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Nov 23, 2017
10:23:23am
Conan Yeah, but Hillary
My great-grandparent's Thanksgiving story from a Japanese prison camp in 1944:
This is a true story that my great-grandmother wrote for a Bay Area newspaper in the 80s. They have since passed away, but their daughter and my grandmother, Terry, is still living today.


HEADLINE: "WHEN CANNED CORNED BEEF WAS A THANKSGIVING FEAST

"EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanksgiving celebrations always bring memories of bountiful feast of years gone by. Vi Wadsworth of Walnut Creek will never forget the thanksgiving dinner she prepared 43 years ago. She and her husband, Norris Wadsworth, vice president of Philippine Packing Corporation, a subsidiary of Del Monte Corporation, were living on a pineapple plantation on the island of Mindanao, Philippines, when World War II broke out. They spent 18 months in a prison camp in Davao in southern Mindanao, and then were transported to Manila, where they were held in Santo Tomas prison camp until they were liberated by the Americans in February of 1945. Here is the story of their Thanksgiving dinner in 1944.

"As Thanksgiving of 1944 drew near, our family contemplated the true meaning of the first Thanksgiving. Our family consisted of Norris, myself and our 10-year-old daughter Terry. We were in a precarious position, We had been prisoners of war [of the Japanese] in the Philippines for almost three years, and our situation was getting bleaker. Fellow prisoners were dying each day from starvation and malnutrition.

"We thought of the pilgrims who, despite hardship, celebrated that first Thanksgiving with a beautiful feast, thankful for their very lives. We thought about how grateful we were for our lives and being together. We considered the danger we'd been through since the war started in December 1941--a year under bombardment and shelling, intestinal complications, high fevers from malaria, my own bout with typhus, and two trips in the hold of Japanese troop transports dodging U.S. submarines.

"We decided we, too, could have a feast and eat until we were full---a luxury we hadn't known for some time. We were excited just contemplating the event. Norris was down to 100 pounds from his usual 184, and I had lost about 50 pounds. My husband scurried around the camp locating people who would sell some small hoarded or smuggled item of food for our feast. In turn, he wrote IOU's to be collected in American money after the war.

"Among other things, I wanted to make a Thanksgiving pie. Using cassava root, which I had washed, dried and ground for flour, I began making the crust with coconut oil while Terry watched. In her excitement, she bumped my elbow, spilling the flour to the floor. We crawled under our shanty to spoon up the previous bits which had fallen between the bamboo slats of the floor and shifted onto the dirt below.

"The fruit for our pie consisted of a box of wormy prunes saved for a special occasion. I picked the worms out and washed the prunes carefully. I cooked them with a little sugar purchased with a $100 IOU over an oven Norris had fabricated from an old kerosene can.

"Our main course included a can of corned beef ($100), all of the rice we wanted ($100), and a small can of pork and beans ($100). We had a large can of tomato juice ($100) and a salad made with weeds that grew around our grass shanty, topped with salad dressing made of vinegar from an overripe banana. For the desert---the pie.

"At last we sat down to our delicious Thanksgiving feast. I remember the happiness and joy we felt, and the thankfulness we had for our lives. Norris offered the blessing and the three of us began to eat, bubbling with excitement. We ate and ate until we were finally full.

"Each year at our Thanksgiving feast we pray for those who do not have such bounty. And we remember when we were some of those without. When Norris Wadsworth got back to the United States after the war, he repaid in full, all of the IOUs, amounting to $500."

* $500 is equivalent to $6900 in 2017 dollars
Conan
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