From Publishers Weekly
Van Sickle describes a twilight world in her memoir of her WW II experiences in the Japanese internment camp of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. Internees were not prisoners of war, but civilians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Van Sickle and her husband were caught in Manila when the war broke out. Her narrative is an unvarnished depiction of everyday life shaped less by heroism and villainy than by pettiness. The interned Westerners felt powerless, after many had been accustomed to feeling dominant over Asians. The aimlessness that resulted was devastating to goal-oriented businessmen and professionals. Internal tensions and frictions worsened the sense of deprivation that came from shortages, inefficiency and Japanese indifference. And yet the Santo Tomas internees managed to forge a community that sustained its members until liberation. Major ad/promo. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The author and her husband Charles were among the thousands of foreign civilians interned by the Japanese on the 48-acre campus of Santo Tomas University in the Philippines. The school was a made-to-order concentration camp enclosed on three sides by high concrete walls and iron bars. There were inadequate sanitary facilities, no sleeping quarters, and very little food. What makes this story unique and ultimately fascinating to read is the special status of the prisoners. Many were businessmen who either had or were able to borrow money, and the Japanese civilians who oversaw the camp allowed buying and trading to go on through the front gates. In 1944, the military took over and treatment predictably worsened. Though the camp was liberated before mass executions could be carried out, the imminent sense of danger is palpable, carrying readers to the final pages. This well-written memoir will be welcome in World War II collections.- David Lee Poremba, Detroit P.L.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When Manila fell in January, 1942, Emily Van Sickle and her husband Charles were among the thousands of American and European civilians who were trapped in the Philippines. The foreigners were interned in the 48-acre campus of Santo Tomas University, offered to the Japanese by the Dominican priests; no other place in the city was large enough to keep them. "Many times during the years that followed," Mrs Van Sickle says, "these brave and generous priests interceded with the Japanese on our behalf; sometimes their pleas were heeded." The university grounds were enclosed on three sides by high concrete walls and iron bars; Santo Tomas was "a made-to-order concentration camp". It was attractively landscaped, centrally located and spacious enough - but there were few washing and toilet facilities, no sleeping quarters - only classrooms furnished with desks and chairs - and, in the beginning, no food except what the prisoners had been able to bring with them. It was six months before the Japanese gave them even a meagre food allowance - 25 cents a day for adults. In Santo Tomas, Emily Van Sickle says, the prisoners "learned many things, some funny, some tragic, that are no part of a normal college curriculum." This is a fascinating, detailed and insightful account of life in a civilian concentration camp where each day saw a battle for survival. The prisoners - 5,000 at the outset - thrown on their own resources for food and the simplest creature comforts, reflected human nature at its best and at its worst, as might be expected. This is a sensitive and informative book, as gripping and readable as any tale of adventure.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Van Sickle describes a twilight world in her memoir of her WW II experiences in the Japanese internment camp of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. Internees were not prisoners of war, but civilians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Van Sickle and her husband were caught in Manila when the war broke out. Her narrative is an unvarnished depiction of everyday life shaped less by heroism and villainy than by pettiness. The interned Westerners felt powerless, after many had been accustomed to feeling dominant over Asians. The aimlessness that resulted was devastating to goal-oriented businessmen and professionals. Internal tensions and frictions worsened the sense of deprivation that came from shortages, inefficiency and Japanese indifference. And yet the Santo Tomas internees managed to forge a community that sustained its members until liberation. Major ad/promo. (Dec.)

Library Journal

The author and her husband Charles were among the thousands of foreign civilians interned by the Japanese on the 48-acre campus of Santo Tomas University in the Philippines. The school was a made-to-order concentration camp enclosed on three sides by high concrete walls and iron bars. There were inadequate sanitary facilities, no sleeping quarters, and very little food. What makes this story unique and ultimately fascinating to read is the special status of the prisoners. Many were businessmen who either had or were able to borrow money, and the Japanese civilians who oversaw the camp allowed buying and trading to go on through the front gates. In 1944, the military took over and treatment predictably worsened. Though the camp was liberated before mass executions could be carried out, the imminent sense of danger is palpable, carrying readers to the final pages. This well-written memoir will be welcome in World War II collections.-- David Lee Poremba, Detroit P.L.

BookList - Joe Collins

Everyone is aware of the internment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. during World War II, but what of U.S. civilians in the Far East during the war? This first-person account traces the three-year story of prisoners held by the Japanese in a university in the Philippines, and their struggles with problems both harrowing and humdrum. Illness, in-camp bickering, and many trivialities mark the first two years of the internment of some 5,000 prisoners. The Japanese jailers are characterized alternately as brutal and benevolent, and aside from the overwhelming sickness, it seems the worst problem the internees initially faced was boredom. However, it's well worth wading through many mundane early chapters because the payoff is electrifying. By the time 1944 dawns, food is scarce and the situation becomes desperate, and when the long-awaited U.S. troops finally arrive to liberate the camp, the internees are caught smack-dab in the middle of the Battle of Manila. Van Sickle's account of the hardships faced by the prisoners of Santo Tomas takes a while to get going, but this valuable glimpse of ordinary people confronted with the spectre of war has a terrific finish. World War II collections will do well to include this new title

Chicago Tribune