John Ream was born in November 1934 in the Philippine islands. His father was raised on a ranch in Idaho. He went to school to be a teacher and wanted to leave the ranch. He was recruited by the government to teach in the Philippines in 1914. In 1922, he wanted to get married. He married Ream’s mother in Salt Lake City [Annotator’s Note: Salt Lake City, Utah]. Then his father got an offer to go back to the Philippines. In 1922, his father, mother, and oldest sister went to the Philippines. They ran a bus line and taxis. They lived in a house that his mother’s sister bought. His father’s sister was a nurse and went to the Philippines. His aunt’s husband ended up on the Bataan Death March [Annotator's Note: the forced march of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army in April 1942] and died from disease. When they went into the camps, his aunt was pregnant and had a small child. Ream had three older sisters and an older brother. There was a Jewish kid boarding with them whose mother was a refugee from Germany. Ream was placed in a Catholic school. Then everything got disrupted. Everyone was listening to the radio. They were packing up their car and taking three days’ worth of provisions. They went up to a boarding school. Six hours after Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] the Japanese bombed a place not far from Ream’s home. He knew something was happening. Three weeks later, the Japanese Army showed up. They could see the airplanes pulling up from diving. His sisters were in school and in closer view of the airplanes. They built a bomb shelter. They watched a Japanese dive bomber fly over. The chief of police let the Japanese walk into the city. The Japanese soldiers searched them. Ream had all kinds of stuff in his pockets including a pocket knife. His father told him to turn the knife in. They stayed at the school overnight. All the civilians started coming in.

John Ream had to learn what war was. He thought the hike to Camp John Hay [Annotator’s Note: Camp John Hay in Baguio, the Philippines was a relatively nice internment center where forced labor was non-existent and many of its residents were women and children] was fun. The Japanese had lived in town before the war. As soon as Pearl Harbor was bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] they were put in Camp John Hay. The Japanese were released and they were put in. When the Japanese were interned, they were not treated well. Three weeks later, when Ream was in the camp, they had the same problems. The Japanese became their captors. They were allowed to do things. They were allowed to go to the market and buy food. Before the war started, the Rape of Nanking [Annotator’s Note: Nanking Massacre, also called Rape of Nanjing, December 1937 to January 1938; the mass killing and the ravaging of Chinese citizens] happened. The outstanding image was a Japanese soldier throwing up a baby and catching it on a bayonet. In Camp John Hay they had all the men in one barracks and then women and children in another room. They were all laying on the floor. A baby was crying and the mother could not get it to be quiet. A Japanese sentry came over and picked the baby up and got it to go to sleep. The Japanese soldiers would slap the teenagers around if they were horsing around. The Japanese lined the Filipinos up to watch the westerners march. The Filipinos were very loyal. They had to dig an outhouse. They started repairing things and they got better. The Jewish kid was released because the Jews had German passports and the Germans were allies of the Japanese. The Japanese brought in little Japanese schoolchildren to look at them through the fence. Ream wore shorts and a striped t-shirt. They did not have replacement clothing later in the war. Clothing was depleted. They passed shoes on for as long as they could. The Japanese would take a truck and go around to homes take what they could and bring it back to the camp. The nuns and missionaries were in and out of the camp. One missionary died during his interrogation process. There was a baby born in the camp and he was named John Hay after the camp.

John Ream would walk around the camp [Annotator’s Note: Camp John Hay in Baguio, the Philippines was a relatively nice internment center where forced labor was non-existent and many of its residents were women and children] to see what was happening. He would go into the kitchen to see what kind of food would be prepared. They would sit on the ground. He would catch lizards. They started creating jobs for everyone. The rice they got was always dirty. They had to clean it all up. His mother did sanitary work. His dad was the head shop master. They moved to Camp Holmes [Annotator’s Note: Camp Holmes or, alternatively, Camp #3, Baguio is located in the highlands of the Philippines] about three months later. Camp John Hay was in the middle of town. Camp Holmes was outside of town. It was beautiful. They could see across the mountain range to the South China Sea. When they moved them there they sent in a cleaning crew. They cleaned up the barracks. They rode there on the back of Japanese trucks. The Japanese built a double barbed wire fence. The men and women could not touch each other. They were only allowed to talk to each other for one hour. Ream had to stay with his mother, but he could cross the fence and visit his father. He had to sneak back to his barracks. He ran into a Japanese soldier. The soldier showed him how to work the yo-yo and sent him on his way. A couple of months after they got there, all the Chinese were released. They started school. They had to share books. They went to school for part of the day. About a third of the camp was children. Ream had 10 other children in his class. They did not get any news from the outside. Someone brought in a radio, and they had to hide it. They heard Italy had surrendered.

John Ream remembers as kids they could run up the mountainside. [Annotator’s Note: Ream is referring to being interned in Camp Holmes or, alternatively, Camp #3, located in Baguio, the Philippines.] They would go under the barbed wire. They explored the side of the mountain. They would have mud fights. Two guys escaped. They would bring him in and beat him up. One man was caught smuggling alcohol into the camp. They brought him out on the parade ground and worked him over with a baseball bat and golf club. A commandant came in and took the fence down between the men and women. This is when the camps went from civilian control to military. The middle barracks became a co-ed barracks. Japanese guards walked through the barracks at night. In the summer of 1944, two young men escaped. One of them fought with the guerrillas before he was captured. His job in the camp was as part of the garbage crew. The cobbler in the camp repaired boots for the guerrilla fighters. Some of them were interrogated and tortured. Ream was nine or ten years old. The Japanese put together a baseball team to play against them. The food was bad. They would bring fish up from the village and it would be rotten. They had chickens and goats. They had some pigs and cows. Every once in a while they would slaughter an animal.

John Ream remembers that in December 1944, the Japanese decided to move them. [Annotator’s Note: the Japanese were moving the internees from Camp Holmes in Baguio, the Philippines]. They slaughtered all the chickens and had a huge feast. They saved the leftovers in five-gallon cans. Part of the trip was nice because they got to be outside. Part of the trip was horrible because one guy had dysentery [Annotator’s Note: dysentery is an infection of the intestines that causes diarrhea containing blood or mucus] and defecated all over the bottom of the truck. They left at six in the morning and by lunchtime, all the food had spoiled. The Japanese were moving in a different direction than they were. The Japanese were moving up into the mountains to make their last hold out. They were taken to an old prison called Bilibid [Annotator’s Note: Bilibid was a Japanese prison camp in Manila, the Philippines]. They were put in the back compound. Military prisoners were being held in the front compound. They were put in a three-story building that had been condemned before the war. It was a bare concrete frame with bedding. The bedding was soiled with blood and feces. When they got there, they were down to 300 calories a day. Ream would go down to the garbage cans and try to find more slivers of food to cook up for his dad who was down to about 100 pounds. There were also 180 graves of military prisoners. Ream learned years later that their medical records were kept at the Navy Yard in Washington, DC. Ream went there and asked to see the health records. The lady brought out a laundry basket full of dirty pieces of paper. The Japanese wanted the doctor to put down natural causes for death. He would do that, and then he would also put poor nutrition and starvation. Then they buried them at Bilibid. All school was suspended. The invasion of Leyte [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Leyte, the Philippines; 20 October 1944 to 26 December 1944] started in 1944. They started to see American airplanes. They saw a P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightening fighter aircraft] flying reconnaissance. When they moved to Manila, they started seeing bombers coming in. The B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] were coming over every day. The carrier planes were dive bombing. One day, one of the B-24s started trailing smoke. The airmen bailed out. None of them survived. On 4 February [Annotator’s Note: of 1945], Ream could hear machine gun fire. From then on all hell broke loose.

John Ream remembers when people looked over the wall, they could see the 1st Cavalry [Annotator’s Note: 1st Cavalry Division] tanks coming down the road. The tanks were spraying the suspected pillboxes [Annotator’s Note: a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard-post, normally equipped with loopholes through which defenders can fire weapons] with machine gun fire. The Japanese guards went up on the wall with Molotov cocktails [Annotator’s Note: a hand-thrown incendiary weapon] and would throw them at the tanks. There was artillery fire and machine gun fire. A woman made an American flag and put it up on the building. When the 37th Division [Annotator’s Note: 37th Infantry Division] reached them, they did not know they were there. A patrol came around the front of Bilibid [Annotator’s Note: a Japanese prison camp in Manila, the Philippines] and killed the Japanese guards. They broke into the military prisoner side. The Americans identified themselves by showing American cigarettes, Lucky Strikes. Then they went to the back compound and rescued the civilians. Ream remembers climbing all over the Americans. They were giving them candy. Some of them would adopt a family. The Japanese started blowing up the city around them. They could hear the explosions and feel the compression. Then they were told to evacuate. The 37th had to borrow trucks from the 1st Cavalry. They took them to a shoe factory. Next to the shoe factory, there was a small airfield. They fed them too much. They had cream of wheat for breakfast. The next day, they were put back in Bilibid because it was the safest place to be. One night a bomber dropped a bomb right next to the walls. It killed several American tankers who were bivouacked [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite] behind the wall. They sent mortar rounds into the compound. Ream picked up shrapnel around the place.

John Ream remembers when liberation started that the Japanese told them to stay in the camp because it was dangerous out there. When the 37th Division [Annotator’s Note: 37th Infantry Division]] arrived they were put back into the camp for three weeks. Then they were taken to an airfield south of Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines]. They were put on C-47s [Annotator’s Note: The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota] and sent to Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines]. They were put in a convalescent hospital. Ream’s father was put in an intense convalescent hospital across the island. They were free to walk around. They were given a lot of food. One day, Ream went to visit his father. He hitched a ride in an ambulance. The first thing his dad wanted was a beer. They stayed on Leyte for a couple of months. Then they were put on a Dutch ship. Ream got to go all over the ship. He slept on the deck. He ate with the captain. He had better food than in the mess hall. He would look for submarines with the sailors. They landed in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] in May [Annotator’s Note: May 1945]. His father was still sick and they had family helping them. One of Ream’s cousin’s parents went back to the Philippines to start their business over. Ream had to sleep in the pantry or the chicken coop. Ream did not have problems academically, but he did socially. He joined the Oakland Police Department [Annotator’s Note: Oakland, California].

John Ream remembers that if anyone kept a diary, the FBI [Annotator’s Note: Federal Bureau of Investigation] would seized it. There were people waiting on the gang plank, including relatives who Ream had never seen before. The people who did not have relatives were taken to a department store by the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] and outfitted with clothing. Ream’s sisters were wearing WAC [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978] uniforms and he was wearing bib overalls with no shirt and no shoes. Ream learned a lot of lessons from his time in the internment camp. He was behind on social graces. The bravest thing he did was to ask a girl to the prom. He went to San Jose State [Annotator’s Note: San Jose State University in San Jose, California]. He joined the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. He was commissioned and then he joined the police force before he was sent on active duty in the Army. He served during peacetime between the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] and Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975]. Ream worked as an MP [Annotator's Note: military police]. He made sure the servicemen were behaving themselves. He felt close to the military and like he had an obligation. He wanted to thank them for what they did. He had a friend named Lillian, and she was in an internment camp for Japanese in the United States. They were very close.

John Ream’s wife traveled from place to place her whole life. He could pick between the police or the military for a career. He chose the police force. He was a deputy chief for 13 years. He started off working a small beat in Oakland [Annotator’s Note: Oakland, California]. When he became a captain, he had the whole city. When he was deputy chief he had a lot of responsibility. He was the main contact for the National Guard. He used them a lot because people were rioting all over the city. The Army gave them top of the line gas masks. Ream trained Navy personnel on narcotics management during their time in Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975]. In 1967, they noticed when they made traffic stops there would be cars full of young black men that would stop behind the traffic stop and they would have rifles and other weapons. They gathered information on the young men and discovered that they were part of the group called the Black Panthers [Annotator’s Note: The Black Panther Party, originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California]. Ream tells a story about a young recruit, John Frey, and Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton. There was a car chase with the Black Panthers who were shooting guns at the police officers. There were bullets all over the street. [Annotator’s Note: Ream talks about the Black Panther Party’s leader Huey Newton’s trials].

John Ream gives his account of Huey Newton [Annotator’s Note: the Black Panther Party leader and founder]. The Panthers [Annotator’s Note: The Black Panther Party, originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California] were collecting items for the poor outside a liquor store owned by black Raiders players [Annotator’s Note: Oakland Raiders National Football League (NFL) team]. The people thought they were going to be arrested. The Panthers’ goals may have been good, but killing was not the way to accomplish them. Ream was active in the police department.

John Ream remembers being in the convalescent hospital and seeing them bring out a flamethrower [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire] to burn up the garbage of the day. The air war over Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines] was the most memorable. He thinks the war made him a better person. The only quarrel he has with the Japanese is the movement in Japan to deny the things they did. In 1977, they had a reunion in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. They all got a medal for being in Camp Holmes [Annotator’s Note: Ream is referring to being interned in Camp Holmes near Baguio, the Philippines]. He thinks it was wrong that Japanese-Americans were interned during the war. There are some people that cannot get over how they were interned during the war. He thinks there are very few people today that know about the war and what it meant. He thinks if people like Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] emerge then everyone needs to unite to defeat them. He thinks people should learn about the war.