Child Of War: A Memoir Of World War Ii Internment In The Philippines Project Muse Upcc Books

Hours after attacking Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers stormed across the Philippine city of Baguio, where seven-year-old Curt Tong, the son of American missionaries, hid with his classmates in the woods near his school. Three weeks later, Curt, his mother, and two sisters were among the nearly five hundred Americans who surrendered to the Japanese army in Baguio. __Child of War__ is Tong’s touching story of the next three years of his childhood as he endured fear, starvation, sickness, and separation from his father while interned in three different Japanese prison camps on the island of Luzon. Written by the adult Tong looking back on his wartime ordeal, it offers a rich trove of memories about internment life and camp experiences. Relegated first to the men’s barracks at Camp John Hay, Curt is taken under the wing of a close family friend who is also the camp’s civilian leader. From this vantage point, he is able to observe the running of the camp firsthand as the war continues and increasing numbers of Americans are imprisoned. Curt’s days are occupied with work detail, baseball, and childhood adventures. Along with his mother and sisters, he experiences daily life under a series of camp commandants, some ruling with intimidation and cruelty but one, memorably, with compassion. In the last months of the war the entire family is finally reunited, and their ordeal ends when they are liberated from Manila’s Bilibid Prison by American troops. __Child of War__ is an engaging and thoughtful memoir that presents an unusual view of life as a World War II internee—that of a young boy. It is a valuable addition to existing wartime autobiographies and diaries and contributes significantly to a greater understanding of the Pacific War and its impact on American civilians in Asia.

"I learned who I was… at Kamehameha."

In 1944, J. Arthur Rath, a part-Hawaiian boy from a broken home, entered the Kamehameha School for Boys as an eighth-grade boarder. Thus began Rath's love affair with an institution that he credits with turning his life around, with giving him and other disadvantaged children of native ancestry - Hawai‘i's "lost generations" - the confidence and support necessary to make something of themselves. This is the story of that love affair. It is also the story of Rath's recent battle, together with other alumni, for the integrity of his beloved Kamehameha against the school's trustees and their organization, the powerful Bishop Estate.

In a lively talk-story manner, Rath reminisces about campus life and his classmates, many of whom became lifelong friends and influential members of the Hawaiian community. Years later Rath, a successful retired businessman, would call on these same friends to hold Kamehameha's trustees accountable for their mismanagement of Bishop Estate's vast financial holdings and ultimately their failure to carry out founder Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop's mandate to educate Hawaiian children. Rath draws on his many personal ties to the school and the estate to provide surprising revelations on the trustees and the "Bishop Estate Scandal," which made headlines daily throughout the mid-1990s.

Curt Tong's Child Of War Is [an] ... Account Of His Family's Thirty-seven Months Of Incarceration And What They Did To Survive, Both Physically And Emotionally--foreword. Davao, 1931-aug. 1941 -- Baguio, Aug. 1941-dec. 1941 -- Camp John Hay, Dec. 1941-april 1942 -- Camp Holmes, April 1942-nov. 1942 -- Camp Holmes, Dec. 1942-dec. 1944 -- Bilibid Prison, Dec. 1944-feb. 1945 -- Homeward Bound, Feb. 1945-april 1945. Curtis Whitfield Tong ; Foreword By Samuel Hideo Yamashita. Includes Bibliographical References. Contents Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Davao, 1931–Aug. 1941 Chapter 2. Baguio, Aug. 1941–Dec. 1941 Chapter 3. Camp John Hay, Dec. 1941–April 1942 Chapter 4. Camp Holmes I, April 1942–Nov. 1942 Chapter 5. Camp Holmes II, Dec. 1942–Dec. 1944 Chapter 6. Bilibid Prison, Dec. 1944–Feb. 1945 Chapter 7. Homeward Bound, Feb. 1945–April 1945 Afterword Bibliography About the Author A touching story of three years of the author’s childhood as he endured fear, starvation, sickness, and separation from his father while interned in three different Japanese prison camps on the island of Luzon. Written by the adult Tong looking back on his wartime ordeal, it offers a rich trove of memories about internment life and camp experiences.