Rescued nurses to come by sea: recuperating at Singapore
This newspaper article reports the arrival of twenty-four Australian nurses rescued from Sumatra after more than three years of Japanese captivity. It describes their recovery in Singapore and records their reflections on life in the prison camps, including the Banka Island massacre, their resilience in captivity, and the dramatic improvement in their circumstances following Japan's surrender.
From a Special Representative of the A.A.P.
SINGAPORE, September 17. — Twenty-four Australian nurses rescued by air from Sumatra yesterday will return to Australia by sea as soon as they are fit to travel.
A medical superintendent said: "They will go as soon as we have fattened them up. A week will make a lot of difference. In a fortnight they will be themselves again."
The idea of air travel was discarded on the grounds of fatigue that would be caused. The sea trip will be restful for the nurses, and will have a great recuperative effect.
There was a scene of great animation in the bright wards of No. 14 A.G.H. to-day. Windows of the hospital, which was formerly St. Patrick's School, on the palm-fringed East Coast road, overlook the sea. The nurses luxuriated in the first beds they have slept in for three and a half years. In the beautiful setting, surrounded by friends, among fellow Australians on the hospital staff, the nurses were still bewildered by contrast with their recent lot.
Letters home are being written, cosmetics are appearing, and lipstick is making a tentative appearance on lips long unaccustomed to it.
"Quite truthfully," said Sister Blake, of Lindfield (N.S.W.), "I don't know that our complexions suffered from lack of cosmetics; certainly not the thick layers of cosmetics we are in the habit of using in these parts."
One of the most striking things about the sisters is the vitality and mental alertness of all of them, in spite of the pathetic thinness of some. They were able to discuss their experiences in a detached way, without self-pity.
"Things were often hard, but probably not so bad as our friends might have imagined from reports of Hongkong and Shanghai," said Sister Blake. "One of our greatest anxieties was that we were unable to let our families know we were all right.
"The experience at Banka Island was horrible, but once we were in prison camps the Japanese made no attempt to molest us, although they were fiendishly ingenious in discovering ways to humiliate us. I don't think they were able to get rid of a feeling of inferiority. We always felt in the battle of wills that we were in a stronger position.
"Once when an officers' club was opened near the camp we were invited in. It was suggested that we should play cards and help the officers with their English. We refused to go and were told we would be starved into agreeing. But the threat was never carried out and the matter was dropped.
"Once the capitulation was announced the Japanese fairly groveled. We had unlimited food, butter, eggs, and chicken and our cooking was done by friends from the male internees' camp. Everything came right at once."