Mildred and Frank Miles Scrapbook of the Santo Tomás Internment Camp, 1942-1947

The scrapbook includes documents and ephemera produced at Santo Tomás during the Miles' imprisonment, as well as materials written about the camp after liberation. Many of the materials, including song sheets, camp newsletters, photographs, radio scripts, and other ephemera document daily life in the camp and address issues of overcrowding, resource distribution, morale, and lack of supplies. Many newsclippings pasted into the scrapbook document the days leading up to the camp's liberation by American forces on February 4, 1945. Notable documents include the Liberation Bulletin, a newsheet produced in the camp immediately after it was liberated. The Bulletin contains a timeline of the thirty-seven months of imprisonment from the arrival of the first prisoners on January 4th, 1942, until the last day in camp, as well as results of a census taken at all three local camps including Santo Tomás, Los Baños, and Baguio. Covering food prices, garden production, average daily calorie intake, weight loss, and number of deaths, the Bulletin is a poignant summary of over three years of life in the camp. Other notable documents include a sheet of song lyrics from the "Santo Tomás Show," a radio show written and performed by incarcerees, and The Internitis, a pamphlet filled with short stories, comic strips, and anecdotes from camp. Both of these documents and others in the scrapbook show prisoners' effort at humor and keeping up morale throughout their ordeal.

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