Within the collection were the papers of Mr. J. Heilbronn, who was reputed to
have been the first American to land in the Philippines in the Spanish-American
War.
The photo of the execution of a Philippine
insurrectionist was included, ca. 1898
James J. Halsema was born in the United States on
January 1st, 1919, yet he spent the majority of his formative years in the
Philippines. His father, E.J. Halsema, was the colonial mayor of the resort town
of Baguio, known as the summer capital of the Philippines. E.J. Halsema was also
the man that introduced Douglas MacArthur to his future wife, Jean Marie
Faircloth, on the SS Hoover in 1935. James attended Brent School in Baguio
nearly continuously until his graduation in 1936, when he set off for Duke
University. In the summer of 1940, Halsema returned to the Philippines and
became the editor of the Baguio edition of the Manila Daily Bulletin, an
American-owned newspaper in the Philippines. Halsema was in Baguio when the
Japanese invaded the Philippines in late December, 1941.
Along with the rest of the allied civilians in
the Baguio area Halsema was incarcerated in the civilian internment camp at Camp
Holmes. He spent three and a half years in captivity and endured torture at the
hands of his Japanese captors. He was liberated in Manila along with the rest of
the Baguio civilian internees at the old Bilibid Prison in February 1945. His
internment was only a small chapter in his life.