I was born in Manila April 1945 right after liberation.   My parents were Spanish and East Indian and as you can guess my mother (Spanish) carried me throughout the battle of Manila.   My uncle, Raymond Leyerle, was an American who was interned at Santo Tomas and unfortunately died of malnutrition just days after the camp was liberated.

Hearing all of these stories while growing up has instilled in me an intense interest to learn more about this era.   I have done quite a bit of research in the last few years and am now producing a documentary entitled, "Victims of Circumstance".   This story deals with the mix of Filipino, American, British, Japanese, and other cultures that were thrown into the mix when the U.S. and Japan entered into World War II.

It will tell the story of how they experienced this terrible ordeal and how many depended on each other for their ultimate survival.  We will complete the film the summer of 2005 as we are including the 60th Anniversary tour to Manila this coming February which will have many Santo Tomas survivors.   In addition we are traveling to Manila this November for additional research and interviews with Filipino survivors.   We have also found several Japanese civilians and military personnel (one of which was a guard at Santo Tomas in 1942) that are living in Japan.  We hope to interview them in the Spring of 2005.

I am currently interviewing many Santo Tomas survivors (quite a few of them are in the Bay Area) and interestingly enough, a lot of them are American School alumni of which I too am an alumni; Class of 1962.   So it seems I have another connection with them. At any rate, my website does explain in more detail what the documentary is about and features a short trailer of the upcoming documentary and video titled "The Last Mile Home".   You may review it here  I hope you find it interesting.

I am currently retired and living in Seattle.

Best regards,
Lou Gopal
email: lougopal@hotmail.com