Leonard Brooks was born in the Philippines in 1924. His parents had gone to the Philippines in 1922 as missionaries and spent much of their time in the San Juan area. Brooks' father had a small church in San Juan. Brooks helped out around the church as a teenager. The church is still there but is now a three story building. Brooks' grandparents had also been missionaries. His grandfather died when his father was very young. His father met his mother in bible school. Two months after they got married they moved to the Philippines. Brooks and his family are Plymouth Bretheren which is similar to the Baptists. Brooks' father was one of the first in the Philippines to bring his religion to the people. Many of the Filipinos who attended Brooks' father's church later moved to California. Brooks returned to the Philippines in 2003. Growing up in the Philippines was similar to growing up in the United States. The first six years of schooling Brooks received were through a correspondents course. There was no school there for Americans. Brooks and his family went to Victoria to visit his aunt in 1938 or 1939. He started school there and completed the seventh grade. Then his family moved to Buffalo where they stayed for one year. Moving from the Philippines to North America was a culture shock for Brooks but he got used to it. Up until the sixth grade all of Brooks' friends were Filipino and he learned Tagalog from hanging out with them.

Leonard Brooks and his family were on their way back [Annotator's Note: to the Philippines] when the Blitzkrieg started in Germany. They landed in Japan and feared that they would not be allowed to leave. He and his family were very aware of what was happening in the world. Brooks was 14 years old when the war in Europe started. By that time he was already six feet tall. They were able to get back to the Philippines. As soon as they got back, Brooks' father started to do a lot of work with servicemen. On the weekends they would have 20 to 25 young men over. They did not know it at the time but the Japanese were bringing in war equipment disguised as farm equipment and hiding it in the hills. Some of the servicemen understood what was happening. Since they were 12 hours ahead it was five in the evening when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Sunday, 7 December 1941. It was not until the following day that Brooks learned that the war was on. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Brooks' father thought about taking his family back to North America. They decided as a family to stay. Brooks and his siblings attended a school set up for American military personnel. When MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] came back one time, Brooks and some of his fellow students went out to greet him. The Filipinos were happy to have the American military in their country before the start of the war.

Leonard Brooks got up to go to school on Monday [Annotator's Note: 8 December 1941] morning and that is when he and his family got the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He made it to school but there was a lot of military activity in the area and the children were paying more attention to it than to their studies so the school sent them all home. That was the last of their schooling. Brooks was a junior in high school at the time. All of his school records were lost so after the war he had to take classes to get his diploma at the age of 22. Brooks went home and that night was the first night that bombs were dropped. Many areas were hit by the Japanese including a nearby Filipino air base, Clark Field, and Caviti [Annotator's Note: the Caviti Navy Yard]. The Japanese has destroyed the American air force and were able to bomb at will. Brooks and his family lived seven miles outside of Manila. Manila was the seat of government and large city. Brooks does not recall much panic from the time the Japanese started bombing the area until they landed and entered the city in January 1942. Brooks saw his first Japanese soldier on 2 January 1942. They knew they would be taken and there was fear in some cases as to how they would be treated. The Filipinos were mistreated by the Japanese and the beginnings of a guerilla movement had already begun. There were five people in Brooks' family plus his dad had taken in a number of other missionaries back in December so there were 13 people living in Brooks' home when the Japanese arrived.

Leonard Brooks and his family continued to have bible studies and prayer meetings every day while waiting to find out what would happen next. [Annotator's Note: A clock chimes in the background.] They watched as the Japanese picked up Americans and brought them to the concentration camp at Santo Tomas throughout January and February [Annotator's Note: January and February 1942]. Finally, in mid-February, the Japanese put out the word that anyone who had not been picked up yet was to report in on their own. Brooks and his family, along with all other foreigners except Germans, reported to Santo Tomas. [Annotator's Note: A clock chimes in the background.] They did not know what to expect inside the camp. When they reported to the camp, they were put in the same location as all of the other missionaries who had been picked up previously. They were told something different would be done with them. Brooks and the other missionaries were nervous because they were aware of what had happened to many of the missionaries in China. they had been taken out and shot. They wondered if it was going to be their last day. Around two that afternoon, the Japanese came around and through a translator told the missionaries that they would all be sent home and would be on house arrest. Brooks believes that allowing the missionaries to go home was an attempt by the Japanese to curry favor with the local Filipinos because of the devout religious background many of the locals had. Brooks and his family went home. They remained on house arrest until June 1944. Individuals under house arrest were only allowed to leave their homes for certain reasons like going to the doctor or shopping and each home was given one red armband that had to be worn when an individual went out. Brooks was 19 or 20 years old at the time. He should have gone back into the camp when he turned 18 but prior to the war his parents had a Japanese neighbor who they were friendly with and that individual vouched for Brooks. The man had no idea what he had done. Brooks was not the good boy the Japanese man thought he was.

Leonard Brooks had Filipino friends who he continued to visit throughout his time on house arrest. One friend put on events for the Japanese and Brooks would help him with the lighting even thought he was not supposed to. Sometimes, Brooks would go to Manila on business. When he went, he would wear a long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up. That way, when he wore the red armband [Annotator's Note: individuals under house arrest were required to wear a red armband whenever they left their home], it would slip down into his shirt sleeve. He was stopped on occasion and asked if he was an American. The Japanese were reluctant to stop men like Brooks because he may be a German and that would embarrass the Japanese. One night while returning home Brooks heard Japanese troops approaching. He considered running but thought better of it. He was detained by the soldiers and questioned by a Japanese who continually poked Brooks in the chest with his revolver. Finally, after 20 minutes, the Japanese were satisfied and Brooks was allowed to go home. Brooks and two brothers, along with an American named Earl Hornbussell [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] and a Chinese civilian, would listen to the Voice of America on a contraband radio to get news. They would type up what they heard and Brooks and the Chinese man would pass out the news to the missionaries and the Chinese internees at the camp. Their goal was to get the news into the concentration camp [Annotator's Note: the Santo Tomas internment camp]. The Japanese allowed people outside the camp to visit internees so Brooks would roll up the pieces of paper with the news on them and stick them inside a fountain pen. He would then pass the pen to the internee he was visiting. One day while going out for his pick up, Brooks was stopped by several Filipinos who told him not to go. He went anyway. When he got to the pick up location, he saw that the Japanese had picked up the two brothers so he just rode on past. Brooks later learned that the brothers, Hornbussell, and the Chinese guy had all been picked up by the Japanese. The Japanese then used the four men to try to locate Brooks. At some point, the older brother taken somewhere by the Japanese and never seen again. The other three were scheduled for execution but they were saved by the Filipino guerillas before they were killed.

[Annotator's Note: Leonard Brooks and his family lived just outside of Manila in the Philippines. Following the Japanese occupation of the area in February 1942 the Brooks family, and all of the other missionaries in the area, were allowed to live in their own homes under house arrest.] By this time, there was a large underground movement. Things were being brought in by submarine, the same way MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] had gone out. Every now and then they would get a new Time Magazine or a Hershey chocolate bar. Inside the wrapper of the chocolate bar would be printed "I will return." For three years they lived wondering if today would be the day [Annotator's Note: the day MacArthur would return]. Morale remained high [Annotator's Note: even under Japanese occupation]. Brooks' family never doubted that MacArthur would return. Brooks witnessed the ebb and flow of Japanese troops through the area durig the war. He also read of the losses suffered by the Japanese. The Japanese always claimed that the worst losses were suffered by the Americans but Brooks knew that wasn't true. That was how things were until June 1944 when Brooks and the other missionaries were notified that they would be going into the camp [Annotator's Note: the Santo Tomas internment camp]. This happened a couple months before the Americans landed on Leyte. The day after the missionaries were put in the camp, the local paper ran a headline stating that the Japanese had rounded up a major spy ring. When Brooks and his family left to go to the camp, his father gave their Filipino neighbors all of his books and other important items he wanted protected. When his father returned to the area in 1949 all of the books and items were returned to him. They were each allowed to take one suitcase into the camp. Still, Brooks and his brother loaded cots into the back of the Japanese truck that came to pick the Brooks family up.

They [Annotator's Note: Leonard Brooks, his family, and the 600 other missionaries] arrived at Santo Tomas and spent the night in the gymnasium. They were just there temporarily. There was no room for them at Santo Tomas so they were going to be moved. The next morning they were taken to the train station then sent to Los Baños, 40 miles south of Manila. Los Baños was the location of the University of the Philippines' agricultural school. Brooks and the others were put in barracks on the school grounds. There were already a number of people in the camp when Brooks' group arrived and they were initially separated from the newly arrived missionaries by a wall. The barracks were very long and were made up of small rooms that were each shared by two people. The Japanese did nothing for the people inside the camp. Thinking the best place to get good meals was in the kitchen, Brooks volunteered to work there. His job was to get the fire started under the cauldron in which the cornmeal mush was cooked every morning. From the time they arrived in June [Annotator's Note: June 1944] until September, the internees got three meals per day. The meat used for the evening stew, usually caribou, was bought from local Filipinos at the gate to the camp. The worse the war went for the Japanese, the worse they treated the internees. In September they got a new camp commandant [Annotator's Note: Japanese Army Lieutenant Sadaaki Konishi, second in command of the Los Baños internment camp]. He was the meanest man Brooks ever knew. Things began to get bad for the internees after his arrival. After the Americans arrived in the area, Brooks and the other internees could see the Americans moving from their position up on a hill. Brooks' parents held up well during this time which surprised him. From September until they were freed in February [Annotator's Note: February 1945] they were only fed two meals per day. One of those meals was cornmeal mush which was full of bugs. The bugs were the only protein they got. The evening meal was just a cup of plain rice. The missionaries were allowed to continue with their religious services and the children were even allowed to go to school. After September the schooling was reduced but still continued. Brooks had not been in school for three years so he took a number of classes from a Jesuit priest. Many years after the war, Brooks returned to the Philippines and ran into that same priest. Days in the camp were structured. In the morning, Brooks would have breakfast then go to school. After school, he and the other youngsters would play games or sports. While in the camp, Brooks spent a lot of time with a young lady named Ruth McCandles [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] who was the daughter of a doctor that treated Brooks one time. The commandant who took over the camp was determined to starve the internees to death. By October, orders had come down that all camp inmates were to be killed. The method of extermination was left up to the camp commandants. At a smaller camp in the southern Philippines, 300 internees were burned to death. There were 2,146 internees in Los Baños. Every Sunday after church services the internees weighed themselves. Brooks weighed 165 pounds in September and was down to 110 pounds at the time they were freed in February. Rations in the camp were cut. The inmates knew what was going on. Brooks saw people dying every day and knew that was how he was going to go. Many people had dysentery. Brooks' mother had beri beri and weighed 85 pounds when she was released. His 12 year old sister weighed 49 pounds. The inmates would eat everything they thought was edible. Brooks and his brother picked the bananas off the banana tree growing outside of their room and ripened them under their bed. When the bananas were all gone, they cut the tree down and ate it. Later, they dig up the roots and ate them too. Brooks did not see any degradation of Christian values in the camp, even after the conditions became severe. By the time February arrived Brooks and the others knew that they could not last much longer. There were a number of escapes from the camp but most of them were caught and shot. By the end, Brooks and the others did not have the strength to attempt an escape. The Missionaries continued to work together and all knew that God would get them out of their situation.

Leonard Brooks and the other internees had no idea that they were scheduled to be killed at nine on the morning of 23 February [Annotator's Note: 23 February 1945], the same day the camp [Annotator's Note: the Los Baños internment camp] was liberated. The planning and logistics for the raid to liberate the camp is impressive to Brooks. The American troops got all 2,146 inmates out. Some of them were bed-ridden and had to be carried out. Two of the Filipino guerillas involved in the raid were killed. At seven o'clock every morning the inmates lines up to be counted. Just as they lined up, planes flew over with the word "Rescue" painted on them and 150 paratroopers jumped out of them. That was when Brooks and the others knew that they were being released. It surprised Brooks that the Japanese did not open fire on them. He later learned that the raid had been planned to take place at that specific time because there would only be four guards on the perimeter of the camp and the rest of the guards would be doing calisthenics with their rifles stored in the guardhouse. The Japanese troops were literally caught with their pants down. Many Japanese troops were killed but the commandant escaped. [Annotator's Note: Brooks is referring to Japanese Army Lieutenant Sadaaki Konishi, the second in command of the camp.] The commandant later rounded up some troops and returned to the town of Los Baños and devastated it. The massacred everyone. After the war, the commandant of Los Baños was working as a grounds keeper at a golf course when someone recognized him. He was arrested, tried as a war criminal and executed. The amtracks [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked, also known as amtracks or alligators] arrived at the same time as the paratroopers. The amtracks were to ferry the internees back across the lake. Most of the first wave to cross the lake were bed ridden. Brooks and his family had to walk the two and a half miles to the lake shore. The American troops liberating the camp knew that the area was surrounded by enemy troops and wanted to get the internees out as fast as they could. They were forced to burn the barracks to get the internees moving. Brooks and his family arrived at the lake around nine and had to wait an hour and a half for the tanks to come back and pick them up. They were shelled the entire time. The missionaries had met the night before and payed that God would deliver them from the situation in such a way that they would know it was by His hand.

On 23 February [Annotator's Note: 23 February 1945] they were out [Annotator's Note: of the Los Baños internment camp]. Leonard Brooks and the other internees were put in Bilibid prison which had been set up as a rehabilitation center. They spent about a month being rehabilitated. The digestive systems of the internees was in such a state that many of them suffered from eating after they were freed. The pain was terrible. It was two weeks before they were given any meat. They all had bleeding gums because they hadn't chewed anything in a long time. After a few months at Bilibib, the internees were put aboard Liberty ships and sent home [Annotator's Note: to the United States]. Brooks hated to leave in a way. His father went back to the Philippines in 1949. Brooks returned and was a missionary there from 1957 to 1972. Brooks met his wife in Canada and they were married in the United States. During the return trip to the United States the internees were aboard two Liberty ships and there were two destroyers as escorts. One morning the destroyers were gone. They had stopped to chase a submarine. When the ships arrived in Hawaii, customs agents boarded the ships so they could process everyone. That way, when the internees arrived in San Francisco there would be no delays for them in getting off the ships. The internees knew that a couple of the individuals with them had been spying for the Japanese when they were still in the camp [Annotator's Note: the Los Baños internment camp]. Those individuals were taken off the ship first as soon as the ship arrived and were arrested. Brooks was greeted by friends in San Francisco. He had no family there. His mother's family was in Buffalo and his father's family was in Victoria. The Brooks family was British subjects so they could not stay in the United States. They had to go immediately to Canada and get a visa then they were able to return. The liberation of the camp was one of the greatest airborne feats ever but it was not publicized in the United States because the camp was liberated the same day as the flag was raised on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Brooks is referring to the famous photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal showing four Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi]. As a result of his experiences, Brooks learned to be satisfied with his situation. At the time of his liberation in February, Brooks weighed 110 pounds. When he arrived in the United States in May he weighed 194 pounds. The internees were at sea when they learned of the death of President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt]. Learning of the president's death was a shock and a disappointment tot he internees. They thought a lot of him and recognized the fact the Roosevelt and MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] did a lot of planning. Brooks later read that Roosevelt wanted MacArthur to go straight to Japan but MacArthur refused. He had promised the people of the Philippines that he would return and he did just that. After the war, the people of the Philippines revered MacArthur. He was their liberator. After arriving in San Francisco, Brooks' family went to Victoria where they visited family and obtained visas. Then they went to Buffalo to visit his mother's family which was where they spent most of their time in the United States. They got to Buffalo in early June and Brooks registered for the draft. In mid June, Brooks and his brother went for their physicals. In November, Brooks was drafted and sent to Camp Crowder, Missouri for basic training and by April 1946 he was in Le Havre, France on occupation duty. He applied for an early discharge and was sent home and discharged in July 1946. Brooks then went to Hutchinson High School in Buffalo to get his diploma. [Annotator's Note: Interview ends abruptly.]