We band of angels : the untold story of American nurses trapped on Bataan by the Japanese / Elizabeth M. Norman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Norman, Elizabeth M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Medical care--United States.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, Japanese.

Prisoners of war--Philippines--History--20th century.

Prisoners of war.

Nurses.

History.

Philippines.

Nurses--United States--History--20th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

xv, 327 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, [1999]

Summary:

We Band of Angels is the story of women searching for adventure, caught up in the drama and danger of war.

On the same day the Japanese Imperial Navy launched its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, it also struck American bases in the Far East, chief among them the Philippines. That raid led to the first major land battle for America in World War II and, in the end, to the largest defeat and surrender of American forces. Caught up in all of this were ninety-nine Army and Navy nurses--the first unit of American women ever sent into the middle of a battle.

The "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor"--as the newspapers called them--became the only group of American women captured and imprisoned by an enemy. And the story of their trials on a bloody battlefield, their desperate flight to avoid capture and their ultimate surrender, imprisonment, liberation and homecoming is a story of endurance, professionalism and raw pluck.

Along the way, they helped build and staff hospitals in the middle of a malaria-infested jungle on the peninsula of Bataan. Then, short of supplies and medicine, they worked around the clock in the operating rooms and open-air wards, dealing with gaping wounds and gangrenous limbs, ministering to the wounded, the sick, the dying.

A few fell in love, only to lose their men to the enemy. Finally, on the tiny island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, the Japanese took them prisoner. For three long years in an internment camp--years marked by loneliness and starvation--they kept to their mission and stuck together. In the end, it was this loyalty, this sense of purpose, womanhood and honor, that both challenged and saved them.

Through interviews with survivors and through unpublished letters, diaries and journals, Elizabeth M. Norman vividly re-creates that time, telling the story in richly drawn portraits and in a dramatic narrative delivered in the voices of the women who were there.

Contents:

1. Waking Up to War 3

2. Manila Cannot Hold 16

3. Jungle Hospital #1 30

4. The Sick, the Wounded, the Work of War 39

5. Waiting for the Help That Never Came 50

6. "There Must Be No Thought of Surrender" 67

7. Bataan Falls: The Wounded Are Left in Their Beds 83

8. Corregidor

the Last Stand 96

9. A Handful Go Home 112

10. In Enemy Hands 130

11. Santo Tomas 142

12. STIC, the First Year, 1942 158

13. Los Banos, 1943 169

14. Eating Weeds Fried in Cold Cream, 1944 183

15. And the Gates Came Crashing Down 201

16. "Home. We're Really Home." 219

17. Aftermath 233

18. Across the Years 243

Appendix II The Nurses and Their Hometowns 279.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [283]-292) and index.

ISBN:

0375502459

OCLC:

39930499