page_title: Santo Tomas Internment Camp
section_title: Establishment of the internment camp
hierarchical_section_title: Santo Tomas Internment Camp / Establishment of the internment camp
caption_attribution_description: English: World War II — Japanese Santo Tomas Internment Center, Manila (1945). Many of the Allie internees have built huts, called shanties, to escape crowded conditions in the dormitories
context_page_description: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, also known as the Manila Internment Camp, was the largest of several camps in the Philippines in which the Japanese interned enemy civilians, mostly Americans, in World War II. The campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila was utilized for the camp, which housed more than 3,000 internees from January 1942 until February 1945. Conditions for the internees deteriorated during the war and by the time of the liberation of the camp by the U.S. Army many of the internees were near death from lack of food.
context_section_description: Over a period of several days, the Japanese occupiers of Manila collected all enemy aliens in Manila and transported them to the University of Santo Tomas, a walled compound 19.5 hectares (48 acres) in size. Thousands of people, mostly Americans and British, staked out living and sleeping quarters for themselves and their families in the buildings of the University. The Japanese mostly let the foreigners fend for themselves except for appointing room monitors and ordering a 7:30 p.m. roll call every night. The Japanese selected a business executive named Earl Carroll as head of the internee government and he selected five, later nine, men he knew to serve as an executive committee. They appointed a British missionary who had lived in Japan, Ernest Stanley, as interpreter. Santo Tomas quickly became a "miniature city." The internees created several committees to manage affairs, including a police force, set up a hospital with the abundant medical personnel available, and began providing morning and evening meals to more than 1,000 internees who did not have food or money to buy it.
  Thousands of Filipinos and non-interned foreigners from neutral countries gathered around the fenced compound every day and passed food, money, letters, and other goods across the fence to the internees. The Japanese put a stop to that by ordering the fence to be shielded by bamboo mats but they permitted parcels to enter the compound after being searched. However, the loose Japanese control of the camp had teeth. Two young Englishmen and an Australian who escaped from the camp were captured, beaten, tortured, and executed on February 15. Carroll, Stanley, and the monitors of the two rooms where the men had been accommodated were forced to watch. Thereafter, no escapes from Santo Tomas, which would have been relatively easy given the small size of the Japanese guard force, were recorded.
  Carroll and the Executive Committee reported to the Japanese commandant of the camp. In the early days of STIC, as it was called by internees, the Japanese did not provide food so it was purchased with loans from the Red Cross and donations from individuals. The Committee did a delicate dance with the Japanese attempting to moderate Japanese orders while following a "policy of close and voluntary cooperation … to secure liberties" and "to retain the greatest degree of self government possible." The cooperation of the internees permitted the Japanese to control the camp with a minimum of resources and personnel, amounting at times to only 17 administrators and 8 guards.
caption: Many of the internees built huts (shanties) at Santo Tomas to escape the overcrowded conditions in the dormitories.
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