Mary Camilla Howe Sims, Midvale, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, March 22, 2004: Saving the legacy tape no. 650

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M RY MILL HOWE IM R 22 2004 BE : It wasn t cl ar to me, going back to your war experi nc y u tart d ut in w Guinea but then you moved? MAR: We went to Manila. BEC: In the Philippines? MAR: Yes. Sometimes we'd go by hospital ship. Sometimes we were flown. We went up to Manila, but we were never active as a unit. We never had our own area (as a unit) at that time. We just did detached service. We lived in a concrete building. It was somewhere in Manila. I can't think of the name of it. Anyway, we'd go out and help at other hospitals that needed aid. At Santo Tomas (University), we lived there, which had a huge compound. [Editors note: Santo Tomas in Manila was a major Japanese interment camp for American nationals during World War II] It was the University of the Philippines in peacetime. A friend of mine was held there during the war, at one time. Of course, I didn't know her at that time. But you know, our government employees in the Philippines, before the war, had been warned that the war would begin. Our government offered to bring these people home and paid for their transportation. One, my friend, her husband worked for International Harvester there, which made heavy equipment. MacArthur had a lot of money invested over there, his family, in fact, his father before him. He was kind of hesitant to let them leave. He felt that we should stay and save the Philippines rather than let things go. So Mrs. Jacobs and her husband were incarcerated (by the Japanese) there at Santo Tomas. It had huge grounds and it was fenced with high iron fence. She had had her servants there beforehand. So they'd come by and pass her vegetable greens, food, so she'd have a proper balanced diet. But she lost 20