World War II-Santa Tomas

Japanese Capture of Corregidor on May 6, 1942

• 79 Total women POWs: 66 Army Nurses, 1 civilian dietician, 1 civilian pysio-therapist, 11 Navy nurses.
• Despite the different duties assigned, women were all treated alike.
• Overall harsh living conditions. Women had to fight off starvation and disease.
• Average weight loss was 30%.
• All nurses suffered from beriberi or scurvy.
• Luckily all survived in this detention camp.

Santa Tomas was the largest cohort of U.S. uniformed women available for study. Liet. Colonel Madeline Ullom and fellow nurses organized shifts and began care for other prisoners who were captured at Corregidor. "Our atmosphere was one of a dusty pall, ever present, in which we moved, worked, tried to eat, tried to breathe in an endless nightmare," said Ullom about her experience of tending to wounded soldiers during her long months in the prison camp.

Detention Camp in Warsaw
Problems Within the Camps
Diseases
How Women POWs Survived
Womens Life After Imprisonment
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