Description
Object description
Transcription (62pp ts, translated from the original French, with 2pp introduction) of her journal for the period June 1943 – April 1945 whilst an internee of the Japanese in the Philippines, at first outside of and then inside the Santo Tomas internment camp, summarising events connected with her arrival, with her children, at Santo Tomas in January 1942 as the French-born wife of a British colonial civil servant who had been interned in Hong Kong, her nationality and the fact that one of her children was a baby under one year of age enabling her to live outside of the camp itself 'on pass' in a house initially shared with another French national and members of the Templer family [see papers of Mrs A M Templer, also in the Documents collection], surviving on a modest grocery trade until her housemates were transferred to the camp shortly before the journal proper begins, documenting the daily struggles to maintain herself and her children with the help of her neighbours, visits to the nearby camp to keep contact with her former housemates, her overwhelming sense of helplessness and isolation from her fellow internees, earning some money by making dolls, eventual admittance into the Santo Tomas camp in June 1944 where she was allocated a 'shanty' dwelling together with one of her former housemates, the increasing American air raids on Manila and the arrival of US troops at the camp in February 1945 amidst heavy fighting, continuing Japanese resistance in the area, the gradual repatriation of the internees and her own departure in April 1945.
Content description
Transcription (62pp ts, translated from the original French, with 2pp introduction) of her journal for the period June 1943 – April 1945 whilst an internee of the Japanese in the Philippines, at first outside of and then inside the Santo Tomas internment camp, summarising events connected with her arrival, with her children, at Santo Tomas in January 1942 as the French-born wife of a British colonial civil servant who had been interned in Hong Kong, her nationality and the fact that one of her children was a baby under one year of age enabling her to live outside of the camp itself 'on pass' in a house initially shared with another French national and members of the Templer family [see papers of Mrs A M Templer, also in the Documents collection], surviving on a modest grocery trade until her housemates were transferred to the camp shortly before the journal proper begins, documenting the daily struggles to maintain herself and her children with the help of her neighbours, visits to the nearby camp to keep contact with her former housemates, her overwhelming sense of helplessness and isolation from her fellow internees, earning some money by making dolls, eventual admittance into the Santo Tomas camp in June 1944 where she was allocated a 'shanty' dwelling together with one of her former housemates, the increasing American air raids on Manila and the arrival of US troops at the camp in February 1945 amidst heavy fighting, continuing Japanese resistance in the area, the gradual repatriation of the internees and her own departure in April 1945.
History note
Cataloguer SWW