The Iron Gates of Santo Tomas: A Firsthand Account of an American Couple Interned by the Japanese in Manila, 1942-1945

Having recently learned that my uncle was a member of the 1st Cavalry, 5th Regiment and part of the "Flying Column" which liberated Santo Tomas in Feb 45, I was fascinated by Mrs. Van Sickle's eyewitness account of her time in the camp, and of her retelling of the evening of liberation. Her storytelling STYLE isn't particular gripping, but her STORY itself IS gripping and she tells it with an honest, informative approach.

Emily Van Sickle has written a wonderful memoir of her struggle during World War II to survive internment by the Japanese in the Philippines. Interned in Santo Tomas University with her husband, Emily chronicles the daily boredom, increasing starvation, and then the unbridled excitement of liberation by U.S. troops.Anyone interested in first-person wartime stories should read this book. It adds a new dimension to World War II stories of internment--this is unlike the experiences of European Jews and of Japanese-Americans, but still gives the reader pause to wonder at the atrocities of war.