Roger Mansell collection, 1919-2010

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Summary

Creators:
Mansell, Roger
Abstract:
The collection consists of materials collected by Roger Mansell during the course of his research for his publication Captured: The Forgotten Men of Guam, as well as his role as director of the Center for Research of Allied POWs under the Japanese and its corresponding online database, http://www.mansell.com. Included in these materials are memoirs, diaries, photocopies of government documents, rosters, interview transcripts, correspondence, maps, sketches, notes, printed matter, photographs, electronic records, videorecordings, memorabilia, and sound recordings detailing the experience of prisoners of war held in Japan, the Philippines, Guam, Taiwan, Singapore, and Netherlands East Indies during World War II.
Extent:
36 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 3 sound discs, 6 optical disks, 2 VHS videocassettes (18.7 Linear Feet)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Roger Mansell collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of materials collected by Roger Mansell during the course of his research for his publication Captured: The Forgotten Men of Guam, as well as his role as director of the Center for Research of Allied POWs Under the Japanese and its corresponding online database, www.mansell.com. Included in these materials are memoirs, diaries, photocopies of government documents, rosters, interview transcripts, correspondence, maps, sketches, notes, printed matter, photographs, electronic records, videorecordings, memorabilia, and sound recordings detailing the experience of POWs based in Japan, the Philippines, Guam, Taiwan, Singapore, and Netherlands East Indies during World War II.

The materials reflect years of research devoted to documenting the fates of prisoners-of-war (POWs) in the Pacific theater of World War II. For this reason, the countless photocopies of government documents obtained from the National Archives and former POWs were cross-referenced by Mansell and his team with information gathered from correspondence and firsthand interviews, resulting in a detailed account of enlisted men, nurses, and civilians interned in the Pacific during World War II. Some files in the register include two date ranges, accounting both for the original documents (or photocopies) and Mansell's research notes and email correspondence.

The collection is arranged into series based on subject and physical format, as defined by Mansell. Research on individual POWs appears in the Prisoner-of-War File. The files are arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the former POW being researched by Mansell and not by the name of the actual person of contact, although in many cases these names are the same. Also included in this series are Mansell's records from interviews with POWs and printed materials collected from organizations of former POWs.

Research materials on Prisoner-of-War Camps in Japan and Prisoner-of-War Camps Outside Japan make up the majority of the collection. Documents in these series are similar to those in other parts of the collection, but focus more on the detailed experiences of POWs within individual camps. Maps and sketches provide understanding of the layout of each camp, while personal narratives of POWs and reports by government offices, including the United States Office of War Crimes, fill in details about treatment by Japanese guards, diet, living arrangements, and disease. Among these materials are Mansell's email correspondence and notes, highlighting corrections, clarifications, and areas of interest.

Documentation from civilians interned at camps in Japan and the Philippines appear in the Civilian Prisoner-of-War Camps series. Included among these research materials is an apron from Santo Tomás Internment Camp, with the embroidered signatures of over 100 internees, and a hand colored map of Manila.

The Combat Units' Rosters and Reports series contains materials from U.S. and Australian combat units stationed in the Pacific, particularly in the Philippines, during World War II. It consists mainly of photocopies of records from the National Archives, as well as original spreadsheets created by Mansell and colleagues during the course of their research. The series also includes original writings by POWs, including memoirs and personal narratives.

The collection includes a large number of electronic media in the form of compact discs, floppy disks, and DVDs containing digitized photographs, films, interview notes, rosters, and scans of original documents. These materials are interfiled with corresponding paper records. Some folders in the collection contain printed copies of these records in their entirety, while others do not. In addition, some of these records are included in the Center for Research of Allied POWs Under the Japanese POW camp database, available online at http://www.mansell.com.

The researcher should be aware that Roger Mansell also donated original materials he collected from Geoffrey Monument and George C. Mora, which are now cataloged separately in their own collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

The incremental materials include correspondence, photocopies of letters and newspaper clippings, and VHS videocassettes.

Biographical / historical:
Date Event
1935 October 8
Born, Brooklyn, New York
1953-1959
Attended Brown University
1959-1962
Served in U.S. Army, stationed in Korea and Fort Bliss, Texas
1960s-1970s
Founder, Mansell Advertising, Mansell Graphics, and Mansell Publishing
1990s
Began researching prisoners-of-war of the Japanese in World War II
Founder, the Center for Research Allied POWs Under the Japanese, Los Altos, California
Late 1990s
Publisher, Tameme, nonprofit bilingual literary journal
2006
Spoke at International Research FEPOW History Conference in Alrewas, United Kingdom
2008
Fellow at University of Shenyang Research Center on World War II POWs
2010 October 25
Died, Palo Alto, California
2012
Author, Captured: The Forgotten Men of Guam, edited by Linda Goetz Holmes, published posthumously
Acquisition information:
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2001.
Arrangement:

The collection is organized into the following series based on original order: Prisoner-of-War File, Prisoner-of-War Camps in Japan File, Prisoner-of-War Camps Outside Japan File, Civilian Prisoner-of-War Camps File, Combat Units' Rosters and Reports, General Research File, Videorecordings, and Sound Recordings.

Physical location:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Roger Mansell collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US
Contact:
(650) 723-3563
hooverarchives@stanford.edu
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