2012/04/01 by Jennifer Terry · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Japanese History and Culture #Vietnamese History and Culture Studies #Asian American and Pacific Histories
paper · doi:10.1353/hcy.2012.0003
openalex publication_date 2012/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Commencing late 1941, Japanese soldiers apprehended and interned Western colonials throughout the South Pacific. Drawing on memoirs, diaries, camp documents, and other historical accounts, this article analyzes the intersection of Western mores, wartime captivity, and childhood as it examines the ways Western civilian internees dealt with the hardship and humiliation of imprisonment in the Santo Tomás Internment Camp in Manila. To some extent, internees normalized their daily lives by creating a community that mirrored Western culture and society. Directing and organizing children's and adolescent's activities was one key to this normalization process. In creating structure, order, and affirming children's worth within their community, Western internees sought to preserve and reinforce cultural mores and manners in the face of Japanese ascendency. Further, this study acknowledges and highlights children's agency, exploring their reactions to adults (both Western and Japanese), relationships with one another, and their manipulation of the environment. It appears that, at least initially, many children experienced a degree of freedom within captivity that they had not known prior to war. This study is significant because it complicates current adult-centric studies of World War II internment in the Pacific and illustrates children's integral role in community and cultural identity.