Sascha Jansen: An American POW in the Philippines
	February 3, 2005       For those who have experienced war firsthand, the passage of time does not diminish the terror, the pangs of hunger, nor the joy of being liberated. For Jean “Sascha” Jansen, of Vacaville, the trauma she experienced in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines during WWII, are as vivid as if they happened yesterday rather than sixty years ago this month.       She was born Jean Weinzheimer, in the Philippines, to a German-Hawaiian father and a German- Tahitian mother, who were both American citizens. They were in the Philippines, because her grandfather, Louis Weinzheimer, owned the Canlubang sugarcane plantation. Louis, originally from Germany, worked as a foreman at a Hawaiian sugarcane plantation owned by the Spreckel family. Mr. Spreckel convinced Louis to buy the sugarcane plantation in Canlubang, just south of Manila, in 1919.       When Sascha’s father and her father’s brother became old enough, they went to the Philippines to help their father. Canlubang was a prosperous operation with many employees and even its own baseball team. “When Babe Ruth went on a world tour and visited the Philippines, our baseball team played against him,” said Sascha. It was an Idyllic place to live …until the war started.       When the war began, all Americans were told to report to Manila at the University of Santo Tomas. “We thought we were only going to be there for a short time because they told us to only bring food for three days,” said Sascha recalling her years as a prisoner of war (POW). Her family was imprisoned at Santo Tomas for over three years. “The Japanese told us they were not following the Geneva Convention,” she added.       Sascha was only eight years old when she was first imprisoned. In addition to her young age, she was also suffering from polio, which she contracted at the age of eighteen months old. “I had five surgeries in San Francisco before the war,” said Sascha. “But the Japanese didn’t give me any special treatment or pity. It got worse when I began to outgrow my special shoes and leg braces. By the time I was liberated, I had lost all muscle tone,” she added. “The worst part of the ordeal was being hungry every day,” lamented Sascha as she recalled the horror. “They told us we could leave the camp to find food, which we did. We got food from businesses and we gave them IOU’s in return.” In spite of their resourcefulness, their Japanese captors stole the food they had acquired. “Luckily, some of our family members and friends brought us food through the gates.”       In addition to the hunger, Sascha’s family had to endure horrible living conditions. According to Sascha, most people lived in former classrooms, the library and the Education building. “Then it got so crowded that they started building shanties. Our family of five lived in a ten by ten shanty,” said Sascha. “But at least we were all together.” Sascha’s nightmare came to an end on February 3, 1945, sixty years ago this week. “Our troops followed the tanks as they went through the front of Santo Tomas,” said Col. Jesus Franco, a member of the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry that helped liberate the prisoners. Sascha said she received a telephone call from Col. Franco. “I killed Abiko,” is what Col. Franco said on the telephone.“Abiko was a very cruel and mean commandant at Santo Tomas and we all hated him,” said Sascha with a look of scorn on her face. “I saw that Abiko was ready to throw a hand grenade so I grabbed a carbine and shot him,” said Col. Franco, who now lives at the Redwood Shores Senior complex.       From Manila, the Weinzheimer family were flown to Leyte during the middle of a typhoon. “Our plane was the only one that didn’t turn back because of the typhoon,” recalled Sascha. While in Tacloban, she and her family were given medical exams, food, and new clothes. “We were then put on a troop transport ship with a full destroyer escort of twelve ships,” said Sascha. They eventually ended up in Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor but never got off the boat. “We later found out that four FBI agents boarded the ships and interviewed the former POW’s to gather names of traitors,” recounted Sascha. “We left Hawaii and landed in San Francisco in April, one day before Roosevelt died”       By this time her grandparents had bought a farm in the San Joaquin Valley. “It was like Alice in Wonderland,” said a smiling Sascha. “They had fresh fruits and vegetables, and plenty of food to eat. After being hungry all the time, this was paradise.” Sascha has been a resident of Vacaville for the last six years. “Now I plan tours of historic WWII sites in the Philippines,” said Sascha two days before leaving on another trip.       Throughout the interview, Sascha spoke Tagalog words and blurted out Filipino expressions, especially when she got excited. She could have been someone’s Filipino grandmother telling these stories. Sascha proves that being Filipino is in the heart. She is a true survivor and another footnote in the history of WWII.