowing his father and resents him joining the Army.