Edgar Ray Begole (1913-2002) grew up in Moberly, Missouri and went to the University of Missouri. He married Elizabeth Cary (1911-1998) of Leoti, Kansas.

Begole was a smelter shifter for the Marsen Mining Company in Manila, Philippines when the Japanese attacked the city, soon after their attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The couple and their toddler son Michael Cary Begole (1940-2003), or Mickey, were confined to the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, the site of a former university, in early January 1942, under orders of the occupying Japanese Army.

While in the camp Elizabeth Begole earned a first aid certification, included in the collection along with her nurse’s veil. Edgar may have served as a floor supervisor among the various committees created by the largely self-administered camp.

The Begoles suffered starvation, as did most of the nearly 4,000 people in the camp. Santo Tomas Internment Camp was liberated in battle on February 3, 1945, by the American Army’s 44th Tank Battalion. A Moberly, MO newspaper reported that young Mickey was amazed by how big Americans are, as he was raised around people experiencing starvation.

Upon return to the United States, the family stayed in Kansas for a time, and then followed Edgar’s job as a pipeline engineer for Standard Oil to Canada and Iran, where they adopted a daughter, Mary Jeannette, in 1962. The couple and their son eventually settled in Richmond, Virginia where they are buried.