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Sketches reflect life as a teen POW By Paul Fattig For more than half a century, Teedie Woodcock�s sketches were stashed away in an old suitcase. To the untrained eye, they may have looked like mere doodles by a talented but bored teenager. Consider the first sketch early in January 1942, during the first day at camp. A decidedly dejected teenage girl looks forlornly down at several suitcases. Thanksgiving of that year depicts a thin boy dreaming of a fat turkey. "These were originally for my mother," the Medford resident explains. "I had no gift to give her for Christmas in 1944, so I gave her the sketches. I never thought too much about it. It was very personal, really." Fortunately for those of us who love history, they have been made public. The 130 sketches by Theodora "Teedie" Woodcock, now 76, were made during the years she was a prisoner of war at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the Philippines from early January 1942 until early February 1945. The sketches have been taken out of the suitcase and made into a 175-page book. Published last month, "Behind the Sawalie" tells the story of a lonely teenage girl looking out at the world. Sawalie is a tightly woven mat of split bamboo. The book is reminiscent of the poignant diary by Anne Frank, another teenager held prisoner by the same war. Like the famous diary, Woodcock�s sketches were never meant to see the light of day. "It wasn�t ever designed for anything except privacy," Woodcock says. "It was with some reluctance that I went public with it." Bill Rowan, owner of CENOGRAFIX, a small publishing firm in Greensboro, N.C., heard about her cartoons through his wife, who was a POW at the same camp. He tracked down Woodcock early this year and persuaded her to publish the sketches. The paperback book, which sells for $16.50, can be ordered by e-mailing [email protected]. Woodcock was 17 when she and her mother, also named Theodora, were taken prisoner by the Japanese military in Manila early in January 1942. Her father, George Cowie, had been named Manila director of the what is now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the spring of 1941. When they arrived from North Bend, the Philippines were peaceful, she recalls. Her four other siblings had already fledged. Japanese forces launched an attack on Manila Dec. 7, 1941, within hours of their attack on Pearl Harbor. Her father was killed during a bombing raid by Japanese aircraft the day before Christmas, 1941. Like Anne Frank, Woodcock spent long hours pondering life. "I did a lot of daydreaming," she says. "The loss of privacy and freedom is difficult to deal with. If you don�t have a sense of humor you can�t make it. " Indeed, there are shades of James Thurber in her story line. To conserve precious paper, she drew three to 10 pencil drawings per page. Over time, her project grew to more than two dozen pages. The sketches reflect every aspect of camp life, from chores to attending school. In June 1944, she and her mother got their first letter from one of her adult sisters back home. The sketch shows Woodcock and her mother thinking about her four older siblings, including a sister�s husband. The POWs didn�t know the husband had already been killed in the North Atlantic. Hunger constantly gnawed at the two. Her mother lost some 60 pounds during the three years in the camp. "We fantasized about food all the time," Woodcock says. "That�s one of the first indications of starvation, when you start dreaming about food." During the last month at the camp, she estimates that about 40 people starved to death. The camp held about 3,600 POWs. She will never forget Feb. 3, 1945, the day the U.S. Army�s 1st Cavalry and 44th Tank Battalion arrived to free them. "They seemed so big and healthy," she says. "They were real heroes to us. They still are." You can reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.