Life in a WWII Prison Camp
By Kenneth Books
Some who have endured life in a wartime prison camp carry the scars with them for the rest of their lives. Terry Wadsworth Warne took a different route. She wrote a book—Terry: The Inspiring Story of a Little Girl’s Survival as a POW During WWII.
In it, Terry tells of her three years as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II. She was just 8 years old when she and her parents were captured and imprisoned.
“We encouraged her to write the book,” says her daughter, Sally Reynolds, a local resident.
For years, Terry had presented talks to schools and groups about her experiences. She said those talks “are the backbone of the book.”
Written in a breezy style that draws the reader into the story, Terry tells of the sometimes harrowing, sometimes heartwarming, events of her daily life under the watchful eyes of the Japanese. “I didn’t want people to feel sorry that we were in the prison camp,” she said. “I just wanted people to hear the story.”
Although the prisoners were not tortured, as was the case with many military prisoners of war, they endured deprivation and starvation. Terry weighed 60 pounds when she was first imprisoned. By the time she and her family were rescued by the U.S. Army, she had lost 20 pounds and had not grown an inch in three years. Frequently, their diet consisted of a watery rice, often with insects in it, and various weeds they could find or cultivate. The deprivation had effects on some of the prisoners for the rest of their lives. “Sally’s grandfather (Terry’s father, Norris Wadsworth) was almost blind,” says Gary Reynolds, Sally’s husband, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.
But the family survived and witnessed a number of miracles. At one point, several American leaders of the camp were taken out and beheaded. Norris Wads-worth was too sick to go. And when the Americans arrived to free the prisoners, they didn’t know which way to go to find the Japanese. Beside a tank, a man cried out, “Give me light.” The soldier in the tank shined a light toward the voice and saw a bearded man in a robe, carrying a staff. He pointed the staff and the soldiers found the men they sought.
Crucial to the telling of Terry’s story were diaries she, her mother, her father and fellow prisoner Helen Brooks kept. The words written within those books prompted memories and allowed Terry to create a book rich in detail.
Terry and her family lived in the Philippines while her father worked at the Del Monte plantation. When the Japanese invaded the country, they were told they would be flown out to Australia. But every plane that had been sent quickly filled up, leaving the family to fend for themselves. Terry and her family found themselves with only one option. Surrender! As they surrendered to the Japanese, Terry’s father counseled her, “Live each day to the best of your ability. Do not get caught up looking so far ahead that, worrying about the future, you get discouraged and lose hope.” The advice served her well, as the next three years of her interment as a prisoner of war were full of hardship and suffering. Though stripped of her possessions and freedom, Terry was grateful to be alive and to be with her parents.
Terry felt no animosity toward the Japanese in spite of her ordeal. “If you carry hate with you, it can destroy you,” Terry said. Her son-in-law agrees. “Sally’s mother was probably one of the most positive, optimistic, outgoing people I ever met,” Gary says.
Despite being imprisoned, Terry’s education continued, although it was sometimes halted because of bombings and shellings. A Catholic priest served as the main teacher, although he had no actual teaching experience. But his teaching was so skilled that Terry skipped two grades when she returned to the States. “They didn’t have anything,” Sally says. “But they taught the kids.”
Because of the shared ordeal, most differences among the prisoners were forgotten.
“I asked my mom what about church,” Sally says. “She thought about a third of the prisoners were missionaries, but they all worked together. They prayed for each other and combined their faiths together.” Terry’s unconquerable spirit, as an eight-to-11-year-old prisoner of war, is a reminder that even in the most deplorable circumstances, life is what you make of it.
Terry peacefully returned home in 2018. Terry was a ray of sunshine in the lives of everyone who knew her. She was dearly loved and is sorely missed by her family and all those who have been fortunate to be her friends.
Terry: The Inspiring Story of a Little Girl’s Survival as a POW During WWII can be found on Amazon.com.
Bay Life’s “Hometown Heroes” are sponsored by Northwest Florida State College. To read about more Hometown Hero graduates or for more information, call 850.837.8880 or visit nwfsc.edu.
