Therese Wadsworth Warne was born in February 1934 in Mindanao, Philippines. During the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945], her father was asked to oversee the pineapple division in a new location for Del Monte Company [Annotator's Note: Del Monte Foods, Incorporated] and asked if he would be willing to relocate to the Philippines. Her mother was hesitant at first because she heard that little Filipino children did not have milk and she did not know geographically where the Philippines were located. After looking at a map, Warne's father said he would buy her a gun and convinced her mother to go. Warne's parents were true pioneers in a very remote area of the world but lived a lavish life. Her father was initially sent to San Francisco, California from Utah to work in the pineapple department of Del Monte, and a few years later was sent to the Philippines. The families that worked for the Del Monte pineapple plantation all lived in seven homes on one side of the river in a horseshoe shape. There was a school for the children, a golf course, a pool, and a clubhouse. The property was beautifully landscaped with all sorts of flora and a river flowing through the center of the horseshoe. The native workers lived on the other side of the river and often bathed and washed their clothes in the water. Therese and her brother were both born in the Philippines. She went to school in the one room schoolhouse. The Philippine flag and American flag were flown at the top of the school building. There was also a swing set outside for the children to use. She sat a table in the school and did her schoolwork through correspondence from the Calvert school in Baltimore [Annotator's Note: Baltimore, Maryland]. The Del Monte Company hired a schoolteacher that also lived there and taught all the different grades for the children. Warne was in third grade by the time she was seven years old. She and her classmates wrote articles for a newspaper the self-published with the assistance of the teacher. When the family took vacation to visit their relatives in Utah, they would be gone for four to six months. She took a ship from the Princess Cruise line to get to the United States, which was very glamourous. There was often music playing and food for sale. People were dressed in their best, as they boarded the ship. She and the other kids ate dinner at an earlier time in the children's dining room. During the day, she played in the playroom with adults to take care of them. Chairs would be put out on the deck for people to sit in. It was a fun trip if you did not get seasick. When they disembarked in the United States, they visited the Del Monte Company office first in California. Then her family would take a train to visit her grandparents in Utah. It took a month to get to the United States, a month to return to the Philippines, and four months to vacation. She told stories to children of her aunt's neighbors about the snakes and monkeys in the Philippines and their parents began to complain that Warne was scaring the children. Warne's older brother passed away while in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines], and his body was sent back to Utah on the last ship out to the United States before World War 2 commenced. Also at this time, the high commissioner was mandating that all American turn in their passports. They had to receive permission to travel out of the Philippines because the government wanted to show the Filipinos that American would stand with them against the enemy. Shortly after her brother died, Warne came down with a serious case of malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] and was prescribed shots. She had to be held down to receive the shots. Another time, she had to go to a dentist because she had a bad tooth. She and her family traveled four hours to a mining camp to get in line so the dentist could pull her tooth out. At first, Warne was excited to go because she wanted to see her friend that lived at the mining camp but, upon arrival, found out that she was on vacation. When it was her turn to see the dentist, she kicked and screamed so badly that they had to get men from the gold mines to hold her down. The dentist accidentally pulled out the wrong tooth, so they had to hold her down again to pull out the correct tooth. Her father told her he would take her to the company store afterwards to buy something. She thought it would be a five and dime store, but to her dismay all they sold were tobacco leaves, aspirin, and liquor.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: an American child living in the Philippines during World War 2] associated with other American families who also lived in the Philippines. One of the families had three boys that she played with. One of those boys' name was Tom, and eventually became Warne's husband. Tom's mother was a pianist. Tom's father purchased his wife a baby grand piano, which was shipped on a cattle boat and then had to be lifted off the boat and transferred to the beach. It was a production, but his wife loved the piano. Other families there had children too and Warne played with them all, regardless of their age. One time Santa Claus visited the schoolhouse and the children put on a program. Santa gave a present out of his sack to all the children, except her. Santa led her outside and to her surprise she received a white pony. Along with her pony was all the equipment and clothing to ride the pony she named Silver. The garden boy would bring her pony to her all saddled up so she could ride. Her family had a lot of help. Her mother trained all the house workers how to properly clean. They had maids and a chauffeur. Warne had a nursemaid she called, Alma. Sometimes, Warne drove down with her mom and dad to the Del Monte cannery [Annotator's Note: Del Monte Foods, Incorporated] which was located on the waterfront. Warne does not remember being aware of the beginnings of Japanese aggression. She does remember the American military coming to the Philippines the summer before World War 2 started. The military wanted to build airfields, so her father and the Del Monte manager formed a company to help build two 10,000-foot grass runways so B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] could take off and land. They also built caves with electricity to store airplanes, with lodging for soldiers. Admiral Bulkeley [Annotator's Note: US Navy Vice Admiral John Duncan Bulkeley] invited her parents to a lavish dinner in the cave. One day she saw a group of B-17s land. She asked to go to the airport so she could see the planes. She was amazed at how all the planes were lined up perfectly. She thought it was all exciting. These B-17s were saved when Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines] was bombed on the first day of the war. She was impressed of the size of the B-17s because prior to that she only saw small army bi-planes. Most people traveled by yachts and boats to get to Mindanao [Annotator's Note: Mindanao, Philippines], and not by planes. Her parents, although not too concerned, did prepare in case the Japanese did invade the Philippines. Her mother had the maids prepare a sack of items to be taken to a natural cave nearby. Her parents thought if a war started it would only last a couple of weeks because McArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] had a great force that would push away the Japanese. Her parents often wrote to their family in the United States to not be concerned and they were out of harm's way. A family friend, and Olympic swimmer, Fred Lambert [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], who was on the deck of a ship that was leaving Manila to head towards Mindanao hit an American landmine. Somehow Lambert survived the incident. This event made Warne and her family more concerned, but they were relieved to have the American military close by.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: an American child living in the Philippines during World War 2] was eating breakfast on the lanai, a screened in porch, one morning and heard over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Six hours later they heard that Davao, Philippines was bombed. Davao was a region on the other side of the island about 200 miles away with mountains and jungles that separate Davao from where she was in Mindanao [Annotator's Note: Mindanao, Philippines]. Davao had an airfield that the Japanese wanted to use so they could bomb Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines]. Everyone was scared, but the parents sent the children to school anyway. While the children were at school the adults got large coconut tree fronds and disguised the houses, spray painted the B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] at the nearby airfield, made ditches, covered the pool, and planted shrubbery. They transformed the whole community to where it did not look like a neighborhood from the sky. On her way to school, a young boy was explaining to Warne what war was, which scared her even more. Her teacher tried to comfort her, but it did not work. Not long after, the children were told to go hide in the riverbanks because the adults thought they saw Japanese planes, but it turned out they were only American planes. Warne's mother picked her up from school and saw that she was frightened and comforted and told her to not be afraid of war. Later that night, their community had a meeting by the pool and decided that being in their houses were not safe and moved their belongings to the worker's social hall. Warne was taken back by the conditions of the social hall. It was dirty and they had to sit on blankets. The bathroom was just a hole in the ground with a piece a tin to cover it. Her teacher told her to write in a diary, which Warne did. She talked in length about the bathroom conditions. Japanese planes would fly over them often, but because they were unaware of the airfields nearby, they did not invade the area. During this time there were only four children from families working with the Del Monte company [Annotator's Note: Del Monte Foods, Incorporated] at the social hall, including Warne. So, she played with the Filipino children. Warne was frightened all the time, especially when the Japanese flew over them.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: an American child living in the Philippines during World War 2] and her family relocated to the starch factory [Annotator's Note: of Del Monte Foods, Incorporated] that was nearby because the Japanese began to bomb the airstrip. They were often visited by military personnel that would stay for dinner. At one point, their place became the gateway for military personnel to escape to Australia. Warne's family was hoping they would be able to escape with them. Every night they went down to the airfield only to be denied coming on board the plane because there was no room for them. During this time, General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] and his family took over some of the houses at the Del Monte plantation. MacArthur, his wife, and child stayed at the Wadsworth's home. Warne's mother along with some of the other ladies and Warne called on Mrs. MacArthur. Warne snuck into her bedroom and grabbed a magnifying glass that her brother had gifted her before his death. General MacArthur caught her in the act but allowed her to get whatever she wanted and to leave immediately after. Warne was so happy she felt compelled to take the magnify glass because it became important for her survival later while in the prison camps. When she snuck into her bedroom, she did not feel like she was doing something wrong. There were guards all around the house and she thought that MacArthur may have been upset that she was able to sneak into her room without them seeing her. She and her mother returned to the starch factory. The Army burned her house down so the enemy could not take it. Some of her Filipino friends were able to salvage some furniture from the fire and gave it to Warne's family. One lady rescued a crochet tablecloth and hid it in a cave. After the war, she returned it to Warne's mother. When the MacArthur's were flown to safety in Australia the Wadsworth's had hoped to be flown out with them, but to their dismay, they were left behind. Warne always felt mad that they did not take them, but in hindsight it was probably a good thing because her father may had died in the internment camps without the presence of her mother.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: an American child living in the Philippines during World War 2] and her family feared the Japanese, but also feared the renegades. They lived in the mountains and often came down to steal from people. The renegades killed many of their friends and acquaintances, including the doctor that helped birth her. The renegades used gongs to communicate with each other. When the gongs went off, they were scared that they were planning on coming down to mountain to hurt her. The Warne family stayed at a starch factory while the President of the Philippines [Annotator's Note: Manuel Luis Quezon] and the MacArthur family [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] stayed at Warne's home. The President of the Philippines always wanted to play the game, Bridge [Annotator's Note: a playing card game], with Warne's mother and the other ladies. Warne's mother hated playing the game with the president because he suffered from tuberculosis [Annotator's Note: bacterial disease of the lungs] and always touched the cards after spitting into a spittoon. Warne heard planes come over and watched dog fights in the sky between the Japanese and the Americans. The Americans hid their planes in a cave and came out when they saw Japanese fly over. To keep the children occupied, the parents brought in a blackboard. The children would often play "war games" for hours on the blackboard which consisted of planes flying over and catching German spies. In her games, the Japanese and German enemies would always lose. When she was not playing war games, she was riding her horse around the building. After staying at the starch factory for some time, the family moved to Lurugan [Annotator's Note: Lurugan, Philippines] which was further away from the activity near the Del Monte Plantation [Annotator's Note: of Del Monte Foods, Incorporated] to stay with some family friends. After a few days, Warne's family decided to leave Lurugan because they did not want to put their friends in danger. Her family moved further up in the mountains and with the help of some Filipinos, they built little grass houses. It was an exciting time for her, being only eight years old, and hiding in the jungle. Warne's mother enjoyed living in the jungle because of the flora and fauna. She played in the river and waterfall every day.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: was an American child living in the Philippines during World War 2] and her family were hiding in the jungle from the Japanese. However, their time in the jungle was short lived because the Japanese began marching up the mountain and nearing their camp. Also, the Japanese started shelling the cannery [Annotator's Note: of Del Monte Foods, Incorporated], which they could hear from where they were in the jungle. The general advised Warne's father to go back up to the mountains and stay with his family. As the general burned important company papers in a 50-gallon drum, Warne's father buried jewelry and money in a vinegar bottle. The general then advised Warne's father to take his family and friends to an Army camp hospital to surrender to the Japanese. They packed bedding in sacks. Warne took a couple of her dolls. She did not really know what was to come or what to expect because she was just a child, but her parents were scared due to the recent events of the Bataan death march Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, 9 April 1942]. Her parents also heard news that the Japanese had killed missionary people. The group got to their cars that they hid and drove over the Army camp hospital. Warne saw the American Army on their way to surrender. One of their cars were giving them trouble, so one of the Army trucks stopped and helped Warne and her group push the car up the hill. The Army men told them not to go that way because the enemy was in that direction. Warne, being a young child, trusted her parents to make the right decisions. When they arrived at the Army hospital, it was dark and muddy. No one was there. They found some barracks with cots and decided to sleep there for the night. They put up some mosquito netting. The mosquitoes were bad due to the wet and muddy terrain. The next morning, everyone woke up hungry and decided to go to the mess hall. When they entered, they building they were hit with a horrible smell. The food left out on the table was giving off a horrible stench. No one wanted to eat it. Warne's father was able to get some oatmeal and cooked it to feed to the kids. They stayed at the Army hospital for four months. Her father lost 40 pounds within that time, and he, a family friend, and a catholic priest became leaders of the group at the camp. They gathered money from everyone and gave it to a Filipino to buy whatever food he could find at the market. They did not bring any food with them when they surrendered. Instead, they threw all their food in the valley, so the Japanese could not get it.

About five days after Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: was an American child living in the Philippines during World War 2] and her parents arrived at the camp [Annotator's Note: Davao Internment Camp, Mindanao, Philippines], the Japanese asked the group to come forward for a roll call. All the adults were frightened as to what the Japanese would do to them. The commandant walked back in forth in front of the group acting like he was very important. After a few minutes of the commandant and a Japanese priest conversing in Japanese, Warne was motioned to come forward. She and her parents were very frightened about what would happen next. The commandant examined Warne then told the priest that she was very pale, and her parents needed to care for her better. Warne ran back to her parents and hugged her mother. From then on, her mother made her lay out in the sun everyday so she would not look pale. While in camp, Warne was taught the Japanese language by the priest. He also brought a small typewriter to the camp with him, which he used to record minutes of meetings at the camp. Sometime later, the Japanese decided to transfer Warne's family and other prisoners to another camp. They were put on trucks to be transported to the new camp. The drive was about four hours and she held on to her mother and a man's leg because they were driving so fast. People in the truck got car sick and sunburned. They arrived at a Cagayan school house [Annotator's Note: Cagayan, Philippines] with nothing to feed the hundred plus prisoners and a broken bathroom. Warne was so tired that she laid on the floor and went to sleep. The next morning, some of their Filipino friends heard that they were there and tried to bring them food and supplies, but the Japanese turned them away. Somehow, her mother's friend was able to through over a small sack of sugar and a small sack of coconut. Warne's mother made some candy out of it. A few days later, the prisoners were taken to a dock where they waited for hours in the hot sun for a ship to arrive. While waiting some of the prisoners took compassion on a mother and an infant baby. They rigged up some shade for them and found water for the mother to cool the baby. Some of the men prisoners were forced to load heavy bags of rice into the holds of the ships. An interpreter came by and told the prisoners that they would be shipped to Davao [Annotator's Note: Davao Internment Camp, Mindanao, Philippines]. Young priests helped the rest of the prisoners board the ship. At first, the prisoners were placed in a hold, but eventually the priests convinced the Japanese to let the prisoners sit on the roof of the hold, which was much better area. The women slept on the roof of the holds, while the men slept inside. Japanese guards began making advances towards the women, so the women's husbands to turns standing guard by the women to keep the Japanese away at night. It took six days to get to Davao after stopping in Zamboanga [Annotator's Note: Zamboanga, Philippines] and Parang [Annotator's Note: Parang, Philippines] first. When they got to close to the dock in Zamboanga, they let the children swim in the water. However, when they got to Parang, they did not let anyone off the ship because the docks had been destroyed.

When Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: was an American child living in the Philippines during World War 2] deboarded in Davao [Annotator's Note: Davao Internment Camp, Mindanao, Philippines], she and the rest of the prisoners were taken to a nun convent where about 150 other prisoners had already been there 10 days prior to her arrival. The prisoners already there were cleaning the place up because it was dirty with garbage all over the place. It was so crowded that people slept on floors and stairs. There was only one toilet for over a hundred people. There were rats and filth everywhere. It was not long before Warne became ill. The nuns gave her permission to rest in the chapel. Her father, who worked for the Del Monte cannery [Annotator's Note: of Del Monte Foods, Incorporated], was obligated by the Japanese to open the cannery, but did not want to leave Warne because she was so sick. One morning, three trucks pulled up to the convent and picked her father up. All the prisoners watched as he got into the truck, thinking they would never see him again. Warne could not give her father a proper farewell because she was too sick with a high fever. Her mother, knowing that he was traveling by land, knew his chances of returning were slim because of the dangers of being bombed or attacked by renegades or military personnel. On her father's first night, he was so cold that he ended up sleeping next to a Japanese soldier so he could stay warm. He ended up sleeping in the same bed as the Japanese every night during the trip. At some point near the end of the trip, the soldier had killed a cow and split the meat up amongst the everyone. The Japanese gave him the heart. Warne's father cooked up the heart over a fire and ate it, which was the best meal he had in a long time. The Japanese practiced bayonet drills and played baseball. When they made it to the cannery, he and the Japanese realized that it was too destroyed to do anything with it. Warne's father slept in his old office guarded by a Japanese civilian. Often the Japanese civilian wanted to go to town to get drunk, so he would put a Filipino boy in charge. Warne's father feared for his life because he was afraid the Japanese civilian or the renegades would come and kill him. He also feared that his Filipino friends would try to rescue him and get him killed instead. On one occasion, her father and the Japanese civilian went to the town of Bugo [Annotator's Note: Bugo, Philippines] to barter for rice and chickens, but unfortunately, they had no luck. The Japanese soldiers finally decided to return Warne's father back to the convent and they traveled by truck during the night to avoid strafing. After two days of traveling, they made it across the island and back to the convent. Everyone at the camp was happily surprised to see her father alive because he had been gone for several weeks. Many of the prisoners were very religious people, and several were Catholic priests. They all prayed for her father's return and for Warne to heal from her illness. By the time Warne's father returned to the camp several prisoners were transferred to the prison camp in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines].

Therese Wadsworth Warne's [Annotator's Note: was an American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] father formed a committee during their time in prison camp. The committee decided to divide the prisoners up in groups depending on where they were living in the Philippines before becoming prisoners. Warne said there were about eight groups, and she was part of the Del Monte group [Annotator's Note: Del Monte Foods, Incorporated]. The groups became troublesome, so it was decided that that collectively, all the prisoners would vote for three committee leaders. Warne's father was one of the prisoners elected to be a committee leader. They had a stockade. If people did not want to work, they were put in the stockade. Her father followed the principle of, "Keep the family and as many others alive, be a good citizen, work hard, be optimistic, and never look so far ahead to get discouraged." Her father and the other leader, Joe Brooks [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], were given permission to go into the jungle to get bamboo and vines to build a shandy for their families. They had enough bamboo left over that they built her a little bamboo playhouse. While in camp, there was very little to eat. The prisoners ate rice, green onion soup, and garlic. They were also given caribou blood that the prisoners boiled, coagulated, and made into gelatin to eat with their rice. Sometimes they were given coconut and peanuts. Warne's father and a friend came up with a scheme of using IOUs that were secretly given to a Filipino doctor, who then sold them to rich Filipino families and Chinese. In return, her father received Japanese money to be used to purchase food in the marketplace. They did not receive Red Cross money at the camp in Davao [Annotator's Note: Davao Internment Camp, Mindanao, Philippines]. Without this scheme, the prisoners would have died of starvation. After the war, the companies that these families worked for were able to pay off the IOUs. At one point, Warne's family was transferred out into the country to a former cabaret called "Happy Life Blues" [Annotator's Note: a former dance hall in Davao, Philippines].

Therese Wadsworth Warne's [Annotator's Note: was an American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] family was transferred out into the country to a former cabaret called "Happy Life Blues" [Annotator's Note: a former dance hall in Davao, Philippines] When they arrived, the place was a mess. Glass bottles were thrown all over the floor. There were over 200 people that shared the building. Since the building was not fully walled in, rain would come in on the prisoners and get drenched. They were able to get coconut prongs and stich them together and installed them up on the building to protect them from the heavy rain. They also got their water from a water tower, but with so many prisoners, water became scarce during the dry season. Each prisoner received enough room for a bed and a couple of feet. String was strung around the beds so the prisoners could put mosquito netting up. There was no privacy. The children just ran amuck around the building. Warne and a 12-year-old boy decided to start a chicken business. They would hold people's chicken in a coup and charge them rent. Warne's family was able to build a shanty outside the cabaret building when the camp became too crowded. One of the prisoners was a soldier that suffered from shell shock [Annotator's Note: psychological disturbance caused by prolonged exposure to active warfare, especially bombardment] and tried to escape several times. The Japanese threatened that they would kill five prisoners if anyone escaped, so when the soldier ran off, the prisoners went after him to bring him back. They built a prison for him to remain in until he was transferred to a hospital and eventually died. Warne feared the soldier because he threatened to kill her mother. Warne cut her wrist one day trying to out the chickens in the coup. Her hand became infected and was given permission to go to the Davao hospital [Annotator's Note: in Davao, Philippines] but they had to walk. The walk was strenuous because she was not feeling well and had a high fever. One of the prisoners offered carry her to the hospital. There were many Japanese families living in Davao [Annotator's Note: Davao Internment Camp, Mindanao, Philippines] and as they made their way to the hospital, the Japanese children threw rocks and sticks at her. She told her mother later that it really hurt her feelings that the children would do that, and her mother said to not blame them because that is what their parents had taught them to do. When she reached the hospital, the medical team took really good care of her.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: was an American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] was an internee in the Happy Life Blues internment camp [Annotator's Note: a former dance hall in Davao, Philippines]. The children went to school from morning until noon. The children were taught by a priest and a deaconess. They received homework to complete in the evening and used scrap paper. The adults eventually decided to build a multipurpose building for the use of a school for the children and a church for the protestants. They divided the children into an older kid's class and a younger kid's class. She brought her own chair to school to sit on. After school, the children often played a game of baseball using sticks and a ball. In hindsight, she is so thankful that the priests and parents made sure the children were happy and having fun. The children paid no attention to the Japanese guards except when they had to stand for roll call twice a day. A Japanese guard walked the perimeter of the camp, often going around her family's shanty. One day the guard entered her house, which was forbidden for the guards to do. He was making gestures with his hands and Warne's mother was able to decipher that he wanted a pair of scissors. After he was given a pair, he sat down and removed his boot and began cutting his toenails. When he finished cutting, he put his boot back on and left the shanty. Warne was very frightened because it was an unusual event. A little while later, as he was walking the perimeter again, he threw a piece of meat into their shanty as he passed it. He must have had an ingrown toenail because every so often, he would return to the shanty and cut his toenails and throw in a "treat" as a thank you. Warne lost weight and did not grow at all. She felt fortunate that she only experienced one serious illness during her time there. She got ulcers on her legs and bottom from being malnourished. She used a magnifying glass to help dry out the ulcers on her body.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: was an American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] and her family were transported from Happy Life Blues internment camp [Annotator's Note: a former dance hall in Davao, Philippines] in Davao City [Annotator's Note: Davao Central School, Davao City, Philippines] to another internment camp in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines]. During Christmas, the children prepared a Christmas program. The parents made toys out of the materials they could find. However, two days before Christmas, the Japanese told the prisoners that they were going to be transferred to another camp. On the night that they were going to board the boats, the Japanese changed their minds. Warne thought that the whole event was a punishment to hurt the prisoners because it was raining that night and their few belongings got soaked from the weather. Also, the people who had chickens and a calf, killed them, and ate them because they thought they were leaving the camp. They returned to their shanty for the night and slept on the bamboo floor. She was so sad. The next morning, the prisoners waited hours in the hot sun for the Japanese to take them to the pier. The guards inspected everyone's belongings and stole some food. The children were crying, and everyone was hot standing out in the sun all day. The guards finally took them to the pier. The prisoners were told that they would have to go into the hold of the ship with the cargo. The men practiced abandon ship drills in case the boat was hit by a torpedo. They were allowed on the deck for very short periods of time. There was very little water to drink. During the voyage, Warne developed an infection on her hand, so her mother treated it with a saltwater mixture. Her family and family friends, the Brooks, picked a bottom shelf in the hold to rest on. One night, a little girl above them wet her pants and the urine dripped down onto them. Rats would often come out and nibble on people while they slept. On Christmas Eve night, the Catholic priests sang Christmas carols which made everyone cry. During the voyage, an old man died. He was wrapped in an army blanket and his body was thrown overboard. There were several orphan children that were prisoners. Many of them had an American father and a Filipino mother. They were placed in the camps because of their associations with their American fathers. The prisoners had no idea where they were being transported. Many of them thought they were going to Siberia or Japan. They soon realized that they were heading for Manila. They arrived at Pier 7, which she had she left from all the time pre-war to go on vacation. It had been partially bombed out and did not look like the happy place she once knew. The prisoners disembarked and the Japanese did multiple counts of them and their luggage. They were then taken to Santo Tomas prison camp [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines].

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: was an American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] and her family were transported to Santo Thomas Prison Camp [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines]. When Warne arrived at the camp, she saw people laying on the grass and music was playing. Everyone was clean and dressed nice. All the little children had on shoes and socks. Her mother was embarrassed by the way she was dressed because she was wearing knicker pants, a shirt she made herself out of a bedsheet, and wooden shoes. Warne, herself, was wearing an old, faded halter top, blue and white pants, and wooden shoes. Her family looked like a mess. The children at Santo Tomas had plenty of toys and seemed healthy. As Warne's family descended from the bus, a woman ran up to her mother and gave her hand lotion, which to them smelled so nice. After a long wait, her family was finally given room assignments to the already full camp. They always shared a room with their friends, the Brooks [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], but at this camp, they were not. The men and women were assigned to separate rooms. Their other friends, the Crawford's [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], who were sent to the camp earlier in the war, gave Warne's family some food. On the first night, no one wanted to sleep next to them because they smelled of tobacco leaves. Warne and her family were able to take a bath the next day, but had no clean clothes to wear, so they bathed with their clothes on and dried in the sun. A friend of her mother's made Warne two sunsuits out of table napkins. She said she was so thrilled when she got new clothes. Warne's father enrolled her in the school at the camp and lied about her age so she could be in a higher grade, which later helped her excel after the war. Less than a week in camp at Santo Tomas, her mother fell gravely ill with typhus [Annotator's Note: also known as typhus or typhoid fever, a group of infectious diseases] due to the rats on the boat when they traveled to the camp. Luckily, her mother was treated with medicine that was given by the Red Cross and was cured five days later. Warne's family friends, the Crawford's, were able to secure her family and the Brooks family with a shanty that was available. The camp's school was set up in the Santo Tomas University Museum. There was a menagerie of taxidermy, including a two-headed baby caribou. All the students were given chairs to sit in but did not have desks.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: an American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] and her family were transported to Santo Thomas Prison Camp [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines]. Warne and her family were so amazed that the prisoners at Santo Tomas were allowed to purchase good quality food and have their servants bring it to them. Unfortunately, all that stopped in February 1945. Right before the shutdown happened, the Red Cross sent everyone in the camp a comfort kit of food and goods. The kits contained canned butter, variety of canned meat, variety of canned soup, cigarettes, dried fruit, powdered milk, and wafers. The Japanese guards confiscated the packs of cigarettes because there was Allied propaganda hidden in the packs. Warne received a small package from her family in Utah. Some people ate their food up quick, while others saved their food. Warne and her family stored their comfort kits under their beds. Her bed was a simple wooden bed with a mattress filled with weeds. Her parents slept on used cots. Everyone adult in camp received an assigned job. Her mother worked in the garden and her father was put in charge of the camp patrol, but later was assigned to supervise laborers. He made up work assignments for the laborers to keep the camp running smoothly. Warne said that many prisoners were not well enough to work, so Warne's father would fudge the number of hours they worked so they would not receive punishments from the Japanese. Her father had to report the hours of production of each prisoner and the amount of production of food to the Japanese. Warne would go to school from morning to noon, then go get in line to get her food. Warne wanted to get a job so she could get a hair permanent. All the little girls at the camp had curly hair and she wanted curls too. One of the jobs she did was collect food for her neighbors. She collected the food in a tin can give to her neighbors. The kids played baseball as entertainment but went to the library when they were too weak. Parents often told their children to not play rough because there were limited medical resources if someone got injured. Towards the end of the war, people were only given 600 calories a day. They did have an isolation hospital for those who had diseases and the camp had its share of epidemics, mostly before she entered. She contracted measles [Annotator's Note: highly contagious respiratory disease] when she arrived at Santo Tomas. She had to stay in the isolation hospital without her mother. There was a teen girl that kept her company while she was in the hospital. On the day the camp was liberated [Annotator's Note: 3 February 1945], the girl was killed by shrapnel shelling.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: An American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] and the prisoners would hear of the news of the war [Annotator's Note: in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines]. Some of the men kept different parts of a radio and buried them during the day. At night, the men would get together and put their radio parts together so they could listen to the news. They were able to listen to a station coming all the way from San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. One of the men would sneak into her family's shanty and relay what he heard to her father. Close to the end of the war, the Japanese told the prisoners to build air raid shelters. Because Warne's father was the labor leader, he had to go around the camp and make sure everyone was doing their duties. Around September 1944, Warne's parents withdrew her from school, probably because her parents knew that Americans would begin their air raids over the Philippines. One day, she was playing in the dirt while her father and friend were building an air raid shelter. They suddenly heard bells and gongs which indicated that an air raid was flying through. Warne saw the planes fly over in bunches. She and her mother ran to the community shelter because their shelter was not complete. The shelter was a hole in the ground with dirt piled up on three sides, and a cemented wall from a building. The air raids could last all day. Sometimes during air raids, they would hide underneath her bed because it was nailed to the ground. One time a shell landed very close to their shelter. The Americans were not targeting the camp, but the Japanese were firing anti-aircraft weapons and often the shells would land in the camp causing destruction. After liberation [Annotator's Note: 3 February 1945], the children often went around the camp and collected shrapnel pieces. The Japanese began using search lights at night to search for American bomber planes. One night, she and her mother were walking to the main building in the camp. Her mother told her not to look at the guard house because the Japanese were torturing prisoners for smuggling money into the camp. Her mother did not want her to take showers at the camp's bath house because she did not want her standing there naked with strangers, so Warne would bathe with her clothes on at a faucet near her family's shanty.

After three years of being in an internment camp [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines], Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: An American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] and her family wanted to have a Thanksgiving dinner because they were thankful for their lives. Her father went around camp buying food with IOU's. For their dinner they had prune pie, a can of corned beef, a can of tomato juice, pork and beans, and rice. Her mother also prepared a salad out of green weeds and a ripe banana. They ate their dinner outside the shanty on the path. Her father said a blessing and they were so thankful to be alive and ate their delicious feast. Near the end of the war, Warne was hungry all the time. They often made gruel out of cracked corn, watery rice, and soy refuse, which is a tofu waste. The Japanese had prepared all the food at this point. The Japanese are becoming meaner and meaner. Her family's shanty was in a corner near the barbed wire fence and garden. Between the barbed wire fence and the cement wall of the camp was called no man's land. This area was filled with tall weeds. Often, Warne would sneak under the barbed wire with her mother as lookout for the guard. She would stay still while hiding in the tall weeds and pick them from the bottom. When she gathered enough weeds, she would push them under the barbed wire and her mother would take them to the shanty. They would often eat the weeds with the soy refuse soup. Years later, while her and her mother were living in Utah, they found the same weed. They decided to pick it, cook it, and eat it. It tasted horrible. There was an internee committee that held food in storage. Towards the end of the war, they decided that they needed to eat the remaining food. They found some cans of jam. Warne's family, and family friend, the Brooks, and their neighbors in the next shandy would share a can of jam. She and another little girl got to lick the can and spoon. It was such a delicious treat. All the prisoners were starving by the end of the war. They were only getting 660 calories per day.

There was an interpreter that could speak Japanese [Annotator's Note: in Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines, where Therese Wadsworth Warne was an American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2]. He conversed with the Japanese guards throughout the war. He always seemed to be "chummy" with the guards and commandants, and often slept in the same quarters as them. He was not well liked by the internees because they did not trust him due to the relationship he had with the Japanese. Many thought he was a spy for the Japanese. There was another man who also interpreted Japanese, and he was also not trusted by the internees. In hindsight, Warne thinks that Stanley [Annotator's Note: Ernest Stanley, principal negotiator between American and Japanese forces] may have been working to benefit the internees. There was a "kill all" policy that the Japanese had to follow, which was to kill all the prisoners before the Americans could liberate them. The Japanese did take a census of all the prisoners in their camp. They gathered all the boys and men and put them in the main building with barrels of gasoline. The women were going to be brought to the front lines and used as hostages when the Americans arrived. When the Americans landed to retake the Philippines, their first mission was to save the prisoners at the internment camps and the Philippine government. As the Americans came near the camp, there was a gorge with a bridge. The Japanese had laid dynamite to blow the bridge up. One of the Americans was able to cut the wires so the Japanese could not blow it up. He was a hero because the Japanese were firing at him the whole time. While the Americans were making their push to Santo Tomas, Warne was in the food line getting dinner for her and her neighbors. She heard planes coming and saw everyone in line duck down. Everyone realized they were American planes. Rumors began around the camp that the Americans were coming. Not long later, Warne could hear shooting in the distance. Her father talked to a friend who told him he saw an American in a tank peeking over the wall. His father did not believe his friend at first. Years later, he met the American that was peeking over the wall. He had gotten lost from his group and was looking for the entrance to the camp. In camp, the shooting from outside the walls was getting louder, and rumbling noise persisted, which sounded like tanks. Soon a shanty leader told everyone to get to the main building in 20 minutes. Warne's parents weren't sure if they wanted to go to the main building, but in the end decided to follow the rest of the internees. They made it to the main building, and it was crowded with thousands of people. Warne and her family went to her father's desk and sat on it, so they would not get trampled. She was so scared that her teeth were chattering. Crowds of people were making so much noise, so Warne's father went over to see what the commotion was about. People near the windows saw the American tanks coming towards the camp. Not long later, American soldiers broke through the doors of the main building.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: An American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] was liberated by the Americans [Annotator's Note: from Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines, 3 February 1945]. The first night after liberation all the internees were so excited that they sat up talking. The Americans brought in food a couple of days later. General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] made a visit to the camp a few days later as well and raised the American flag. When the Japanese found out that there were only a small number of Americans that liberated the camp, they decided to try to take the camp. They began shelling five days later. During the day of liberation, Warne explained that her mother wanted to go seek shelter in the education building, but her father said to take the family to the main building. The internees that did seek shelter in the education building were soon held hostage by the Japanese. The Americans began to shell the building but stopped when they learned that internees were in there. An interpreter, who was also an internee in the camp, could speak Japanese and helped the Americans negotiate with the Japanese and free the hostages. One of the Japanese officers, named Abiko [Annotator's Note: Japanese Lieutenant Nanakazu Abiko], walked out to meet the Americans and grabbed a grenade from his shoulder. An American saw what he was doing and shot him. He was then dragged to the main building where internees began kicking him. He was not well liked by the internees because he treated most of them horribly. The Americans grabbed him and put him in a bed but were soon kicked out. He died a few hours later. The hand grenade's pin only partially came out, so an American orderly grabbed it and disposed of it. Abiko's body was put in the camp's jail. Warne climbed up on a rock to see the body lying on the floor of the jail. During the shelling, about five days after the American liberated the camp, the Japanese began shooting from the hospital. Warne hid behind a bookcase for seventeen hours while the American and Japanese went back and forth. 80 internees were injured, and 17 internees were killed during this crossfire. Warne's father was given the task to lead the camp, so he was at the front when the shelling began. He was training Filipinos as the time. After the shelling, her father was bedridden. He was not well enough to travel home right away.

Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: An American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] was liberated by the Americans [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines, 3 February 1945]. After liberation, her father fell ill with pneumonia, so he could not return the United States for some time. About two months after liberation, her family was finally given orders to return home. They were issued warm coats because they were going to take an airplane to Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines]. While waiting for the plane to arrive at the airport, Warne and her mother had to use the restroom. There were not any around to they found a bomb crater and climbed in to do their business. A soldier saw them and told them to get out because there could still be live ammunition in there. The plane never arrived, so they returned to camp. They eventually took a ship out of the Manila harbor [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines]. The voyage took about a month to get to San Pedro, California. They had to get to their stations with their life jackets to abandon ship because they saw a Japanese submarine. After making it safely to San Pedro, they travelled to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] so her father could check in with his office, then they went out to Utah and stayed with her aunt. It took her a while to adjust to a normal civilian life again. She suffered from nightmares as well. She also became ill for a while and had to have surgery. Less than a year later, her father returned to the Philippines because he oversaw the Del Monte cannery company [Annotator's Note: Del Monte Foods, Incorporated]. When he returned, he went back and dug up their precious items he had buried before surrendering to the enemy. Her father would go back and forth from the Philippines to Utah for a while, until Warne was about 14 years old. Then her mother moved to the Philippines while Warne was in boarding school. Warne moved to the Philippines not long after her mother settled there. Warne later moved to California for college. She reacquainted with Tom, an old friend from the Philippines. They eventually married.

World War 2 made Therese Wadsworth Warne [Annotator's Note: an American child prisoner in the Philippines during World War 2] grow up. While she was in camp there were many adults that helped her, so she believes that their actions towards her led her to later care for foster children later in life. Many Americans have forgotten about World War 2 and that's why she gives talks at public events. She is thankful to be alive and thankful for the people that risked their lives for her. Later in life, she took a trip to Mindanao, [Annotator's Note: Mindanao, Philippines] her birthplace and visited the places where she hid and was interred during the war. She believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. Warne gets angered when people compare her prisoner experience to the Japanese internment camps in America. Most people do not know about her experiences as much as the Japanese Americans.