Subj: Nurses on Bataan(fwd)
Date: 96-05-22 17:42:22 EDT
From: James Vincent Holton

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996
From: John Davis
To: Multiple recipients of list WWII-L WWII-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU
Subject: Nurses on Bataan

I have just been watching "They Were Expendable" again and it got me to thinking. The Donna Reed character is a nurse on Bataan. The movie kind of leads you to believe that she was probably captured. I guess my question is what really happened to any nurses in the Philippines? How many were on Bataan and Corrigedor? How many were captured? Did they have to endure the Bataan death march? How many survived to liberation?

John

---- John Davis jbdavis@nando.net
http://www.webbuild.com/~jbdavis

Date: Thu, 23 May 1996
From: Linda Grant De Pauw, H-MINERVA
Reply-To: H-NET List for Discussion of Women & the Military and Women in War
Subject: COMMENT: Nurses on Bataan

Subj: nurses at Bataan
Date: 96-05-23
From: Theresa Kaminski
To: h-minerva@h-net.msu.edu

Over 60 nurses were captured when Bataan fell to the Japanese. They were not part of the Death March. The Japanese interned them along with other Allied civilians on the campus of Santo Tomas University in Manila where they worked in the internment camp hospital. They all survived the war, along with about a dozen Navy nurses who were also interned at Santo Tomas but later moved to a camp at Los Banos. There is a documentary about the Army nurses called "We All Came Home." Another Hollywood movie about the nurses from the 1940s is "So Proudly We Hail." The experiences of the nurses will be included in my book on American women in the Pacific during WWII.

Theresa Kaminski
Dept. of History
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
tkaminsk@worf.uwsp.edu
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Date: Fri, 24 May 1996
From: Linda Grant De Pauw, H-MINERVA
Reply-To: H-NET List for Discussion of Women & the Military and Women in War H-MINERVA@h-net.msu.edu
Subject: COMMENT: Nurse POWs in the Pacific

Subj: Comment: Nurse POWs in the Pacific
Date: 96-05-24
From: Connie Reeves

The story of the nurses in the Pacific is very impressive. The nurses were all in the Philippines on the day of the Japanese invasion. Two Army nurses were at Camp Hay, about 200 miles north of Manila, in the path of the Japanese heading south. They were both captured on Dec 27, 1941. MacArthur ordered 50 Army nurses (and one Navy nurse) to leave Manila for the Bataan peninsula where they established two emergency hospitals for U.S. and Filipino forces.

On April 8, 1942, the 51 nurses on Bataan were evacuated to Corregidor as the Japanese were within several hundred yards of overrunning the hospitals. Some nurses didn't make the last Navy ship out of Bataan and crossed the 2-3 miles via small watercraft. They joined another 34 nurses already on Corregidor, who had been ordered there from Manila by MacArthur.

In late April, surrender seemed evident on Corregidor and the 85 nurses present were ordered to evacuate the island. Twenty-one nurses were safely evacuated--including the one Navy nurse--to Australia via plane or submarine. Another plane with 10 nurses aboard crashed in Japan. These ten nurses joined the POWs at Santo Tomas. The remaining 54 nurses on Corregidor were captured by the Japanese but were reportedly treated with respect. They were also transported to Santo Tomas.

The two nurses at Camp Hay were eventually sent to Santo Tomas also. On Feb 3, 1945, 66 Army nurses were liberated at Santo Tomas.

Eleven Navy nurses were taken prisoner in Jan 1942 and placed at Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila. They cared for 3,500 civilians there until they voluntarily moved to Los Banos in May 1943 to establish a new, albeit primitive hospital. They remained there until liberated on Feb 23, 1945, after 37 months internment.

Five more Navy nurses were taken prisoner on Guam when the Japanese invaded on Dec 10, 1941. They were sent to Zentsuji, Japan, on Jan 10, 1942, and were released in June 1942 as exchange prisoners.

A total of 82 Army and Navy nurses were POWs in the Pacific theater.

(The numbers discussed are sometimes confusing because one woman was not in the military during the war but joined the Army upon liberation and sometimes is counted, sometimes not, as a POW).

Connie Reeves

Date: Fri, 24 May 1996
From: Linda Grant De Pauw, H-MINERVA
Reply-To: H-NET List for Discussion of Women & the Military and Women in War H-MINERVA@h-net.msu.edu
Subject: COMMENT: Nurses on Bataan

Subj: Nurses on Bataan
Date: 96-05-24
From: Elizabeth Ann Penn-Grove

In response to John Davis' message regarding women who were taken prisoner on Bataan and Corregidor during WWII, I recently wrote an extensive research paper on Women who served in the military during WWII. This subject was part of the research. Here is an excerpt ... I hope this answers the question.

Liz Penn-Grove
egrove@sun1.iusb.edu
Indiana University South Bend

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, many regular Navy nurses were already stationed there and on various Pacific Islands. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese took five Navy nurses prisoner in Guam and, not knowing what to do with the, sent them to the Zentusji Military Prison in Japan. The Japanese very promptly arranged an exchange of prisoners with the US. However, while these prisoners were being repatriated to the States, the Japanes took eleven more nurses prisoner. These nurses were sent to Los Banos POW camp in Manila. Shortly thereafter, sixty-six women of the Army Nurse Corps were captured by the Japanese on the Island of Corrigedor. They were sent to Los Banos to join the Navy nurses. They continued their work by tending to the injured and the ill and were a Godsend to their fellow prisoners. As the war went on, the nurses were "reduced to eating anything they could find -- dogs, frogs, even rats" (Doris Weatherford, American Women and WWII.)

>From my research, I did not find any evidence that any of the POWs died during captivity.

Freed by American forces on February 3, 1945, these women were decorated for bravery at a White House summer reception. Ironically, just prior to their release, President Roosevelt asked for legislation to draft nurses. The Nurses' Selective Service Bill was introduced on March 7, 1945 and passed the House and Senate committees. The bill was never enacted because the war's termination in Europe in May eliminated the shortage of nurses.

See: Doris Weatherford. American Women and World War II. 1990. Facts on File. NY,NY. and the Film So Proudly We Hail, a film about the ANC from Bataan to Corregidor. Produced by Mark Sandrich and written by Allan Scott. 1943. Also, Julia O. Flikke. Nurses in Action. 1943. Lippencott. NY, NY

Hope this helps!! Liz

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