Dickey Chapelle hears the news of the flag raising on Iwo Jima

Dickey Chapelle taking a selfie.

"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."

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.

"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.

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...

A discouraged correspondent in the room said it must be a bad joke.

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.

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."


From "Dickey Chapelle: As Far Forward as You'll Let Me" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. 

Photo of the first flag raising.

More info here. 

Dickey Chapelle on Iwo Jima

Dickey Chapelle in a 1942 selfie

Wisconsin State Historical Society

Image #64787

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.

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.

Marines climbing a ridge on Iwo Jima

Photo NOT taken by Dickey Chapelle

Accredited to Louis R. Lowry, USMC

Courtesy of Betty Michels McMahon

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.

"Tell me every sound you heard," she said.

"A tank fired once," Dickey replied. "A man shouted...and there were wasps and I could hear the shutter of my camera click."

"There were what?" Barbara asked?

"Wasps, I guess. Insect noises anyhow."

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."

"You mean, those weren't--"

"They were not wasps."

Dickey had come under direct Japanese sniper fire.

From "Dickey Chapelle: "As Far Forward as You'll Let Me" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater.



Vivian Bullwinkel: Banka Island

Vivian Bullwinkel shortly before she left Australia for Singapore

National Library of Australia

Copyright: Bruce Howard

"The Japanese soldiers came back, each of them cleaning his bayonet with a cloth. The British servicemen were not with them.

“Bully,” one nurse said, addressing Vivian, “They’ve murdered them all!”

Vivian was silent.

“It’s true then, they aren’t taking prisoners,” said another nurse.

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.

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?

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.'

They had obviously found their own ways to cope during these last terrible moments.
Then Vivian heard the whispered voice of their matron, Irene Drummond, 'Chin up girls, I’m proud of you and I love you all.'

Irene Drummond

From "Vivian Bullwinkel: Sole Survivor" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. 

Denny Williams: The Surrender at Corregidor

A portion of the bedsheet signed by the nurses at Corregidor on May 6, 1942. 

Denny Williams’s name is in the middle of the third column.

AMEDD Center of History and Heritage, Archival Repository

"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.

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?

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."

Opening paragraphs from "Denny Williams: Nurse under Fire" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. 

Bataan/Corregidor nurses leaving Santo Tomas prison in 1945

AMEDD Center of History and Heritage, Archival Repository

Claire Phillips and the Tsubaki Club's Opening Night

Claire Phillips, aka Dorothy Fuentes

"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.

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.

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.'

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.'"


Opening paragraphs of "Claire Phillips: Manila Agent" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater.