tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86061974491812067792024-03-04T20:13:16.835-08:00Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific TheaterKathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-15520484306653926882019-02-23T15:10:00.002-08:002024-02-23T05:37:49.511-08:00Dickey Chapelle hears the news of the flag raising on Iwo Jima <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Dickey Chapelle taking a selfie.</div>
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"I was certain of one conclusion," she wrote: "there was in all the world at this moment only one story: the men fighting and dying on Iwo Jima."<br />
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Dickey wanted to get closer to that story. She and the nurses traveled from Hawaii to Guam, where the teletype printer in the correspondent's room was directly linked to a ship just off Iwo Jima. Dickey watched as one communication clicked in: INCOMPLETE CASUALTY REPORTS INDICATE THAT FOR ONE OUT OF TEN AMERICANS WHO CHARGED ASHORE HERE THERE WAS NO SUNRISE. THEY DID NOT SURVIVE.<br />
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"Poetic, isn't he, this morning?" muttered one correspondent. Those numbers, he said, would certainly be censored; most Americans would never hear about this enormous loss of life.<br />
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Another report clicked in: AN UNCONFIRMED RUMOR IS SWEEPING THE SHIP THAT THE FLAG HAS BEEN SIGHTED ON THE TOP OF THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE SAVAGELY CONTESTED SOIL...<br />
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A discouraged correspondent in the room said it must be a bad joke.<br />
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The teletype machine began again: IT HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED THAT THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES NOW FLIES FROM MOUNT SURIBACHI HIGHEST POINT OF THIS VOLCANIC ISLAND.<br />
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The depressed atmosphere in the press room was instantly transformed...It was the first time during this war that the United States had raised an American flag on Japanese soil. "Now that I was sure it was all right for a correspondent to show emotion," Dickey wrote, "I wiped my eyes with my knuckles."<br />
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From "Dickey Chapelle: As Far Forward as You'll Let Me" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161373168X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i><br />
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Photo of the first flag raising.</div>
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More info <a href="https://boysofwwii.blogspot.com/2011/04/two-flags-of-iwo-jima-i-met-him-in.html">here. </a></div>
<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-52867724688803063952017-03-15T10:10:00.004-07:002024-02-23T08:37:02.447-08:00Dickey Chapelle on Iwo Jima<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Dickey Chapelle in a 1942 selfie</div>
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Dickey could barely control her excitement when the lieutenant agreed to take her to "the front." She would soon be taking photos of the most important, most violent battle of the Pacific War.</div>
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So she was puzzled when, 40 minutes later, he stopped the truck in a desolate, quiet area of volcanic ash ridges. This was the front? She climbed to the top of the empty ridge, took some photos, and left.</div>
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Marines climbing a ridge on Iwo Jima</div>
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Photo NOT taken by Dickey Chapelle</div>
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Accredited to Louis R. Lowry, USMC</div>
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Courtesy of Betty Michels McMahon</div>
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Back on Guam that evening, Dickey discussed her day with Barbara Finch, a more experienced war correspondent. Barbara was surprised to learn the front had been so quiet.</div>
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"Tell me every sound you heard," she said.</div>
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"A tank fired once," Dickey replied. "A man shouted...and there were wasps and I could hear the shutter of my camera click."</div>
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"There were what?" Barbara asked?</div>
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"Wasps, I guess. Insect noises anyhow."</div>
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Barbara smiled. "I don't think we'll file that the entire front was wholly inactive today, after all. And--I guess somebody will have to tell you. There is no insect life on Iwo Jima. It's a dead volcano."</div>
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"You mean, those weren't--"</div>
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"They were not wasps."</div>
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Dickey had come under direct Japanese sniper fire.</div>
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From "Dickey Chapelle: "As Far Forward as You'll Let Me" from <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489597523&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater.</a></em> </div>
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<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-87730827145993892502017-03-03T10:23:00.000-08:002017-03-03T10:25:21.126-08:00"I've told you the truth." The endurance of Singaporean Elizabeth Choy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Elizabeth Choy</div>
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Japanese guards ushered Elizabeth into a tiny cell, measuring 10 by 12 feet, so crowded with prisoners--most of them Chinese--there was no room to sit down. Everyone was kneeling or squatting. It was absolutely silent. No one was allowed to speak. Bugs crawled across the filthy floor.</div>
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Almost every day, Elizabeth was taken out of the cell, interrogated, beaten, and brutally tortured. The Kempeitai wanted her to admit she was anti-Japanese and pro-British. She always denied it. "I'm just wanting to help those in need, never mind what race," she would say. "If you should be in the same position, you are my friend, I would help you also." </div>
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Between beatings the Kempeitai questioned Elizabeth about other things...She denied all knowledge of these accusations. But each day, she was threatened with death if she didn't confess.</div>
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"I've told you the truth," she would reply. "I cannot tell you any more."</div>
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"Then we are going to execute you."</div>
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"All right," she would say. "If I have to die for telling the truth, I will die."</div>
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From "Elizabeth Choy: "Justice Will Prevail" from <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488564559&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater</a></em> </div>
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<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-34188416290187831672017-01-09T11:46:00.002-08:002017-01-09T11:54:26.228-08:00Diary entry relating a mysterious & remarkable Pacific Theater rescue<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -13.5pt; text-align: right;">
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<o:p><span style="font-size: medium;">April 17, 1943,</span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">Found 17 Army & </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">Phil Nurses in a Jap </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">Suppli depot. Overr</span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">an the island and k</span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">ill all Jap guards. </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">Took all Nurses back on </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">our P.T. Sea Gypsy all </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">women were in very </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">bad shape none weighed </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">over 80 lbs. all were </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">given up for gone </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">but they all lived. </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">We lost 3 men on t</span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">his deal two of </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">My very good friends </span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">Don & Ned Ypeppske. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium; text-align: right;">Bud 4/17/43 </span><br />
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Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-78389454947458339182016-12-03T14:32:00.000-08:002016-12-03T14:32:17.415-08:00Elizabeth MacDonald, Pearl Harbor reporter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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REPORTER ELIZABETH MacDonald, on assignment in Honolulu, was in bed on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, listening to a radio broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Suddenly an announcer cut in. “The islands are under attack,” he said. “This is the real McCoy.” Elizabeth didn’t think it was the real anything; she was sure it was just another army maneuver. But a few minutes later, she received a call from her photographer at Scripps Howard News Service. He wasn’t sure which country was doing the bombing, Germany or Japan, but he did know that the US naval base at Pearl Harbor was under attack.<br />
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During the first half of their drive to Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth and the photographer didn’t notice anything unusual; it was a typically quiet Sunday morning. But when they got closer, Elizabeth saw something shocking. Reporting later, she described it as “a formation of black planes diving straight into the ocean off Pearl Harbor. The blue sky was punctured with anti-aircraft smoke puffs.” It was the second wave of Japanese bombers. Looking over her shoulder, Elizabeth suddenly saw “a rooftop fly into the air.”<br />
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She wrote that she now understood “that numb terror that all of London has known for months. It is the terror of not being able to do anything but fall on your stomach and hope the bomb won’t land on you.”<br />
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The Japanese had targeted the battleships in Pearl Harbor and the nearby airfields, not civilians. But because the Japanese destroyed most of the US planes before they could get airborne and do battle, frantic US military personnel on the ground tried to shoot the Japanese down with anti-aircraft guns. Some of their misfired ammunition destroyed buildings, killed 68 civilians, and wounded 35.<br />
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Elizabeth was not allowed near Pearl Harbor—the US military did not want female journalists on the front lines of military action—so she focused instead on the civilian casualties in the area and the desperate attempts to save them.<br />
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“The blood-soaked drivers returned with stories of streets ripped up, houses burned, twisted shrapnel and charred bodies of children,” she wrote. In the morgue, Elizabeth saw bodies “laid on slabs in the grotesque positions in which they had died. Fear contorted their faces.”<br />
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As Elizabeth watched firefighters bring victims inside—some of them with the acronym DOA (dead on arrival) marked on their foreheads—she wrote that life had suddenly become “blood and the fear of death—and death itself. . . . In the emergency room . . . doctors calmly continued to treat the victims of this new war. Interns were taping up windows to prevent them from crashing into the emergency area as bombs fell and the dead and wounded continued to arrive.”<br />
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When Elizabeth left the emergency room and returned to Honolulu, she saw that many familiar shops had burned down. After dusk, she described “the all-night horror of attack in the dark. Sirens shrieking, sharp, crackling police reports and the tension of a city wrapped in fear.”<br />
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Excerpts from "Elizabeth MacDonald: Pearl Harbor Reporter and OSS Agent" from <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2eurv4Y" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater</a></i><br />
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<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-71919063582739021302016-10-07T11:32:00.002-07:002016-10-07T11:33:50.263-07:00The Bataan-Corregidor nurses on their way home<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUml_lqjF_q06sI8lu13dA0Sb6mK2whN45UckRHXdO8fkKha2WRqHZc_hgmiMIZLynDrez3INmOuf-qDl0dm9MTeNei-N7TBHACbWvnDeWJQgv-n6DZ-7wvKYrFkyAy9w6U8TFiDW0fon/s1600/US+nurses%252C+recently+liberated+from+Santo+Tomas%252C+Feb+12%252C+1945.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUml_lqjF_q06sI8lu13dA0Sb6mK2whN45UckRHXdO8fkKha2WRqHZc_hgmiMIZLynDrez3INmOuf-qDl0dm9MTeNei-N7TBHACbWvnDeWJQgv-n6DZ-7wvKYrFkyAy9w6U8TFiDW0fon/s320/US+nurses%252C+recently+liberated+from+Santo+Tomas%252C+Feb+12%252C+1945.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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US nurses, February 12, 1945, recently released from Santo Tomas internment camp</div>
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Photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/johntewell/" target="_blank">John Tewell</a></div>
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<br />
On July 2, 1942, the nurses were imprisoned in the Santo Tomas internment camp in Manila, where they tried, as much as possible, to help the other prisoners as they all struggled to survive on starvation rations.<br />
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Finally, on the evening of February 3, 1945, US troops liberated Santo Tomas. They came too late for many of the prisoners, who had by then died of ailments related to undernourishment. All of the Bataan-Corregidor nurses survived.<br />
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On Sunday, February 11, 1945, American lieutenant colonel Nola Forrest told the gaunt, exhausted, but elated nurses to be ready for departure on the following morning. She also mentioned that US intelligence officials, who realized these women had never been trained for combat nursing, were eager to debrief them. “You’re the first [US military] women to have served under actual combat conditions,” she said. “Whatever tips you have on how you survived could be of great help to others.”<br />
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All the nurses would be promoted to a higher military rank, Forrest said, and would receive the Presidential Citation and a Bronze Star.<br />
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Excerpt from "Denny Williams: Nurse under Fire" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=zg_bsnr_10367685011_13" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater </a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-49822050975233163192016-10-07T08:45:00.000-07:002016-11-04T10:07:35.490-07:00The Vocal Orchestra of the Palembang Internment Camp <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt4LoI2q9QTRYj0JlGdzl6zXe_5G8q0vZ9ayzoADQH0dx9q3xeVMBOBWt2ghz6HBcPVg3cekwNGUYwPVtqmxX9vLLlIeoF-AOZ-FPi3-ffIjsgXs6cUuDldYytW_jZsjc7vQQ_5jUs1hep/s1600/IMG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt4LoI2q9QTRYj0JlGdzl6zXe_5G8q0vZ9ayzoADQH0dx9q3xeVMBOBWt2ghz6HBcPVg3cekwNGUYwPVtqmxX9vLLlIeoF-AOZ-FPi3-ffIjsgXs6cUuDldYytW_jZsjc7vQQ_5jUs1hep/s320/IMG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Colijn sisters, Dutch East Indies, 1939.</div>
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Left to right: Antoinette, Helen, Alette. </div>
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(Both Antoinette and Alette sang in the vocal orchestra).</div>
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Photo credit: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Song-Survival-Interned-Helen-Colijn/dp/1883991145/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478278599&sr=1-1&keywords=song+of+survival" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Song of Survival</a> by Helen Colijn.</div>
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Then Helen saw the word ORCHESTRA scratched in large letters in the dirt. Orchestra? She knew there were no real instruments in camp. Had she generated excitement for a performance played on crude homemade instruments?<br />
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They would all soon find out. A few minutes later, 30 women, each holding a piece of paper in one hand and a stool in the other, filed out of the main kitchen to face the audience. Children sat in front, while many of the adults, including Helen, stood.<br />
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Then Margaret Dryburgh spoke. “This evening,” she said, “we are asking you to listen to something quite new, we are sure: a choir of women’s voices trying to reproduce some of the well-known music usually given by an orchestra or a pianist.” The singers, she said, would sit on their stools just like orchestra performers, in order to conserve their energy.<br />
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Then she took her place among the singers. Norah Chambers stood in front of the performers. She raised her hands. The choir began to sing, in four-part harmony, Dvorak’s “Largo” from the New World Symphony.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLGi4LNlBXMFxhB4KA1ny3dm3IBg4Snb4XMgoGfZS_WF-j3NhiM3NWOjnbonqHryacGLIb2_3Z9Pa7j2y0_xS0tt2LlmN7x7GjuG-l6X52U4hrg6Pm4gZlZLCVuREIw8MBrWNg1RnU6VEA/s1600/largo-by-chambers1+used+by+the+vocal+orchestra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLGi4LNlBXMFxhB4KA1ny3dm3IBg4Snb4XMgoGfZS_WF-j3NhiM3NWOjnbonqHryacGLIb2_3Z9Pa7j2y0_xS0tt2LlmN7x7GjuG-l6X52U4hrg6Pm4gZlZLCVuREIw8MBrWNg1RnU6VEA/s320/largo-by-chambers1+used+by+the+vocal+orchestra.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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(Sheet music copied by Norah Chambers for the vocal orchestra.)</div>
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“The music soared in its first rich and full crescendo,” Helen wrote later. “I felt a shiver go down my back. I thought I had never heard anything so beautiful before. The music didn’t sound precisely like an orchestra either, although it was close. . . . The music sounded ethereal, totally unreal in our sordid surroundings.”<br />
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“Huu, huu.” Helen heard a new sound, “the ugly raw voice of an angry guard,” coming up behind her. Surely Norah could hear it too. But she didn’t stop directing the music.<br />
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“Huu, huu.” The angry guard, his bayonet fixed on his rifle, passed through the standing audience. Soon Helen could only see the tip of his bayonet.<br />
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The music continued. The angry voice did not. Helen craned her neck: she could no longer see the bayonet. Had the guard put down his weapon? Was he also mesmerized by the beautiful music? Apparently so. “As the Largo moved toward a great, glorious crescendo,” Helen would write later, “the guard remained as still as we for the rest of the concert."<br />
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Excerpt from "Helen Colijn: Rising Above" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=zg_bsnr_10367685011_13" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i><br />
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Click <a href="http://bit.ly/2dKA9Lh" target="_blank">here </a>for more about the vocal orchestra.Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-81806161137339569102016-10-04T15:31:00.001-07:002020-03-07T14:38:32.873-08:00Jane Kendeigh lands on Iwo Jima<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibaL0iJZlAfk-2ZtTjXb2PjHoqLY6R9NJfm78XaTWkSh-9l_DpgJVwnAvLf77NXO1DCePE5swO1JA7klBuyRKtrR5UOrJ0u22e2B9i6lgoA_JnRY0i9QKXfIZiWaIBStxZuaGgFTUtY7T4/s1600/Jane+Kendeigh+and+Wyckoff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibaL0iJZlAfk-2ZtTjXb2PjHoqLY6R9NJfm78XaTWkSh-9l_DpgJVwnAvLf77NXO1DCePE5swO1JA7klBuyRKtrR5UOrJ0u22e2B9i6lgoA_JnRY0i9QKXfIZiWaIBStxZuaGgFTUtY7T4/s320/Jane+Kendeigh+and+Wyckoff.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Jane Kendeigh attempts to comfort wounded marine William Wyckoff. </div>
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Iwo Jima, March 6, 1945.</div>
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Credit: US Navy Bureau of Medicine & Surgery Library & Archives</div>
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<br />
"Although the plane was high enough to be clear of the US bombardment, it was certainly visible to the Japanese snipers below. Jane knew that Japanese anti-aircraft guns on the island had already shot down US carrier planes. One of those guns might still be in action. But an anti-aircraft gun wouldn’t be necessary to take them down; a single bullet hitting the fuel tank would cause the plane to explode. So Jane and the others were relieved when the plane finally swished past the highest point on the island—Mount Suribachi—and settled in for a landing.<br />
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Jane’s destination was beside the airstrip: a small sandbagged hospital tent. The roar of guns and artillery was so loud, Jane and Silas could barely hear one another speaking as they hurried inside. There they found doctors and male medics working frantically to save lives in rough conditions. The stretcher-bearers carried wounded men out of the tent and lined them up near the waiting plane. Jane spoke comfortingly to each man, if he was conscious, and checked him as he went aboard.<br />
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Meanwhile, Lieutenant DeWitt asked the medics in the tent about the previous plane, the one he’d missed. They told him it was due in very soon; the pilot had lost his way.<br />
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This delay meant that Jane Kendeigh had suddenly become front-page news: the first navy flight nurse to land on Iwo Jima, the first navy flight nurse to step onto a World War II Pacific battlefield. Lieutenant DeWitt’s photograph of her speaking to William was transmitted to the United States, where it appeared in nearly every newspaper in the nation."<br />
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Excerpt from "Jane Kendeigh: Navy Flight Nurse" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_tnr_p_1_10367694011_1_twi_har_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475620585&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater.</a></i><br />
<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-33650515339867718242016-08-29T08:39:00.001-07:002016-11-04T09:57:11.082-07:00Helen Colijn: Digging Graves in the Internment Camp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwl1We9ig4fkj1p_xOubBhKX8InrEaMZ9da9Eex-cayWfxUkLVuBCNPbofgXTKLMkJpnyuVLD9KSiBAAmSSRdUp0jFPmE10IQcbx9Kg0b0I4yKEqSMsioq8EHZA2nvDKWmxO6patxwn1O/s1600/IMG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwl1We9ig4fkj1p_xOubBhKX8InrEaMZ9da9Eex-cayWfxUkLVuBCNPbofgXTKLMkJpnyuVLD9KSiBAAmSSRdUp0jFPmE10IQcbx9Kg0b0I4yKEqSMsioq8EHZA2nvDKWmxO6patxwn1O/s320/IMG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Helen (center) and her sisters.</div>
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The Dutch East Indies, 1939.</div>
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Credit: <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Song-Survival-Interned-Helen-Colijn/dp/1883991145/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478278599&sr=1-1&keywords=song+of+survival" target="_blank">Song of Survival</a></i></div>
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<br />
THE JAPANESE GUARD held up two fingers. Only two graves. A few days earlier it had been eight.<br />
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Helen Colijn, a Dutch teenager, along with three other prisoners, had volunteered for grave duty. Sometimes digging graves didn’t seem as depressing as living in the filthy internment camp with all of the starving, sick, and dying women.<br />
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Helen’s view of death had changed drastically during her imprisonment. It was no longer a shock, and barely a sorrow. It occurred nearly every day. Few of the surviving prisoners still had the energy to grieve.<br />
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But Helen could do something to help: she could dig. The guards wouldn’t do it, so it was up to the prisoners. She wished the guards would at least give them better digging tools...<br />
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From "Helen Colijn: Rising Above" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater</a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-61936999751406549232016-08-22T08:14:00.000-07:002016-08-29T08:40:22.996-07:00Helen Colijn: The War is Over"On August 24, 1945, the prisoners who were not bedridden were summoned to a spot outside the guardhouse. The camp commander told them the war was over. He didn’t tell them who had won.<br />
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The following day, the women began to receive items they’d previously been told were unavailable: food, medicine, blankets, bandages, mosquito nets, towels. Many weak prisoners continued to die, and all of them had to carry on in the squalor of the camp. But they were no longer starving. And they knew help was on the way.<br />
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On September 7, 1945, Dutch paratroopers entered the camp. They said 'they had never seen such awful conditions' [in the camps they’d been liberating] and were amazed that anyone could live like this.'"<br />
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From "Helen Colijn: Rising Above" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=zg_bsnr_10367685011_6" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater</a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-54583718005484869542016-08-18T04:54:00.000-07:002016-12-04T17:28:59.160-08:00Maria Rosa Henson: "Don't be ashamed.""Then one morning in 1992, she heard a woman on the radio discussing the topic of so-called comfort women who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese government during the war.<br />
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Maria Rosa began to shake uncontrollably. She heard the woman on the radio discuss something called the Task Force on Filipino Comfort Women. 'Don’t be ashamed,' the woman said. 'Being a sex slave is not your fault. It is the responsibility of the Japanese Imperial Army. Stand up and fight for your rights.'<br />
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'My heart was beating very fast,' Maria wrote later of that moment. 'I asked myself whether I should expose my ordeal. What if my children and relatives found me dirty and repulsive?'<br />
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She didn’t call in, but she listened to that radio station every day. A few weeks later, she heard a similar announcement. She began to weep. At that moment, her daughter Rosario walked in. Maria Rosa finally told her the truth.<br />
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Rosario helped her get in touch with the task force. Maria Rosa was interviewed on tape, Rosario at her side. It was extremely difficult, but also a relief. 'I felt like a heavy weight had been removed from my shoulders,' she wrote later, 'as if thorns had been pulled out of my grieving heart. I felt I had recovered my long-lost strength and self-esteem.'<br />
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Maria Rosa was the first Filipina comfort woman to break her silence..."<br />
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<br />
From "Maria Rosa Henson: Rape Survivor" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1471520809&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater</a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-9856326890354663892016-08-18T04:48:00.002-07:002016-08-29T08:41:28.822-07:00Maria Rosa Henson: Filipina "Comfort Woman""At gunpoint, the sentry led Maria Rosa to the second floor of a Japanese garrison. There she saw six other women. She was led a small room with a bamboo bed and no door, only a curtain.<br />
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On the following day, one that she would later describe as “hell,” Maria Rosa discovered why she and the other women had been brought to the garrison. A Japanese soldier entered her room. He pointed a bayonet at her chest. She was terrified; she thought he was going to kill her. Instead, he slashed her dress open. Then he raped her.<br />
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Twelve more soldiers followed..."<br />
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From "Maria Rosa Henson: Rape Survivor" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1471520809&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater</a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-54012007546932146072016-08-06T11:41:00.004-07:002016-08-29T08:43:22.000-07:00Margaret Utinsky learns of Jack's death "Margaret wondered if Jack was receiving any of these supplies. She hadn’t heard anything from or about him yet. But she was willing to do anything just in case her actions might be helping him. “Risks did not seem too dangerous,” she wrote later, “when I thought of him inside those fences.”<br />
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In December, Margaret heard that the surviving men were being moved to a new prison complex, consisting of three camps, located near Cabanatuan City. By way of two Filipino contacts in the Miss U Network, Margaret started communicating with an American officer in the prison named Colonel Mack. She sent him a note, asking if he knew anything about the fate of a Jack Utinsky. A note came back:<br />
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<i>Dear Miss U:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>You have many friends in this place. . . . I am deeply sorry that I have to tell you what I found out. Your husband died here on August 6, 1942. He is buried here in the prison graveyard. . . .</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>You will be told that he died of tuberculosis. That is not true. The men say that he actually died of starvation. A little more food and medicine, which they would not give him here, might have saved him.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>This is terrible news for you, who have, with your unselfish work, been able to save so many others. All of us will always owe you a debt that we can never pay for what you have done.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I do want to say to you that this place is far more dangerous for your work than Camp O’Donnell was. Do not take risks that you took there. If you never do another thing you already have done more than any living person to help our men. My sympathy goes out to you in your grief. God bless you in all you do.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Sincerely yours, Edward Mack,</i><br />
<i>Lt. Colonel, U.S. Army</i><br />
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Jack had starved to death. Margaret blamed herself. “If he could have received just a little of the food I had given to others,” she wrote later, “he might be alive. If I had found him four months sooner, he might be alive..."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZwFg6DJrtv8SGkCmugcrD_hBQoJ8n9ZV5JrL8nRwyMxhIJYeexF1E5gaVtHAScXqWZoJg-VZYZfQHLPkwSg6xtttY3oHFpkCcU2CyUVpC_q4HrOlIqcmo-XcmR-ivU_Gkl7XUC1l9iAtl/s1600/Camp+O%2527Donnell+burial+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZwFg6DJrtv8SGkCmugcrD_hBQoJ8n9ZV5JrL8nRwyMxhIJYeexF1E5gaVtHAScXqWZoJg-VZYZfQHLPkwSg6xtttY3oHFpkCcU2CyUVpC_q4HrOlIqcmo-XcmR-ivU_Gkl7XUC1l9iAtl/s320/Camp+O%2527Donnell+burial+detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Camp O'Donnell burial detail</div>
<br />
Excerpt from "Margaret Utinsky: The Miss U Network" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater-ebook/dp/B01HU8DVUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470508684&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater#nav-subnav" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater: 15 Stories of Resistance, Rescue, Sabotage, and Survival. </a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-64104190114014857502016-07-30T06:33:00.002-07:002016-07-30T06:33:26.072-07:00Minnie Vautrin: American Hero at the Nanking Massacre"Minnie spent most of her time running from one end of the campus to another, trying to stay one step ahead of the raping, looting soldiers. Her commanding presence was enough to make some of them quit, but others, she wrote, would look at her “with a dagger in their eyes and some times a dagger in their hands.” One Japanese soldier became so angry with Minnie when she tried to prevent a looting, he pointed a gun at her. Another slapped her.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the refugees continued to flood into Ginling, “with horror written on their faces,” wrote Minnie, and relating “stories of tragedies such as I have never heard before.”<br />
<br />
Minnie was desperate. She decided to visit the Japanese embassy in Nanking to see if anyone there would help her.<br />
<br />
A sympathetic embassy clerk wrote two official letters ordering the soldiers to leave the women of Ginling alone. He also gave Minnie some official “proclamations” to post on the outside of Ginling’s walls, declaring the campus off-limits to Japanese soldiers.<br />
<br />
He even arranged for Minnie to be driven home in the embassy car. The driver told Minnie, “the only thing that had saved the Chinese people from utter destruction” were the “handful of foreigners” running Nanking’s safety zone. Minnie was glad to be making a difference, of course, but the driver’s words filled her with a certain despair: “What would it be like,” she wrote, “if there were no check on this terrible devastation and cruelty?”<br />
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On the following day, she tested the power of the letters..."<br />
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<br />
From "Minnie Vautrin: American Hero at the Nanking Massacre" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater-ebook/dp/B01HU8DVUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469885536&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-63804417069575348912016-07-26T05:25:00.001-07:002016-07-26T07:02:07.771-07:00Claire Phillips learns of Phil's death at Cabanatuan<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbsJlQQit4rypjP9wq7KnGjvlHJ-B8fOROH3KBPTdYpBCaRUu7Bby55MY2y0Xf9g2vUrES23oYgODxRznQAQw_KfNQo2kTl7PIxwda2s5rCXRBL4r5mQYdtImxaWQlAQVO8NHCWwwhh-c/s1600/Claire_Phillips%252C_World_War_II_spy%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbsJlQQit4rypjP9wq7KnGjvlHJ-B8fOROH3KBPTdYpBCaRUu7Bby55MY2y0Xf9g2vUrES23oYgODxRznQAQw_KfNQo2kTl7PIxwda2s5rCXRBL4r5mQYdtImxaWQlAQVO8NHCWwwhh-c/s1600/Claire_Phillips%252C_World_War_II_spy%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></div>
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Claire Phillips</div>
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On October 17, 1942, Claire <a href="http://womenheroesofwwiipacific.blogspot.com/2016/07/claire-phillips-and-tsubaki-clubs.html" target="_blank">opened a nightclub </a>located near Manila’s busy harbor. She named it the Tsubaki Club after a rare Japanese flower. Her opening night was a huge success, and she looked forward to earning more Japanese money to fund resistance efforts. But her mind was always on Phil.<br />
<br />
The following day, Claire felt the time was right to get an update on him. She called on Father Theodore Buttenbruch, a fellow resister and German priest who the Japanese were allowing to visit Cabanatuan under careful supervision. She asked Father Buttenbruch if he would carry a message to Phil.<br />
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Two weeks later, the priest called Claire to his office. He had lists of POWs who had died at Cabanatuan. Phil had died, he said, on July 26, 1942.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2uP4P4G-glBQ9hqzlx5wwzk1bmQKA4gB6Wr9RwWsEqOlRnaPMo2gyD1-d1RG7pPQGTSKFP6248THCZQQI57g7MjoQQgeE7eq3VH_8F6HFrw8Xdx0HFKeffnA7FpCHGgv52wNH3htr3X7H/s1600/Cabanatuan+--+sketch+from+former+POW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2uP4P4G-glBQ9hqzlx5wwzk1bmQKA4gB6Wr9RwWsEqOlRnaPMo2gyD1-d1RG7pPQGTSKFP6248THCZQQI57g7MjoQQgeE7eq3VH_8F6HFrw8Xdx0HFKeffnA7FpCHGgv52wNH3htr3X7H/s320/Cabanatuan+--+sketch+from+former+POW.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Sketch made by a survivor of Cabanatuan</div>
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Library of Congress</div>
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A few days later, she received a sympathy note from Chaplain Frank Tiffany, who lived at Cabanatuan. Although Phil’s death certificate stated that he had died of malaria, Chaplain Tiffany told Claire the underlying reason for Phil’s death was malnutrition.<br />
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'But I beg of you,' he continued, 'not to forget the ones that are left. They are dying by the hundreds.'<br />
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Cabanatuan survivors, 1945</div>
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National Archives</div>
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Claire was heartbroken. It took her several days to recover enough to return to work. But when she did, the circumstances of Phil’s death gave her an additional motivation to keep the Tsubaki Club successful. She also became more motivated to engage in her own form of espionage.<br />
<br />
The Tsubaki Club regularly entertained powerful Japanese civilians and military men who passed through Manila..."<br />
<br />
From "Claire Phillips: Manila Agent" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater-ebook/dp/B01HU8DVUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469535861&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater#nav-subnav" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i><br />
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<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-83623610147252317692016-07-25T10:09:00.003-07:002016-07-28T08:32:40.429-07:00Vivian Bullwinkel and Private Kinsley: Surrender at Muntok<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTNjm3EKD6_RLWONp9ifskVXAmqZlG0h1zeqD_IHz_K_wWeQ-vNFoH9B5d-mutCBUmigh2AZy75T7jbCj_coPndWAGLE3DWaW_Wdn45nFquNLxJqkU0MouW4ov14KZaXvckHNR6MLxyjSU/s1600/Vivian+Bullwinkel+72+dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTNjm3EKD6_RLWONp9ifskVXAmqZlG0h1zeqD_IHz_K_wWeQ-vNFoH9B5d-mutCBUmigh2AZy75T7jbCj_coPndWAGLE3DWaW_Wdn45nFquNLxJqkU0MouW4ov14KZaXvckHNR6MLxyjSU/s320/Vivian+Bullwinkel+72+dpi.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
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Vivian Bullwinkel shortly before she left for Singapore</div>
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<br />
"Vivian decided they should take a chance and surrender to the Japanese at Muntok headquarters, a few miles away. Kinsley immediately agreed, saying 'If it comes to the worst I hope the Japs do a better job of it this time.'<br />
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"They began the long, exhausting trip to Muntok, Kinsley dividing his weight between Vivian and a cane.<br />
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When they reached the headquarters, they had a few moments to say good-bye.<br />
'I want you to know that I admire you very much,' Vivian whispered to Kinsley, 'and I feel a great pride in having had you as a companion.'<br />
<br />
'I would never have made it thus far,” Kinsley replied, 'if it hadn’t been for you. I used to look at you and wonder, what with everything that happened to you, where you got your strength from to go on. You set the example, you made me determined to be like you.'<br />
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A car pulled up to take Kinsley away..."<br />
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From "Vivian Bullwinkel: Sole Survivor" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater-ebook/dp/B01HU8DVUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469466046&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater#nav-subnav" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-16708182323025127162016-07-25T10:02:00.000-07:002019-03-21T07:31:04.768-07:00Vivian Bullwinkel: Banka Island <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0SyCM4x90I1mT6sjGodtjFoK7BNbydo0HZjXwVB75W4ek6xPow6RcjEqBctkfZBmcfJdFpnWiPAtVoCYlZS2OMWXAbl9t5zL5olEjJNGI-1Vbx1RvYw8Bf2blilFDTO_D6m_Nfk6a0jn1/s1600/Vivian+Bullwinkel+72+dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0SyCM4x90I1mT6sjGodtjFoK7BNbydo0HZjXwVB75W4ek6xPow6RcjEqBctkfZBmcfJdFpnWiPAtVoCYlZS2OMWXAbl9t5zL5olEjJNGI-1Vbx1RvYw8Bf2blilFDTO_D6m_Nfk6a0jn1/s320/Vivian+Bullwinkel+72+dpi.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
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Vivian Bullwinkel shortly before she left Australia for Singapore</div>
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National Library of Australia</div>
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Copyright: Bruce Howard</div>
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"The Japanese soldiers came back, each of them cleaning his bayonet with a cloth. The British servicemen were not with them.<br />
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“Bully,” one nurse said, addressing Vivian, “They’ve murdered them all!”<br />
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Vivian was silent.<br />
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“It’s true then, they aren’t taking prisoners,” said another nurse.<br />
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The Japanese officer said something to his soldiers. They surrounded the 22 Australian nurses. They prodded the nurses with their bayonets until the women had formed a line into the water. Two wounded nurses had to be half carried there by their companions.<br />
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It seemed impossible to Vivian that a mass slaughter was about to occur in this beautiful setting. She kept asking herself why. And what right did the Japanese have to kill them?<br />
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But she said nothing aloud. None of the nurses did. Except for the sound of the water hitting their thighs, the beach was silent. Vivian, sad to think her mother would never learn what happened to her, suddenly felt peaceful when she realized she would soon see her deceased father. She wanted to communicate her new emotion to the other nurses. She turned and smiled at them. They returned her smile 'in a strange and beautiful way.'<br />
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They had obviously found their own ways to cope during these last terrible moments.<br />
Then Vivian heard the whispered voice of their matron, Irene Drummond, 'Chin up girls, I’m proud of you and I love you all.'<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFsr6sVic96zxzmGuuQfRKQ9PyvKBMjknblSuLIR8pYL5epqWasqXVkznrfyUGVtUC_hWssPSRRIIZENl30P75-M4BhPxmvVisuP1CGwdcYpAhA5VuyteFfGcMYIOQBdIvvhD6biEH3Zu8/s1600/Irene+Drummond+without+words.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFsr6sVic96zxzmGuuQfRKQ9PyvKBMjknblSuLIR8pYL5epqWasqXVkznrfyUGVtUC_hWssPSRRIIZENl30P75-M4BhPxmvVisuP1CGwdcYpAhA5VuyteFfGcMYIOQBdIvvhD6biEH3Zu8/s1600/Irene+Drummond+without+words.jpg" /></a></div>
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Irene Drummond</div>
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From "Vivian Bullwinkel: Sole Survivor" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161373168X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-21474987644346897302016-07-25T09:32:00.003-07:002019-08-15T11:08:36.907-07:00The Kempeitai visit Elizabeth Choy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgne1H9eqoaeYoKs8UgTfbrFdgy-lpc57LdYFclqnNfRra23cjBU2EawZuzXG_ckUxAt8GwlKJUH3tGuF6FvF8yPMyzaE7WRHgn1updXUBDooFvRk98-3-zFS6oVBR2h52udcpG-Y6O7vCG/s1600/%252318+Elizabeth+Choy+90+dpi+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="237" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgne1H9eqoaeYoKs8UgTfbrFdgy-lpc57LdYFclqnNfRra23cjBU2EawZuzXG_ckUxAt8GwlKJUH3tGuF6FvF8yPMyzaE7WRHgn1updXUBDooFvRk98-3-zFS6oVBR2h52udcpG-Y6O7vCG/s320/%252318+Elizabeth+Choy+90+dpi+cropped.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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"The Kempeitai mistakenly suspected that this successful sabotage—code-named Operation Jaywick by the special forces—was somehow connected to the British prisoners in the Changi prison. They made a thorough search and discovered multiple radio sets hidden carefully under prison chairs. The British prisoners had not only been physically hungry but were also starved for news outside of Japanese-controlled propaganda.<br />
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Fifty-seven civilians were taken into Kempeitai custody, interrogated, and brutally tortured. Fifteen were tortured to death. These arrests and interrogations would forever be remembered in Singapore as the Double Tenth Incident, so named because they began on October 10, an important date in the founding of China’s Republic.<br />
<br />
Where had the prisoners obtained their radio sets? The Kempeitai were determined to find out. During one particularly brutal interrogation, one of the internees who had been found with a radio admitted he had obtained its parts from the Choys. While passing notes and food, Elizabeth and her husband had also passed radio parts. They rarely knew exactly what was in each package. And they never asked.<br />
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On the following day, a car stopped outside the tuck shop. A Kempeitai officer asked Elizabeth’s husband, Khun Heng, if he would get into the car: he wasn’t familiar with the area, the officer said, and needed help with directions.<br />
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Khun Heng agreed to help. He didn’t return.<br />
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Alarmed, Elizabeth traveled to Kempeitai headquarters with a blanket and extra clothing, pleading with the officers to give the items to her husband.<br />
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The officers told Elizabeth they didn’t know where he was.<br />
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But three weeks later, some Kempeitai officers unexpectedly visited the tuck shop and offered to take Elizabeth to see Khun Heng..."<br />
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<br />
From "Elizabeth Choy: Justice Will Triumph" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater-ebook/dp/B01HU8DVUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469464342&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater#nav-subnav" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-56929385334309638992016-07-25T09:24:00.000-07:002016-08-04T08:04:38.208-07:00Maria Rosa Henson: Guerrilla Courier"One day Pinatubo asked Maria Rosa if she wanted to join the Huk. She was glad to be offered a chance to fight back against the Japanese. After joining, she was assigned to carry messages and collect food, medicine, and clothing from people sympathetic to the Huk guerrillas.<br />
<br />
Once, while on her way to collect medicine and deliver a message, Maria Rosa saw some Japanese soldiers a long way off. She quickly ate the message. The soldiers suspected nothing and let her pass. But Maria Rosa knew she’d had a close call. Those suspected of working with the Huk were always taken to the local Japanese garrison, where they were tortured for information before being killed. So the Huk held their meetings in different neighborhoods in order to avoid detection. And as Maria Rosa went from village to village for the Huk, she was careful to never disclose her real identity: her code name was Bayang.<br />
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Maria Rosa’s work gave her a deep sense of purpose. Yet she was continually haunted by the memory of the rapes, especially when she sang the following lines of a song with her comrades:<br />
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<i>They should be vanquished, the fascist Japanese,</i><br />
<i>The scourge of our race.</i><br />
<i>They seized our possessions and raped our women.</i><br />
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After singing those words, Maria Rosa would always whisper to herself, 'I am one of those women.'"<br />
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Excerpt from "Maria Rosa Henson: Rape Survivor" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469462644&sr=1-1&keywords=pacific+theater+atwood" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i><br />
<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469462644&sr=1-1&keywords=pacific+theater+atwood" target="_blank"><br /></a></i>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-40140708110530958162016-07-25T09:15:00.001-07:002019-03-04T18:47:27.007-08:00Denny Williams: The Surrender at Corregidor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46Lx5jNFp26vcz2XTMQtCtFS3wfwUw7UuDsyFempJKE2g9T8EelnaeS9gg6fZxwezuNYxkrNxKyn-Mey8PClhiauSJGSRTwBFxZ7P1SRQdRRCncroIzsee_CglZ56p1-ETW150YCWGztb/s1600/Bataan+signature+cloth+color+100+dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46Lx5jNFp26vcz2XTMQtCtFS3wfwUw7UuDsyFempJKE2g9T8EelnaeS9gg6fZxwezuNYxkrNxKyn-Mey8PClhiauSJGSRTwBFxZ7P1SRQdRRCncroIzsee_CglZ56p1-ETW150YCWGztb/s320/Bataan+signature+cloth+color+100+dpi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A portion of the bedsheet signed by the nurses at Corregidor on May 6, 1942. </div>
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Denny Williams’s name is in the middle of the third column.</div>
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AMEDD Center of History and Heritage, Archival Repository</div>
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<br />
"IT WAS THE MORNING of May 6, 1942. In a few hours, the US Army stationed on the Philippine island of Corregidor would surrender to the army of Imperial Japan.<br />
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But the fighting men would not be the only ones involved in this surrender. Along with them were female nurses, some of them civilians but most of them official members of the US Army. None of these women had been trained in combat nursing and yet they had endured months of just that. Now they awaited their fate. They were all too aware of the horrors the Japanese army inflicted on Chinese women four and a half years earlier during the Nanking Massacre. Tomorrow they would be facing the same enemy. Were they now living their last hours? If so, would anyone ever know what they had endured during the past grueling months?<br />
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They wanted to leave proof that they had been alive before meeting the Japanese face-to-face. One of them tore a large square from a bedsheet. Another wrote the following words at the top: “Members of the Army Nurse Corps and Civilian women who were in the Malinta Tunnel when Corregidor fell.” Then 69 women signed their names. One of them was Denny Williams."<br />
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Opening paragraphs from "Denny Williams: Nurse under Fire" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469462644&sr=1-1&keywords=pacific+theater+atwood" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4NZqYh3q2d4f4tZ1zaDRb16qOcNS3nLz1VjRcI5wwrwwxaCrsPwLNJbvNivpufR5uyf4Br9chyXyM-LIW6i1G9Wpcu2R3aw52akt_ODPqZuqZUUqXjC3cGpECSmN5zPz-Lho8OBYTUJv/s1600/Bataan+nurses+leaving+Santo+Tomas%252C+further+back%252C+low+res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4NZqYh3q2d4f4tZ1zaDRb16qOcNS3nLz1VjRcI5wwrwwxaCrsPwLNJbvNivpufR5uyf4Br9chyXyM-LIW6i1G9Wpcu2R3aw52akt_ODPqZuqZUUqXjC3cGpECSmN5zPz-Lho8OBYTUJv/s320/Bataan+nurses+leaving+Santo+Tomas%252C+further+back%252C+low+res.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bataan/Corregidor nurses leaving Santo Tomas prison in 1945</div>
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AMEDD Center of History and Heritage, Archival Repository</div>
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<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-74122847470581336172016-07-25T09:05:00.005-07:002016-07-28T11:15:26.535-07:00Gladys Aylward: A Price on Her Head <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZcL9tsu8p7uW6ed_wfNNpIp3SPnFvhep6NN6LrBqfA7HXAC7YKgTejtVjyhH0VS1tleE6X4TUvUKWStFn1YzEeSxYo2rYlBMEEs0ffjOnXR-U087IgD3MVUq3gJtdZT88rBcnukza0EVg/s1600/gladys-aylward+200+dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZcL9tsu8p7uW6ed_wfNNpIp3SPnFvhep6NN6LrBqfA7HXAC7YKgTejtVjyhH0VS1tleE6X4TUvUKWStFn1YzEeSxYo2rYlBMEEs0ffjOnXR-U087IgD3MVUq3gJtdZT88rBcnukza0EVg/s320/gladys-aylward+200+dpi.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
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Gladys Aylward</div>
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"Soon 100 children were on their way with one of Gladys’s trusted friends. But before a month had passed, 100 more orphans had found their way to the mission.<br />
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One day, a Chinese general sent Gladys a message: the Japanese were approaching Yangcheng in large numbers. The Chinese army was retreating. He wanted Gladys to come with them. They would care for the children on the way.<br />
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Although Gladys was concerned for the children’s safety, she rarely feared for her own. The children left with the general and his men. Gladys remained at Yangcheng.<br />
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Two nights after their departure, a Chinese soldier knocked on her door, telling Gladys he had been sent back to once more persuade her to leave.<br />
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“Whether you leave with us nor not, you must leave. We have received certain information.”<br />
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“What information?” Gladys asked.<br />
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“The Japanese have put a price on your head.”<br />
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“You are just saying this to make me leave,” Gladys replied.<br />
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He wasn’t. The soldier pulled a paper out of his pocket, one of many, he said, that had been found posted on a nearby city wall. The paper listed three names and stated the following: “Any person giving information which will lead to the capture, alive or dead, of the above mentioned, will receive [a large sum of money] from the Japanese High Command.” One of the names listed on the poster was “Ai-weh-deh,” Gladys’s official Chinese name.<br />
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Why did this missionary have a price on her head?"<br />
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From "Gladys Aylward: All China is a Battlefield" from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469462644&sr=1-1&keywords=pacific+theater+atwood" target="_blank"><i>Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater</i></a>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-29987966631718415922016-07-22T20:44:00.003-07:002023-01-06T07:44:26.512-08:00Sybil Kathigasu and the Guerrilla Fighters<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVe6iHuGpGKflAqC8nUrZJireK535Dk0HBpuJjJenE49hqMDp2pmyLVozuHSXndUEY-bD2wgpYnNsww0FdAT4ZOO_xsxRj2DsOxNcbCXEFd4zepUwNDsORAPcEZWUH-xmqHO6EdidG3QOA/s1600/%252317+Sybil+Kathigasu+600+dpi.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVe6iHuGpGKflAqC8nUrZJireK535Dk0HBpuJjJenE49hqMDp2pmyLVozuHSXndUEY-bD2wgpYnNsww0FdAT4ZOO_xsxRj2DsOxNcbCXEFd4zepUwNDsORAPcEZWUH-xmqHO6EdidG3QOA/s320/%252317+Sybil+Kathigasu+600+dpi.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Photo credit: Media Masters Publishing, Malaya</div>
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"The occupying Japanese administration forced the Malayans to abandon Western culture and replace it with Japanese. Malayans had their homes searched regularly to ensure no one still owned pictures of the British royal family, the flags of any Allied nations, or even American record albums.<br />
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The Japanese were also obsessed with persecuting Papan’s large Chinese population. They would randomly round them up and make them stand for hours—sometimes days—in the hot sun without food or water. Many collapsed, and some died.<br />
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A guerrilla movement was born out of this persecution. The Chinese guerrillas near Papan fought the Japanese occupation by assassinating Malayan collaborators who were betraying their fellow Malayans to the Japanese. Large Japanese offensives would then be launched against the guerrillas. But when collaborators continued to meet their doom from hidden assassins, everyone knew the guerrillas were, in the main, alive and well.<br />
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One day, they asked Sybil for help.<br />
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“It’s the guerillas, Mrs. K,” said Moru, a young Chinese man acquainted with her. “Some of them are sick and wounded, and need medicines. They knew you don’t like the Japs. Will you help?”<br />
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Sybil knew the Japanese penalty for helping a guerrilla was severe..."<br />
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Excerpt from "Sybil Kathigasu: 'This Was War'" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater-ebook/dp/B01HU8DVUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469245410&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+ii+the+pacific+theater#navbar" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-89180775118347199252016-07-22T19:08:00.001-07:002016-07-22T19:15:01.926-07:00Minnie Vautrin <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhggNPXkTuiSPsxZF0KUAKSiQekqkZhMngVfZLfExEPcivsNDCOWkTsEeb3u6DJb9pvRazJefQ4DGbfkeWBuTKoI7yatjhJZ5OcipkbcO0caw2pKJ04D8UqMUd651ndXyCzGg7PG9ZjRxrh/s1600/Minnie+Vautrin+as+a+young+woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhggNPXkTuiSPsxZF0KUAKSiQekqkZhMngVfZLfExEPcivsNDCOWkTsEeb3u6DJb9pvRazJefQ4DGbfkeWBuTKoI7yatjhJZ5OcipkbcO0caw2pKJ04D8UqMUd651ndXyCzGg7PG9ZjRxrh/s320/Minnie+Vautrin+as+a+young+woman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Minnie Vautrin as a young woman</div>
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(www.discipleshistory.org)</div>
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<br />
"IN DECEMBER 1937, Nanking was a city in flight. Its streets were jammed with the last major flood of civilians who had the means to leave the war-torn city. Half the original population was now gone. Most of the remaining 500,000 civilians were there only because they couldn’t afford transportation or had nowhere else to go.<br />
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But there was one small group of foreigners in Nanking—Americans and Europeans—who had stayed deliberately. They were the members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, which referred to an approximate three-mile area in the city designed to be a wartime refuge for civilians. Women and children were to be housed within the safety zone at Ginling Women’s College. Its president was an American woman named Minnie Vautrin."<br />
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Opening paragraphs of Minnie Vautrin: American Hero at the Nanking Massacre from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469236584&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+pacific+theater+atwood" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater</a></i><br />
<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-57306045725456841832016-07-22T19:03:00.002-07:002016-08-06T07:13:05.764-07:00Margaret Utinsky: Hiding From the Japanese<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCTNQogsP_UmU2-lnXOwv8ORQT0JZT1qHCJXdEgc9tztnIsfJ8UrPdk3yfhOTsaQt4z7RgYxGV8GKXjG8j5sRHX7Di_8T4IFRB-_WmmVL5HHX1Y9bijkufcrHhG5lVk2HYzVSWgSLFmrNF/s1600/%252310+Margaret+Utinsky+scanned+at+600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCTNQogsP_UmU2-lnXOwv8ORQT0JZT1qHCJXdEgc9tztnIsfJ8UrPdk3yfhOTsaQt4z7RgYxGV8GKXjG8j5sRHX7Di_8T4IFRB-_WmmVL5HHX1Y9bijkufcrHhG5lVk2HYzVSWgSLFmrNF/s320/%252310+Margaret+Utinsky+scanned+at+600.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Margaret Utinsky</div>
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"<a href="http://philippine-defenders.lib.wv.us/html/utinsky_margaret_bio.html" target="_blank">MARGARET UTINSKY</a> PEERED out the window of her second-floor apartment. On the street below, Japanese officers questioned everyone who passed by. They were rounding up “enemy aliens”: British and American citizens. Margaret had no intention of being among them. She could afford to wait a long time; her apartment was stocked with food and medical supplies provided by personnel working at the US military bases in Manila...<br />
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Margaret, a Red Cross nurse by day and the operator of a servicemen’s canteen by night, had taken taxi-loads of those supplies, hoping to open her canteen again when the fighting was over. She wanted to be of help, especially to her husband, Jack, a civil engineer with the US military in Manila who had urged Margaret to evacuate with the other military wives when the Japanese first attacked. Margaret had refused. Later, when Manila was declared an open city and Jack was ordered to pull back to the Bataan Peninsula with the rest of the military, Margaret refused his urgent suggestion to stay at the local hotel with the other American and British civilians; she assumed—correctly—that the Japanese would round them up and force them into an internment camp. And Margaret didn’t see how she could be of any use to Jack in an internment camp.<br />
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After the Japanese searched through the first floor of the apartment building and found all the apartments vacated, they didn’t bother checking the second floor..."<br />
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Opening paragraphs of "Margaret Utinsky: The Miss U Network" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469236584&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+pacific+theater+atwood" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater </a></i><br />
<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8606197449181206779.post-25542323176517151002016-07-22T18:48:00.002-07:002019-03-04T18:48:47.933-08:00Claire Phillips and the Tsubaki Club's Opening Night<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ajGrZp29iwRlOc-sp90Xtz5i7JN__jEF8Ce5H5YqG0eZugUq556sumWku3Mz4gF2Ac2GkYpzi86M7EJ57PlAX_8qyMXcBdV_gA7eUYtjW3hbn1bKPT0hE7kLOBZb31D1RCf43AomIgOC/s1600/Claire_Phillips%252C_World_War_II_spy%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ajGrZp29iwRlOc-sp90Xtz5i7JN__jEF8Ce5H5YqG0eZugUq556sumWku3Mz4gF2Ac2GkYpzi86M7EJ57PlAX_8qyMXcBdV_gA7eUYtjW3hbn1bKPT0hE7kLOBZb31D1RCf43AomIgOC/s1600/Claire_Phillips%252C_World_War_II_spy%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></div>
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Claire Phillips, aka Dorothy Fuentes</div>
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"A GLITTERING PARADE of Japanese elite crowded into the Tsubaki Club on its opening night: film stars, famous musicians, military officers, and civilian officials. None of them wanted to miss the first night of Manila’s new, most exclusive nightclub.<br />
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The guests were treated to one dazzling dance production after another. For the finale, the elegant owner appeared alone on the dance floor. Dressed in a long, glittering white evening gown, Dorothy Fuentes sang beautifully for her guests. When she was finished, the crowd jumped to their feet in a thunderous standing ovation.<br />
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When the last guests had left, Dorothy checked the overflowing cash box. She knew that the Tsubaki Club was now the most popular spot for the Japanese in Manila. Her plan would work. She wrote the following note: 'Our new show was a sell out. You can count on regular backing. Standing by for orders and assignments.'<br />
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She was about to sign it, then stopped. She couldn’t use her name; it was too risky. But what could she use as an alias? She thought for a moment about how she always stashed money in her bra. She signed the note, 'High Pockets.'"<br />
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Opening paragraphs of "Claire Phillips: Manila Agent" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-Pacific-Theater/dp/161373168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469236584&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+pacific+theater+atwood" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. </a></i>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0