While planning their invasion of the Philippines, the Imperial Japanese Army had decided how to administer control over the conquered islands. Among these plans was the conversion of Manila’s Santo Tomas University from Dominican academy to prison. Founded in 1611 by Dominicans and named after Saint Thomas Aquinas, Santo Tomas had stopped classes during the first week of the war. To create a sense of solitude from the busy city, the priests had surrounded the sixty-acre campus with a twelve-foot concrete and stone wall. Iron gates provided access to the school. Once Japan took the Philippines, however, the masonry and iron barrier transformed into prison walls. People of all ages and a myriad of nationalities– American, British, Australians, Canadians, Dutch, Polish, Norwegian, and French, to name a few – were held at Santo Tomas Internment Camp (STIC). Among these prisoners were Army and Navy nurses; putting their own well-being aside, these women went above and beyond the line of duty to care for their fellow prisoners.[1]
