[Archive from the Santo Tomas Internment Camp]

[The Philippines, 1947. Very good.. Thirteen documents, totaling [17]pp., plus three original photographs and a real photo postcard. Minor overall wear and some staining. A small but notable archive of documents and photographs saved by Mary Ellen Oftedahl, a young woman interned at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the Philippines during World War II. The most notable document is a scarce copy of "General Rules of Santo Tomas Internment Camp," with Oftedahl's name penciled lightly to the first page, plus material documenting her efforts to return to the Philippines following two years of schooling in the United States after liberation. The "General Rules of Santo Tomas Internment Camp" is a five-page document issued by the camp's Executive Committee containing "a revision of the rules and regulations which have been announced from time to time covering the life of the camp. Most of these rules have been the result of instructions from the Japanese authorities, while the remainder have, in many cases, been suggested by Internees through their Monitors at Monitors' meetings in order to protect the welfare of the majority." The rules are divided into sections covering room monitors, floor monitors, internees (the longest section, with subsections for hallways, grounds, and patios), and "special rules," which include everything from public displays of affection to a prohibition on the possession of flashlights, liquor or weapons of any kind. A map of the camp is printed on the fifth page, showing areas for shanty waste, package line, sports field, walking area, hospital, outdoor shower baths, and so forth.

The camp document is accompanied by three photographs and one real photo postcard retained by Oftedahl. Of these, only the RPPC appears directly related to the internment camp, as it is captioned in the plate, "Liberated American internees and G.Is at Santo Tomas Internment Camp 2-3-45." The image captures a crowd of former internees and soldiers with guns standing outside one of the main buildings on campus. Two of the other photographs are of small children at what appears to be a zoo of some sort (one is captioned, "Bobby watching the kangaroos"), and another is of a fortress wall; these likely picture Oftedahl's family.

The legal documents included here primarily act as a source of provenance for the "General Rules," but also serve to demonstrate the difficulties of American citizens returning to the Philippines after the end of the war. Mary Ellen Oftedahl was born in the Philippines and lived at the same address in Manila with her family until they were all interned during the war. After liberation, she was a student in the U.S. for two years. The documents here are mainly affidavits from people confirming these facts, so that she can return to Manila in 1947.

The Hoover Institute holds a four-volume set of "Internee Executive Committee Issuances," and we find an article by a Stanford Ph.D. candidate citing a document from that set named "General Rules..."; we assume that ours is probably included in the set, even if it is not the same version as the one cited in the paper ("Legitimate Collaboration: The Administration of Santo Tomás Internment Camp and Its Histories, 1942–2003," by James Mace Ward [Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 77, No. 2, pp. 159-201]). All in all, a small but remarkable collection centered on a document retained by an internee during and after her internment in the Philippines during the war. (Inventory #: 5431)