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Memoirs of Ruth Hooper

items 27 of 28 items
  • wcu_ww2-467.jp2
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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • hidden on top of the elevator. Santo Tomas had four floors but the internees were never allowed on the fourth floor. That was off-limits and I have no idea of what was stored on it. The Japanese knew that somehow we were getting news in some way and periodically searched everyone’s quarters for a radio, and I mean search. They looked and poked through everything, but they never found the radio. One internee had been assigned by the Japanese to service and keep running the elevator which they used at all times. We internees, of course, were not allowed near it. The man, in going about his business of running the elevator, listened in on this small radio and, therefore, got some news for us. It sure was kept hush-hush as had the radio been found he would have been shot and the rest of us punished. Another question we were asked and that is did we get any letters from home - No messages from home. We did get one very small package from my sister. This contained things that we needed so badly, needles and thread, a thimble, razor blades for Carr and a few other useful articles, and during the first year of internment we received a six pound package of food from the Union of South Africa. We received one package of food from the Red Cross. This contained cans of corned beef, dried milk, canned cheese, vitamins, etc. This package from the Red Cross, no doubt saved many lives. This food was quickly gone even though we tried to stretch it as far as we could. No medicines were received. We waited and waited for these packages but the Japanese kept holding them. They poked through every package, actually running their swords through the cans of dried milk. In the package were some Old Gold Cigarettes which had a picture of the American Flag on them. These packages were removed and we got only some loose cigarettes.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).