Interview of American Red Cross worker Ruth Wysor on her adventures while serving in the Philippines during World War II and in American occupied Japan after the war Betty C. Taylor Thompson: At the AOA Convention in San Antonio, Texas in 1985, Alf Thompson interviewed Ruth Wysor. [Downstairs 00:15] about a daughter that you adopted when you were with the Red Cross. Um, t-, tell me more about that. Ruth Wysor: Well… Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Alf, you want to come in and sit down here? Alf Thompson: Well, I… Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Pull up a chair from the other room and join us. Alf Thompson: Well, I’ll just take Betty’s place. If you’ll excuse me. Female: Yes, do this. I don’t [want 00:32]. Alf Thompson: I know Ruth pretty well, and I’ll just sit down and give her the dickens. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: All right. [laughter] Alf Thompson: Where, where are ya? Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Well, we’re just tryin’ to find out the story about this daughter that she adopted. Alf Thompson: Oh. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: And the…wa… Alf Thompson: Just let Ruth do the talking? Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Yeah. Yeah. [00:50] How old was she when you adopted her? Ruth Wysor: Well, she was, uh… Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Not when you adopted. When you first saw her. Ruth Wysor: When she was, came into my care, she was, uh, about two days old. The, uh, umbilical cord had not been properly cared for yet, and that was how we knew she was a newborn. She was abandoned [throat clearing] in the took-, in the Yokohama railroad station by her grandmother, and, uh, the MPs, of course, uh, were all over the station and, uh, one of the MPs was given the child. Didn’t know quite what to do with it, but when he saw a Red Cross girl coming through and fortunately he knew me, he came to me with the child and thrust it in my arms. Uh, I knew it was a child because it was moving and, and, uh, alive, and I wasn’t afraid, of course, to become involved with an abandoned baby, and requested, uh, that, uh, the sisters who lived across the street from our billet, uh, be brought to the station to accept the baby. They already had, uh, two or three abandoned children in their hospital care. One of the UP men who was passing through, being alert to, uh, kind of publicity that comes out of a war, overheard some of the conversation and immediately he volunteered to go up to the hospital and bring the sister down whom I had named for him to bring. A little Irish nun that I had met a previous time. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: [2:37] Is there a story behind that? Ruth Wysor: Quite a story. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: How you me the Irish nun? Ruth Wysor: Yes, when I first went into Japan, I was, I built the first club in Japan. I have to tell you that. I built the first club in Japan. Alf Thompson: That’s a Red Cross club you’re talkin’ about. Ruth Wysor: Yes. Up above… Alf Thompson: [2:53] And where, where did you build it? Ruth Wysor: Kamakura, up above Kamakura. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Now, w-, you said this was in Kamakura? [3:04] Where is that? Ruth Wysor: Where I built the first club. Alf Thompson: Yes. Ruth Wysor: [Yes 3:07]. Alf Thompson: [3:07] And where is this located rela-, relative to [inaudible 3:09]? Ruth Wysor: It’s located up in the hills. Actually, it’s up in the part of Japan that’s very famous for cherry blossoms. And, uh… Alf Thompson: Well, is this, uh...on the main, uh, related to Tokyo, for instance? Ruth Wysor: Well, there’s quite some distance from Yokohama, actually. Alf Thompson: From Yokohama. Ruth Wysor: Yeah. Kamakura is where the Daibutsu is, the big, uh, statue that you go up into the, of the Buddha. Alf Thompson: Oh. Ruth Wysor: Uh, there. And, uh… Alf Thompson: [Anyway, 3:37] you built the first club there. Ruth Wysor: I built the first club up where the, uh, it, they weren’t kamikazes, but they were these one-man submarines, it was the barracks of, of that group of Japanese soldiers, and, um, they had this base up there and a colonel who had served, uh, for quite a number of years and he knew Eleanor Roosevelt quite well, used to ride horseback with her, and I was the first women to be on a base, and of course I had to take the girls up there later to serve with us, but, uh, we were stationed up there, and, uh, we built the first club, and, uh, in one of the old, uh, barracks of… Alf Thompson: [Go on and 4:30] wrote the story about the baby, but I, I do think people would like to know about your first club. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: And how she… Alf Thompson: Go back to the baby now? Betty C. Taylor Thompson: …well, I, we’re tryin’ to find out how she met, got acquainted with this nun. Alf Thompson: Oh. Ruth Wysor: So later on, I was, uh, in view of being the only woman there in the first place when, when some of the other girls came, we decided we should take the GIs on tours because everybody was curious about where they were and what was to be seen, and, uh, we lit out in a Jeep one day just to find spots of interest that we could take them to. Uh, a little island called ina-, Enoshima was close by, and this is where the Japanese girls used to cross a rope bridge and go over and pray for a man, or pray for a husband. And we thought that would be interesting. And, uh, we had our Jeep loaded. We’d been to the PX in Tokyo and we had our Jeep loaded with cigarettes, candy, all the rations that we could get, and we had blankets and things of that sort in the Jeep also, which we didn’t want to leave parked anywhere because the minute you stop in Japan, out of nowhere come hundreds of people, mostly children, just to gape and, uh, see what you’ve got. See who you are. But, uh, we searched and we found a little walled city that, uh, had, uh, missionary nuns staying there, and the name was on the outside that it was a mission. I told the driver, I said, let’s go in there and see if they’ll put the Jeep behind the walled city so we can walk over to the island, and our things won’t be stolen. We did this, and, uh, the sisters there were the French nuns who had those big [inaudible 6:26], y’know, those big curlicue hats that they wore in olden days. And, um, they asked us for tea. This is just my driver and myself. We went in to tea and the tea turned out to be hot water. So I told the driver, I said, something’s wrong here. These people don’t have anything. So we finally got around to asking them what their circumstances were. They had been bombed out and one of the Japanese, the native sisters, her father owned this little walled in house, and he had taken all of these sisters in after their school and hospital had been bombed. And they were all there, the entire order, and they were starving to death. They had no food. The only food they could get was through the Japanese [inaudible 7:23], which was like a ration, and the only person who had the ration was one nun. So you know they couldn’t feed 30 or 40 nuns. We went through their kitchen. We found their cupboards bare. When we got back to camp, we went to the mess sergeant. We said we got a buncha women down there starving in a mission. What can we do about it? The next day, a six by six was loaded to the gills, and in the middle of the night down we went with all this food. Alf Thompson: [Always 7:55] the middle of the night, huh? Ruth Wysor: Yep. And… Alf Thompson: [laughter] Midnight requisition. Ruth Wysor: Midnight requisition. We visited and we did get into an upstairs room where they had their ill sisters, and there was one there who was dying, obviously, and, uh, she did have cancer, we later learned. And the sisters had asked when I said is there anything else we can do for you after we’d given them blankets and food and all this, she said, yes, a doctor. I said, well, our doctors are not allowed to treat civilians. But we’ll see what we can do. I went back to camp, went to the chaplain. He said our little doctor just happens to be Catholic. Maybe he’ll break the rule for you. He did break the rule. We did go down, and he said that we had to get this nun to a hospital. So I had a Japanese, uh, friend who knew where this hospital, international hospital was in Yokohama, and we got the ambulance from the base. We put our little sister in the ambulance. We picked her up in the middle of the night, and we got into Yokohama to this international hospital, and all later on I was billeted across the street from there. But this is where we took the nun to die. And these sisters wouldn’t turn her away. She wasn’t of the same order, but they wouldn’t turn her away because she was a Catholic nun. Alf Thompson: Yeah, sure. Ruth Wysor: And our little doctor provided the medication that was necessary to keep her comfortable. And it was a year and a half later when I was stationed in Yokohama, took over the donut factory because they had to fly some girl home who had, uh, a disease or something that couldn’t be helped there, and I walked out in front of the billet and looked across the street, and here was the hospital I’d deposited this nun in [chuckle]. Alf Thompson: [10:01] And this is where you took the baby? Ruth Wysor: And this is where I took the baby. Alf Thompson: So we’ll get back to the baby. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Now, yeah. Ruth Wysor: I went over and got acquainted with them and then when I got the baby down in the railroad station, they were the people I called. Alf Thompson: So many stories to tell. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Okay. [10:17] Now we’ll go back to the baby. Go ahead. Alf Thompson: Are you ready? Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Yeah. Alf Thompson: Uh, tell us, you took the baby over there. Ruth Wysor: Yes. Alf Thompson: [10:25] And tell us then [inaudible 10:27]… Ruth Wysor: And, uh… Alf Thompson: …the rest of the story… Ruth Wysor: …the nuns… Alf Thompson: …as briefly as you can, Ruthie, make it… Female: Yeah. Alf Thompson: …fast. Ruth Wysor: These nuns had already gathered two or three GI babies in that had been abandoned. And, uh, Frannie was about the third or fourth baby that they had. When we got to the hospital from downtown and they unwrapped the baby, she was in swaddling clothes. That’s how we knew she was Chinese. And the little Irish nun who was there had been in China and she knew too. And, uh, I think my only participation with that baby was to be her godmother when they baptized her, and at the same time there were several other Red Cross gals who, I dr-, drug them over to be godmothers to other, other abandoned babies. Alf Thompson: Great, great. Ruth Wysor: And, uh, when she was 3 months old, she contracted pneumonia and a doctor friend of mine down at the dispensary brought penicillin, which was like gold then, and we saved her life. And from then on, I more or less became her caretaker as far as paying for her keep and so forth. Alf Thompson: [11:39] When did you decide to make her your own? Ruth Wysor: Well, uh, she kinda grew on me, or I grew on her, I don’t know which. They used to tell me she wouldn’t eat until I came. So I was doing two jobs. I was [chuckle] taking care of a baby and working for Red Cross at the same time. But, uh, the sisters said, wouldn’t it be nice if you could take her back to the United States because she was quite fond of me and I was fond of her. And, uh, we started working on it, and I guess it’s divine providence because the way things fell together, a little Japanese doctor remembered delivering a baby down in the Motomachi section of Yokohama, which is the shopping center in the walled city of China. We-, wherever China is, in a foreign country that way, they’re in a wall. Behind the wall. They’re to themselves, very exclusive. And there was a field director who had served in China who was a friend of mine. It was just luck that he spoke the same dialect as these people. Alf Thompson: Yeah. Ruth Wysor: And when the doctor said he delivered a baby to a very young girl there, we started tracing it, and it turned out that this girl was Frannie’s mother. Alf Thompson: Isn’t that great? Ruth Wysor: And her grandmother was there. In turn for getting her to give the baby to us, we had to promise to get mother and grandmother back to Shanghai. She couldn’t keep the baby, naturally, because it was a girl. In China, girls went by the board. But she was promised in marriage to somebody in Yokoha-, in, in, uh, Shanghai. [She had to go home 13:25]. Alf Thompson: Her mother was. Ruth Wysor: Yes, her mother was. But anyway, we started gathering all the evidence that we could. We even had a man who was a, studied the skulls of the children. He came into the baby home. We didn’t, we put Frannie in there. She wasn’t supposed to be there, but we put her in there just to see what he would say. And the minute he put his hands on her head, he said this baby’s Chinese. And that was how we were so certain… Alf Thompson: Yes, yes. Ruth Wysor: …that she wasn’t Japanese. Well, a Chinese in Japan is without a country, really. They hate each other. They did, and they still do. But, uh, the nuns did help a lot. The doctor, knowing who she was, we had to prove she was 51% other than [inaudible 14:15], and, uh, these, uh, were, the quotas were all filled for Japan and she had been born in Japan, so we had to go onto the Chinese quota. Alf Thompson: [14:27] Tell us now, let’s jump a little bit to the final deal when you got MacArthur’s help. Ruth Wysor: Yes. Uh, I had a relative who was on strike commission and working for MacArthur on the reparations program in Japan, and, uh, he knew about the baby because I took him to the hospital to see her, and he tried to discourage me as Red Cross tried to discourage me. Everybody tried to discourage me. But he did say, before I leave, I’m going to leave a letter for you to General MacArthur. In the meantime, I had met MacArthur several times. I’d entertained his wife and his son, and, uh, knew the family. I felt I knew him well enough to go up and say hello. However, the letter did it. I put the letter aside and until it came time for me to sail home, matter of fact, if I didn’t go, I would, would have to pay my own way. ‘Cause Red Cross was sending me home after five years in the Orient. And, uh, I took the letter over to the Dai-Ichi Building in Tokyo, marched in like I owned the place and asked to [laughter] see General MacArthur. Alf Thompson: You would [at that 15:43]. Ruth Wysor: And, uh, they ushered me into his presence. He remembered me and remembered, uh, my relative, and, uh, told me to go back to Yokohama and not worry. My orders would be forthcoming. And they did. The orders came. Alf Thompson: Now, so we’ll skip that and you brought the baby home. Ruth Wysor: Yes. Alf Thompson: [16:04] Now tell us what has happened since briefly. Ruth Wysor: Well, uh, they reduced her visa from one year to six months, and I was told by the immigration man that I had to adopt this child within six months or both of us’d go back to Japan, and, uh, so when I got home to Cleveland, finally, I, uh, employed the services of a man who was attorney general of the state and, uh, he got to a judge. I was the first woman, single, to adopt in the state of Ohio. Alf Thompson: Is that right? The first woman single to adopt. Ruth Wysor: That’s right. And the old judge sat up there and held her on his lap and banged his gavel and said if you have enough guts to bring her here, I have enough guts to give her to you [laughter]. Alf Thompson: Well, isn’t that wonderful. Ruth Wysor: That was it. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: [16:59] Didn’t you have to have sponsors for her? Ruth Wysor: Yes. The Divine Providence Foundation in New York City. That’s the same order of nuns who kept her over there in the hospital until I came home. They put up their whole foundation to sponsor her. Alf Thompson: Well. Ruth Wysor: When I started out, I had to pay for her transportation. Then before we left, they returned half of it to me because she was a child. When MacArthur [chuckle] got word that they had charged for her, he had a fit and they returned the whole bit to me [chuckle]. Alf Thompson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ruth Wysor: So she went over actually as a military, free military person. I’m sending you a copy of her orders. Alf Thompson: I’d love to have it, Ruth. Ruth Wysor: For your archives. Alf Thompson: Love to have it, Ruth. Ruth Wysor: Yes. Alf Thompson: [17:45] Uh, tell me, uh, just because we do have the time limits, tell me, uh, about Fran now. Tell me, tell us a little bit about her. Her development. Ruth Wysor: Yes, she, uh… Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Could I interrupt here a minute? Aren’t there some other people that she was the, that helped her considerably of, that we want… Ruth Wysor: Oh, yes. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: …brought in here? Ruth Wysor: Yes, we had to have, we had to have some guarantees and so forth and, uh, uh, Cardinal Spellman had visited in Japan, uh, with Bishop Sheen, he was then the bishop. He later became something greater. But, uh, they visited the baby home where, it was called Our Lady of Lourdes Baby Home there at the hospital, and the nuns had selected Frannie to present a bouquet to the archbishop, to Spellman. And when we got out to the car and he gets out of this car in all his robes and everything, this little thing walks up with a bouquet and hands it to him. Well, he was still trying to gather his robes about him, and when he stood up straight, she looked right up at him and said, now you say thank you [laughter]. So he never forgot. [throat clearing] He never forgot that child. And when, uh, it came time for, uh, Frannie to have sponsorship, uh, for college and so forth, she earned her own, uh, way, actually through college. Alf Thompson: [19:13] How? Ruth Wysor: She worked in the, uh, well, first she got a scholarship. Let’s start out that way. She got a scholarship for her good grades. Then Cardinal Spellman also gave her a scholarship through funds that he [had 19:30]… Alf Thompson: Yes. Ruth Wysor: …for the Chinese refugees and so forth. And, uh, she was an excellent student, and she graduated cum laude from Saint Theresa’s College. Alf Thompson: [19:41] And when did she take up her, her singing? Ruth Wysor: She took that up in college and pursued it after she graduated because she just, she just liked to sing. Alf Thompson: Uh-huh. Ruth Wysor: And, uh, although she isn’t, uh, being paid for her singing much, she, she does sing for groups, legionnaires, VFWs… Alf Thompson: Yeah. Ruth Wysor: …all these people that have [inaudible 20:04]. Alf Thompson: We’ve enjoyed her singing out at some of our AOA events. Ruth Wysor: Oh, yes, she’s… Alf Thompson: So of course we all love her and we all know about her and about her adoption. She’s one of our AOA children, y’know. In, in, in every way. Now, uh, Ruth, uh… Female: Uh, let me interrupt in here, if I may. Didn’t, uh, you had more sponsors than, uh, Cardinal Spellman for the child? Alf Thompson: Oh, you had MacArthur, didn’t you? Ruth Wysor: Well, MacArthur, General MacArthur. Female: And wasn’t there another, uh… Ruth Wysor: Bishop Sheen. Female: Bish-, Bishop Sheen. Ruth Wysor: Yes. Female: And the, you [inaudible 20:44] Ruth Wysor: [All dead now 20:43]. Female: You came in contact with’m when you were in New York? Ruth Wysor: Well, I met, uh, Cardinal Spellman and Bishop Sheen in Japan. And, uh, when we got to New York and, uh, uh, well, when I needed the people to back me, uh, and I needed, uh, somebody to put up a bond, a, a very heavy bond to take care of this child in case I couldn’t, the Divine Providence Foundation of the, uh, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary put up their, their foundation. Of course that was relinquished when I arrived, and I had to report to them in New York [inaudible 21:24]. Female: I thought you had three…? Ruth Wysor: Yes. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Three notable names, and they was her sponsors, really, right? Ruth Wysor: [They really were 21:32]. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: And they were, again… Alf Thompson: Uh, General… Ruth Wysor: Cardinal Spellman… Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Yes. Ruth Wysor: Bishop Sheen. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Yes. Ruth Wysor: And General MacArthur. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: As her sponsors. Ruth Wysor: Right. That were her sponsors. Alf Thompson: She had quite a [chuckle]. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Yes. Alf Thompson: She attracted quite a following. All because this little Red Cross girl answered the call of one of our military police and took a warm bundle out of his arms and rested that bundle in the arms of the lord until she could take it and raise it as her own, and, uh, we all have heard the story of Ruth and this wonderful girl, but we haven’t even touched upon so many other things that have happened with Ruth. Ruth has been a president of our American Overseas Association. She’s been one of our [wheel horses 22:34]. She’s been one of the people we always call upon to get things done. And so the work that she did in Japan, in Red Cross, is carried into her community. She’s been head of the Welfare Department of that whole section and is retired from that. No lady has served more people with greater love, with greater heart and with greater understanding than Ruth, and we all love her, and we thank you for being with us so we could put this on tape. Ruth Wysor: Thank you. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: And you have added another real nice chapter to your collection. Alf Thompson: [Inaudible 23:15] Betty C. Taylor Thompson: [23:17] What did you say, that you were in prison? Ruth Wysor: Yes. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Where? Ruth Wysor: And that was my first contact with MacArthur. He sent his marines in to get us out [laughter], actually. No, when I, when I first went over, it was in ’45 and it was just before the signing of the treaty on the Missouri… Alf Thompson: Yeah. Ruth Wysor: …[was it 23:34] Missouri, yeah. And, uh, I was supposed to… Alf Thompson: Just, wait just a minute. I think we have to put this as the second chapter. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: That’s all right. Go right ahead. It’s on. Ruth Wysor: Yeah. Alf Thompson: It’s on. All right [chuckle]. Ruth Wysor: And we arrived close to Manila. We had to go over the side of the ship because things were in pretty much turmoil in the Philippines yet. Now we were supposed to be taken to the nurses’ headquarters in Manila to be billeted until we received assignments and went on. We went over the side of the ship, came in to shore, and a young GI met us with a six by six. Betty C. Taylor Thompson: [24:17] What’s that? Ruth Wysor: That’s a, that’s the biggest truck that the army has… Betty C. Taylor Thompson: Oh. Ruth Wysor: …and it’s a, has a canvas top over the top of it, and they used to pile us in there and take us places. And he met us and he’d only been there two days himself. He didn’t know Manila from a hole in the ground, so instead of taking us to Manila, he headed up into the mountains, Baguio. Alf Thompson: I remember Baguio from World War I. Ruth Wysor: And the poor Japanese hadn’t heard the war was over either, so they ha-, still had snipers out and when they saw that truck coming, they pulled their guns out and started shooting at us, and the poor driver, he was so green but he had sense enough to say, oh, for god’s sake, get under the truck. He stopped the truck, wanted us to get under it. I got everything under but this thing. And I got a sniper’s bullet right through my knee. And of course we were captured and they took us to Santo Tomas, that’s the, uh, university there, they, they had taken. Alf Thompson: In Manila. Ruth Wysor: [The 25:23] university in… Alf Thompson: In Manila. Ruth Wysor: Yep, it’s out in Manila. And, uh, we were there. I was, would say approximately about three months. But I had no medical care for me, for this knee and it, gangrene set in and so forth and so on. And if it hadn’t been for [Fred Albee 25:39], who is now deceased, bless his heart, he, he was marvelous orthopedic surgeon attached to the army, but he told them not to try to send me home, to send me on up to Japan. And, uh, MacArthur took off after he arrived after he’d, they’d gotten us out. MacArthur took off in one plane, I was on the plane right behind him. And there were only three Red Cross girls on that plane. And he had Tojo in [inaudible 26:08] with him as a prisoner. Alf Thompson: [26:13] And do you remember the other girls that were with you? Ruth Wysor: I’ve tried to look up all their names. There was one girl who was killed. There were two or three who, who were shot up a little bit, but not, not… Alf Thompson: [26:28] Tell us about in Santo Tomas. Ruth Wysor: Well, this… Alf Thompson: What did th-, how did they house you in what… Ruth Wysor: They housed us in these little cubicle – well, it was a university, and they didn’t have rooms, and they had a lot of missionaries there. If I’d’ve looked then, I would’ve found these same missionaries that I located in Japan later because they were there. Alf Thompson: They were there. Ruth Wysor: And, uh, they didn’t feed us anything but rice. They had no medics. And I said I never hated the Japanese because of that, simply because they didn’t have anything for themselves either. Their people were dying like flies be-, because the lack of medical help also. But, fortunately, I guess the good god was with me because I got to go to Japan, and, uh, they mo-, immobilized my knee for me in the infirmary there, 332nd Dispensary in Yokohama. And I just kept hobblin’ around [chuckle] and stayed until I was ready to come home. And, uh, the Red Cross did not have me stop at the hospital there in California. I think a real cute story about all of this is that when I did come home and had Frannie with me, the national Red Cross wired the field director in California to meet my ship, and the telegram read, Red Cross girl arriving with child. [laughter] And that [inaudible 28:10] director nearly dropped his teeth when he saw the child. Because he thought here’s another pregnant Red Cross gal comin’ in [chuckle], and, uh, I tell that story quite often about the poor field director not knowing. Alf Thompson: Well, you see, Ruth, you said that you felt that, uh, providence in the lord had taken care of you. Ruth Wysor: Divine providence from the word go. Alf Thompson: Uh, this story makes me understand even more than what I have understood of your deep, abiding religious faith, and it’s good to know how it came about. /jw