STATEMENT OF SISTER MARY TRINITA, MARYKNOLL, N. Y. Sister TRINITA. I am Sister Mary Trinita, a Catholic missionary, with a residence of 19 years in Manila, from July 1927 to June 1946. About 10 days after the Japanese entered Manila, I, with a number of other religious, were interned in a French convent, and I stayed there until April 11, 1944. At that time three members of the Japanese military police came to the convent, asked to see me, by name, searched the house, and then decided that they would take me to Fort Santiago for further questioning.

There I was accused of espionage, guerilla activities, and keeping up the spirits of the Filipinos, and I was ordered to write a confession of all that I had done against the Imperial Japanese Army.

When I refused to do this they asked if I was aware that the punishment was death. But that if I would write this confession they would with a slight punishment, transfer me to Santo Tomas internment camp. As I had done nothing against the military I insisted, and did not write any confession.

They then put me in a dungeon at Fort Santiago. After 8 hours, at 2 o'clock in the morning, they took me from the dungeon, and questioned me again for 3 hours.

At 5 o'clock in the morning I was put into one of the cells in the regular cell section.

For the next 4 weeks I was taken from the cell and questioned two and three times every day or night. I was beaten three times and was given the "water treatment" three times, and endured other mental

tortures.

During this period the food was one saucer of rice three times a day. In July it was reduced to the same amount, twice a day. And then in November to camotes twice a day. In the cell we were not permitted to talk to the other prisoners, we had to sit on the floor from 7 o'clock in the morning until 7 o'clock at night, without a back support.

At night we would just stretch out on the bare, crowded floor, in bed, and try to get what sleep we could.

I was again called for investigation on the 19th and 29th of June, and when I insisted upon my innocence they told me I could go back to the cell and sit there, and the people with whom I had been working would tell. I had not been working with anybody, and I knew nobody could say anything against me. But they let me stay there until the 21st of December.

For

On the 21st of December I was transferred to Cortabitate Garrison, in Malate, and there I was put in a cell with men and women. the next 10 days prisoners were brought in, men and women. They stayed a few days, were taken out, and their hands tied. Some of their bodies have since been recovered.

During the last 2 months of my imprisonment I was not permitted. out of the cell for any reason. On the 31st of December one of the military police who had arrested me came to the cell and told me I was going to Los Banos.

They took me first to the Far Eastern University, turned me over to the Japanese officer in charge of the civilian concentration camps, then I rode in a Japanese Army truck to the paco station, and at 11 o'clock that night I was placed in a boxcar with 300 Japanese soldiers,

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rode all night, and reached Los Banos at 6 o'clock on New Year's Day,

1945.

When I reached there, I was in a very weakened condition, having lost 75 pounds. I was put to bed immediately, kept in bed for 6 weeks, and was among those rescued by the paratroopers of the Eleventh Airborne Division on the 23d of February.

I feel that some bill should go through for the benefit of these unfortunate people, American citizens, who, for so many years, lived in the Philippines and have lost everything.

I refer, first of all, to the Spanish-American War veterans, the school teachers and others, who, while in the Philippines, made their homes there, settled there, and in addition they inculcated in the natives the ideals of democracy. They have since been repatriated and now are living in practically a new land, with no funds or

resources.

To me, some bill is urgently necessary.

The CHAIRMAN. Sister Trinita, were there other Americans besides yourself that received similar treatment?

Sister TRINITA. Yes; there were.

The CHAIRMAN. At the time and places that you have referred to? Sister TRINITA. There were other Americans in the prison with me at the same time that I was.

The CHAIRMAN. How many?

Sister TRINITA. I could name them. Dr. Hawthorne Darby, Mrs. Stagg, Mrs. Jurika, Helen Wilkes, a Mrs. Mary Schneck Bagawalis, who was married to a Filipino, and also Mrs. Jose Enrique, who was married to a Filipino. They were American women. All those women have lost their lives. They were brave women, and they lost their lives for helping Americans. Sister Mary Brigida was also with me, having been arrested on April 25, 1944. Due to harsh treatment received at the hands of the military police in Fort Santiago Prison, Sister Brigida had a nervous break-down, and on August 18, 1944, was transferred to the Philippine General Hospital, Manila. Sister Brigida has not yet fully recovered.

The CHAIRMAN. I want you and Mrs. Foley to feel free, if you wish, to extend your remarks that you have made here this morning, and to know that you have the right to do so, so that you may tell as full a story as you wish to. The story you have told is one that is not only touching, but informative.

We thank you for your appearance today.

The CHAIRMAN. We will adjourn until 2 o'clock, and I will call first those witnesses who have come any distances, in order that they may not have to remain here too long.

(Whereupon, at 12:20 p. m., a recess was taken, to reconvene at 2 p. m.)

AFTERNOON SESSION

The committee reassembled, pursuant to the taking of a recess, in room 1334, New House Office Building, Hon. Charles A. Wolverton (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

The first witness will be Dr. Theodore D. Stevenson. Doctor, will you give your full name and for whom you speak?

STATEMENT OF THEODORE D. STEVENSON, M. D., MEDIA, PA. Dr. STEVENSON. My name is Theodore D. Stevenson, 133 East Third Street, Media, Pa.

I am an American physician living in Media, Pa., a graduate of Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. At present I am on the surgical staff of the Lankenau Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa. From 1934 until 1939 I was a medical missionary under the Presbyterian Mission of the United States of America at Canton, China.

In December 1941, en route to China, I was caught in Manila, and subsequently served on the medical staff of the Santo Tomas and Los Banos internment camps. As medical director of the Los Banos camp, and later chairman of the medical staff of Santo Tomas camp, I was familiar with all phases of health conditions in those camps. Shortly before the United States Army rescued the interness of Santo Tomas, I was put in special confinement in the Japanese special prison because I refused to alter death certificates which I had signed to read "starvation" or "malnutrition." Thus I can speak from personal experience of the sufferings of those internees for more than 3 years in the Japanese internment camps in the Philippines.

I might add here that the situation at that time, in the summer of 1944, was a very critical one in that camp because of the food situation and it had to come to a time when we were loosing internees every day from actual starvation, so that when the matter came up of death certificates, I felt as chairman of the medical staff and senior medical officer who had to sign out these death certificates, that it was impossible to alter them.

Curiously enough, the Japanese used a form of death certificate which was copied after the one put out by the Geneva Conventions for prisoners of war and they agreed that these death certificates would subsequently be registered with Geneva, in spite of the fact that in many respects they refused to conform to the Geneva Conventions. Therefore, it seemed impossible for me to agree to change these death certificates, and furthermore, it is not the practice of a doctor to alter death certificates.

I feel, therefore, because of my experiences and because of my position in the camps that I can speak from personal experience of the sufferings of those internees for more than 3 years in Japaneses camps in the Philippines.

It was inevitable that in such camps, with people, closely confined in a tropical country, without adequate sanitary facilities, that many would suffer from diseases prevalent in the Orient. Amoebic dysentery was ever present. At one time it was estimated that 12 percent of the camp was suffering from this condition, and I believe this was a low estimate. Tde debilitating effect of amoebic dysentery combined with nutritional deficiency left its mark on many. During the summer of 1943 at the Los Banos Camp 40 percent of the internees contacted bacillary dysentery.

I would add here that in the other camps this was also the case. At one camp, Baguio Camp, nearly 80 percent of the internees there had bacillary dysentary at one time. This was a result of overcrowding and open sewage, a condition which was repeatedly called to the

attention of the Japanese to no avail. The condition of many internees suffering from chronic diseases such as malaria and sprue was markedly aggravated by the scanty diet.

The food rations supplied by the Japanese up to February 1944 were woefully inadequate since the actual caloric value was less than 2,000 calories per day; after that time, when the camp was taken over from Japanese civilian control, by the military bureau of prisons, conditions repidly deteriorated. The military agreed to supply 1,750 calories for adults and half rations for children under 12 years.

You must understand that 3,000 calories is required for the average man on light labor. Many men in the camp were doing heavy labor such as wood chopping, kitchen detail, and so forth. The internees never received the 1,750 calories. By September 1, 1944, it was down to 1,350, October and November 1,100, December and January 1945, 650-800 calories per day per person. This diet was made up of rice, corn, a few beans and green vegetables of poor caloric value. The quality of food brought into all camps by the Japanese was poor. The greens received were wilted and slimy, the rice was frequently dirty; the corn moldy and had weevils, the camotes, a type of sweetpotato, were often rotten. There was loss in food value owing to the necessity of cooking in very large open vessels, called cawas, and of using green wood as fuel.

The seriousness of the food situation in the internment camps in 1914 became more apparent when a survey was made by the medical staff in August of that year. About 3,000 adult internees were examined and evidence of marked nutritional deficiency was found. Beriberi and hypoproteinema, low protein, resulting in marked swelling of the ankles and legs was common. Other signs indicated severe deficiencies.

By January 1945 the average weight lost for men was 51 pounds and 32 pounds for women. Several men who formerly weighed 200 pounds were down to 100 pounds. The death rate rapidly rose. Whereas an average hospital census early in internment was 80. By January 1945 it was over 300. This was in the Santo Tomas Camp. Some suffered permanent disability from neuritis of beriberi.

I would like to add here that this condition of neuritis of beriberi is one that is often extremely persistent. It has been known that sometimes it takes several years before the symptoms disappear. With this condition of neuritis there is what we call a foot drop, with the patient unable to flex the foot due to the involvement of the peroneal nerve and this would constitute almost a total disability.

Others, especially in the older age groups, will never recover from heart conditions brought on by overexertion in a state of nutritional deficiency.

Here again there were many older people with what might be called a mild heart disease who of necessity were forced to work in gardens and do other labor that they were totally unable to do, in order to exist. Some of the latent effects of this nutritional deficiency have already been manifest by various kinds of eye conditions.

Recently an article was published by another of the doctors in camp on the involvement of the optic nerve as a result of beriberi, and he has shown very conclusively that some of the latent effects on the optic nerve are irreversible. If treatment can be instituted early, some

times a cure is effected. Otherwise there will be permanent impairment of vision.

This article was published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, October 1946.

Other effects that are followed among former persons, prisoners in the Philippines and other tropical countries, are those of intestinal diseases. It is well known among doctors that amoebic dysentery has a tendency to be persistent in the intestinal tract and that very often it takes years before all the lesions in the intestinal tract are cured.

Dr. F. G. Houghwout has an article recently on the latent effects of internment on the intestinal tract and some of these patients are still suffering from various conditions which were contracted in the camps. The CHAIRMAN. Will you give us the citation of where the article may be found?

Dr. STEVENSON. This is found-and the article is called Intestinal Diseases in the Japanese Prison Camps in the Philippines-in the Journal of Technical Methods, volume 25, 1945.

A survey was made when a number of the prisoners reached the west coast in 1945 by Dr. Allen M. Butler, Harvard University, and he published the results of this survey in the New England Journal of Medicine, November 1945, called Nutritional Status of Civilians Rescued From Japanese Prison Camps. He found that 75 percent of those examined, in spite of the fact that they had already been on a rather forced feeding since liberation in February 1945, 75 percent were still suffering from severe nutritional deficiency. This was evidenced by swelling of the legs and ankles, and eye changes; other changes found in the mouth due to vitamin deficiency.

In summary it is evident that 5,000 American civilians were forced to live for more than 3 years in prison camps where living conditions were intolerable with food intake grossly inadequate not only in calories but also in constituents. Although property losses can be estimated, the bad effects of such an imprisonment on the health of hundreds of individuals can never be adequately expressed.

I would like to add here that I came here under rather difficult circumstances for myself, since I am in practice in Philadelphia.

I am not particularly interested in compensation for myself, but having seen the effects of this imprisonment on a great many individuals, I felt a personal responsibility.

I know that since I have come back I have received a great many letters from former internees who were almost completely disabled as a result of this internment and I have been able to help a few by testifying as to their condition. I cannot give you the exact figures on the amount of disability among these people. They are too widely scattered. But, I think that the references that I have given and the knowledge that I have, would convince you that the effects of this imprisonment have been bad on the health of a great many people and that we will not know possibly for several years what the latent effects will be.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any questions, gentlemen?

Mr. HINSHAW. Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Hinshaw.

Mr. HINSHAW. Doctor, were these medical records which were kept at the hospital preserved, or were they lost?