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Show -1 O ©Hilltop Times * ™ September 23. 2004 Grandmother recalls POW ordeal from what was left of schools in the city," she said. "We learned to write very small to conserve paper. 12th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs We also had tests and even report cards. I still have some of mine in my scrapbooks. By the time RANDOLPH AFB, Texas (AFPN) — The many stories about American prisoners of war usually detail the experiences of ser- we were liberated, I had completed my high-school work." vicemembers captured during combat overseas. In 1944, operation of STIC was taken over by the The little-known tale of a teenage girl, now a grandmother in Japanese army and conditions became much worse, San Antonio, is also among the accounts deserving acknowlMrs. Irvine recalled. The Allies were advancing edgement. Liz Lautzenhiser Irvine has scrapbooks full of original documents and mementos of her three years of imprisonment across the South Pacific, and the war was not going well for the Japanese. Food rations in the camp in the Philippines. were cut down to about 1,000 calories a day. PeoHer parents had been American school teachers in the Philipple were dying almost daily from various tropipines for almost 20 years when the war broke out. Mrs. Irvine, who was born there, was a 14-year-old high-school freshman in cal diseases, often compounded by malnutrition. By early 1945, rations were reduced again to about Manila in December 1941. 600 calories per day. Within a 24-hour period, the day people know now as "a day Seventy-seven U.S. Army and Navy nurses were that will live in infamy," the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Guam, Midway and the Philippines. After pulling his forces back also prisoners in the camp. to Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island on Dec. 24, Gen. "They were so faithful serving in the camp Douglas MacArthur declared Manila an "open city," hoping to hospital," Mrs. Irvine said. 'They included a dietipreserve it as a designated neutral location. But three days later, cian who tried to monitor the food situation and the Japanese army occupied the city and immediately seized make demands for specific medicines to help the campus of Santo Thomas University to use as a prison for the sick." "interned enemy nationals." Mrs. Irvine recounted a time at the prison when three men escaped from the camp but were quickly 'The Santo Thomas Internment Camp, or STIC as we called caught. it, occupied the entire 60-acre campus of the 300-year-old university," Mrs. Irvine said. "The Dominican teachers there had "The camp commander forced our senior offibuilt a concrete wall around it to make the campus a quiet place cials to watch as the escapees were executed as for study, but the Japanese saw it as an ideal prison." a warning to the rest not to try any more escapes," she said. "By the time we were liberated, a total of At one time there had been 6,000 students attending classes 10 men were executed." there, but very quickly it became home for 4,000 prisoners including Mrs. Irvine. When General MacArthur's troops made their first landing on the island of Luzon on Jan. 9,1945, "There were people from a dozen nations there," she said, "some of whom just happened to be in the Philippines when the about 100 miles north of Manila, he ordered them to make a dash to liberate the camp at Santo Tomas. war broke out." He was concerned the Japanese might harm the For the first two years, civilians from the Japanese governprisoners there. A small element of the Army's 1st ment ran the camp and living conditions were cramped but Cavalry Division was the first to reach the camp, not harsh, Mrs. Irvine said. Food was not plentiful, but the prissmashiing their tanks through the front gates late oners could buy fresh vegetables from Philippine vendors who Feb. 3. were allowed inside the camp. "The camp commander authorized us the equivalent of 35 Mrs. Irvine recalled the excitement of seeing American Soldiers as they quickly set up their cents per day per person, so we had two meals a day — watery rice, hard-tack bread made with rice flour and some kind of veg- artillery to defend the camp, which was their most etables. Occasionally there was meat, too," she said. forward position. Artillery barrages and sniper fire continued for a month in Manila before the Japanese forces Mrs. Irvine explained her grandmother, Nancy Belle Norton, and other elderly foreign nationals, were not imprisoned at first were finally defeated. because of their age. Luckily, she was allowed to bring food and She recalled climbing up in a bombed-out building not far supplies to the camp. from the camp with a friend and watching artillery shells arcing through the air between the opposing forces. After the war. President Harry Truman awarded Ms. Norton But the former POW's fondest memory was being liberated. the Medal of Freedom for her courageous work on behalf of so many prisoners, Mrs. Irvine said. "The best part of being freed by the Army was having all that Mrs. Irvine told how the education committee quickly estabgood Army food," she said. lished a school with all 12 grades. Mrs. Irvine remembered that the camp had only about three days' supply of food left when the Americans arrived. "My dad convinced the Japanese to let us collect textbooks by Bob Hieronymus Photo by Bob Hleronymous, left Liz Lautzenhiser, above, third from right, and two other former women prisoners of war talk with Army Soldiers In 1945 three weeks after they were liberated from the Santo Tomas Internment Camp at Manila, Philippines. Left, Liz Lautzenhiser Irvine looks at one of her scrapbooks full of documents and mementos of her three years of imprisonment. Her parents had been American school teachers in the Philippines for almost 20 years when World War IE broke out. "We stuffed ourselves on C-rations that they brought in by the truckload," she said. "In just a few weeks, I regained the weight I had lost." Mrs. Irvine and her mother were repatriated to the United States a year after they were liberated, but her father stayed on for another year to help the Philippine government rebuild its school system. Mrs. Irvine went to Whitman College in Washington state the next year, where she met her husband, Walt Irvine. They were married in 1949 and raised four children. (Courtesy of Air Education and Training Command News Service) We cover the bases. 58 to be exact. Recognized for outstanding contributions to military education around the world. c sencl your hard earned dollars up the chimney? 12 Months* No Payments/ Same As Cash On Armstrong Comfort Systems! Council of College and Military Education February 2002 Offer ends November 30th, 2004. F *Somir TVS trie lions apply. Nut valid with other oik-rs. Previous sates included. 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