Forbidden Diary: True WWII Prison Survival Story
Audio-drama based on a WWII diary written by Natalie Crouter during her internment in a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines.
Three weeks after the first bombings of the Philippines on December 8, 1941, Natalie, her family, and 500 civilians were marched at gunpoint to a deserted U.S. military post (Season One: 1941). Thus began their survival of body and mind from 1942 to 1945. Natalie’s story is a fascinating, real-life view of wartime captivity and a gripping tale of courage, tenacity, and hope.
Included are interviews with Jim Zobel, historian and archivist at the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, VA, and Curt Brooks who was interned in a civilian prison in Manila during WWII.
The cover art incorporates a sketch entitled, "The Double Fence," by Fern Harrington Miles. To read about Fern and other prison artists interned with Natalie, go to www.storiestovoice.com/fd-artist-credits.
Original artifacts, prison art and Natalie's original diary entry, can be viewed by going to www.storiestovoice.com/fd-listen and clicking on See Pictures. You can also see the Forbidden Diary cast by going to www.storiestovoice.com/fd-cast.
Episodes
39 episodes
1944, Part 1 - Episode 26: Going Underground
Natalie pitches a very public fit over people rejecting family living and finds herself having to explain why to Bedie. The Crouters and other families dig living spaces under the barracks. Mr. Tomibe reads a story to Miss McKim’s Japanese clas...
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Season 4
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38:33
1944, Part 1 - Episode 25: Consequences
The Kempeitai interrogate and torture three internees (Gene, Bill and Jim) whom they suspect of helping Wick and Ritchie escape. Mr. Tomibe intercedes and rescues them. Nida, Auntie and Jorge talk about Filipinos being tortured in town. Mr. Tom...
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Season 4
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43:56
1944, Part 1 - Episode 24: No Good Deed
Mr. Tomibe allows a couple to get married in Camp and tries to improve life for prisoners while following High Command’s draconian rules. Japanese soldiers are upset about the prisoners’ bad manners, and Mr. Tomibe implores prisoners not to esc...
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Season 4
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38:02
1944, Part 1 - Episode 23: Internment-itus
Mr. Tomibe tries to help prisoners get food from the outside and allows married couples to live together. Natalie is dumbstruck that half of the Camp is against Mr. Tomibe's Family Unit Plan. Letters from home finally arrive, and Peg gets a spe...
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Season 4
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32:24
1944, Part 1 - Episode 22: Back to the Bad Old Days
Prisoner escapes and worries about MacArthur returning to the Philippines and has High Command clamping down on internment camps, sending new rules that Mr. Tomibe must enforce. Prisoners learn more about Mr. Tomibe. Nida hears news about her h...
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Season 4
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43:58
1944, Part 1 - Episode 21: Heroic Medicine
June becomes deathly ill. More Red Cross packages are distributed, including medical packages with a new medical supply called plasma which Camp doctors try on June. A new invention saves the day, an internee dies, and Mr. Tomibe expressed his ...
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Season 4
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44:32
1943 - Episode 20 Epilogue: Interview with MacArthur Memorial Archivist
Archivist and historian Jim Zobel tells riveting stories about what was going on outside of Camp Holmes during the last half of 1943. Jim talks about MacArthur’s covert operations to rescue civilians, keep Filipinos on the s...
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Season 3
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16:26
1943 - Episode 20: Red Cross Rescue
The Camp hospital runs out of beds for dysentery patients. Bedie is discharged too early from the hospital causing Natalie and Jerry to question his health care. Food shortages reduce good pickings from the garbage as prisoners pray that the Re...
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Season 3
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40:08
1943 - Episode 19: Gaining and Losing Ground
America is gaining ground in the Pacific. The prisoners have more money for food, but it’s becoming scarcer and more expensive. Everyone’s health is declining. Natalie’s vitamin injection goes wrong. Carl returns from an inspection tour of inte...
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Season 3
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36:08
1943 - Episode 18 Epilogue: Internment Survivor Interview, Part 2
In the second of three parts, 96-year-old Curt Brooks talks about life at Santo Tomas, a civilian internment camp in Manila which housed 3700 prisoners. In this segment, Curt describes his boyhood memories of imprisonment and survival—of sickne...
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Season 3
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26:32
1943 - Episode 18: Our Camp
The prisoners are finally allowed to send letters. As Natalie types for them, people pour their hearts out to loved ones at home. The increased clampdown on guerrilla activity affects Nida and Ismael living in Baguio. Peg misses her husband. A ...
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Season 3
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33:38
1943 - Episode 17: We're in the Money!
With Japanese occupation money losing value and food shortages, internees take out promissory loans for American dollars after the war. It’s “spend it while you got it” around Camp, and those with money throw elaborate parties while other inter...
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Season 3
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40:42
1943 - Episode 16 Epilogue: Interview with MacArthur Memorial Archivist
Historian and archivist, Jim Zobel talks from the MacArthur Memorial Library about the events in the first half of 1943 as General MacArthur inches closer to Japan. Find out what happened to the two generals in the Clark Field fiasco and hear h...
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Season 3
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40:12
1943 - Episode 16: Social Studies
Natalie takes a closer look at everyone’s behavior in camp. New internees share unforgettable stories of heroism and evil. Peg hears word about her husband. The Crouters learn disturbing news about Nida and don’t like Bedie’s reaction to it. Na...
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Season 3
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40:42
1943 - Episode 15: Surrender and Suffrage
The Japanese order Arthur to hunt down an American hiding in the mountains. Newly captured Americans tell harrowing stories about their life on the run. Nida worries about Ismael. Lt. Mukibo and Mr. Nagatomi get their just rewards. Everyone spe...
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Season 3
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34:01
1943 - Episode 14: Going Bananas
Another year of close quarters has prisoners getting on each other’s nerves as they deal with new waves of dysentery. Stories are filtering in from captured internees who had been hiding in the mountains from the Japanese. Mr. Hayakawa is intim...
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Season 3
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30:24
1943 - Binge Season Three (Episodes 14 - 20)
Includes all seven episodes in Season Three without the openings and recaps. NEW! You can view paintings and sketches drawn by people who were interned with Natalie by clicking See Pictures under the episode descrip...
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Season 3
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4:07:49
1942 - Episode 13 Epilogue: Interview with MacArthur Memorial Archivist
In this last interview, Jim Zobel shares fascinating insights about MacArthur’s first steps to liberate the Philippines—from the campaign in Papua New Guinea to making early radio contact with guerrillas in the Philippines. Zobel shares true, b...
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Season 2
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20:58
1942 - Episode 13: Better and Lesser Angels
The holidays are celebrated in bittersweet, internment style. True friends come through. A little boy teaches the camp a lesson. Dysentery returns, and Dr. Hall is not sure how the internees will survive 1943. NEW! You can view p...
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Season 2
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39:53
1942 - Episode 12: Lovers and Guerrillas
Bullets fly around Baguio and Camp Holmes as Filipino and Igorot guerrillas attack the Japanese. Natalie worries about Jerry’s depression. Additional co-mingling restrictions increase sexual tensions. NEW! You can view pain...
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Season 2
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37:26
1942 - Episode 11: Close Calls
As typhoon season begins Jerry is brought in for questioning. Nida and Ismael talk about guerrilla insurgencies. Natalie gets a tour of the camp's shop, a special gift, and called to the guard house. NEW! You can view paint...
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Season 2
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31:53
1942 - Episode 10 Epilogue: Interview with MacArthur Memorial Archivist
Jim Zobel describes how General Douglas MacArthur escaped to Australia and Japan took Corregidor. In a lively discussion the archivist explains how shortly after all of these defeats Americans and Filipinos started the fight to take back the Ph...
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Season 2
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37:31
1942 - Episode 10: Auld Lang Syne
Nida and Ismael offer the Crouters more help. The prisoners get to know the soldiers who cycle through the camp. A secret radio is installed in the camp hospital. June addresses inequities among prisoners. Nakamura gives the prisoners parting g...
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Season 2
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34:28
1942 - Episode 9: Home Sweet Holmes
Nakamura pontificates about American women, and the women make observations about him. All but one of the imprisoned missionaries are released. The Camp John Hay internees move to Camp Holmes. A Chinese internee is tortured.NEW! ...
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Season 2
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36:02
1942 - Episode 8 Epilogue: Interview with MacArthur Memorial Archivist
Jim Zobel, archivist at the General Douglas MacArthur Memorial, talks about the museum’s fascinating civilian POW artifacts. The MacArthur historian and author explains why Natalie believed that America was coming to the rescue and what was rea...
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Season 2
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29:41
