Training, Ethos, Camaraderie and Endurance of World War Two Australian POW Nurses

Training, ethos, camaraderie and endurance of World War Two Australian POW nurses By Sarah Fulford 1 Contents Page Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Historical framework ...................................................................... 13 Chapter 3: The Historical Context of Australian Nursing .................................. 32 Chapter 4: The Nurses at War – World War Two ............................................. 43 Chapter 5: Ethos .............................................................................................. 61 Chapter 6: Camaraderie ................................................................................... 83 Chapter 7: Resourcefulness ........................................................................... 113 Chapter 8: Conclusion .................................................................................... 141 Appendices: Appendix 1: AANS Pledge of Service .............................................................. 144 Appendix 2: Images of the Nurses in Malaya ................................................. 145 Appendix 3: Vyner Brooke Nurses ................................................................. 153 Appendix 4: Image of the Vyner Brooke and maps showing the movement of nurses during internment .............................................................................. 155 Appendix 5: Drawings by POWS during internment ...................................... 158 Appendix 6: “The Captive’s Hymn ................................................................. 163 Appendix 7: Images of POWs after evacuation 1945 ..................................... 165 2 CHAPTER 1 Introduction Thesis Statement On 12 February 1942, during World War II, the ship the Vyner Brooke fled Singapore as it was being attacked by the Japanese. On board were civilian men, women and children and a group of 65 Australian Army nurses who were forced to abandon their patients in hospital when the order to evacuate had been given. Two days later the ship was bombed by the Japanese and sunk near the shore of Radji Beach on Bangka Island. The nurses who survived became prisoners of the Japanese and were interned for three and a half years until after the conclusion of the war. This thesis argues that the nurses’ professional training, ethos and camaraderie contributed significantly to their endurance in Japanese captivity during the years 1942 to 1945. Using archival research, the nurses’ own memoirs and autobiographies about the event, the thesis examines their ethos, camaraderie and resourcefulness. It highlights the specific tools the Australian women used to survive internment, and the loyalty they had to one another, the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and Australia. These bonds of friendship continued after the war had concluded and reinforced the strength of the camaraderie amongst the Australian nurses forged during internment and in response to the deprivations they suffered. Research Questions The research question for this thesis is: To what extent did professional training, ethos and camaraderie contribute to the endurance of Australian nurses in Japanese captivity, 1942-1945? In order to answer this question, a number of other questions were raised and investigated. 1) How was the camaraderie evident within the group? 2) Did the nurses’ pre-war living-in training assist their adaptation to internment? 3) How did the nurses demonstrate resourcefulness and endurance during their internment? 4) Did the nursing ethos and their inclusion as part of the Armed forces assist their discipline during internment? 3 5) Are the stories of the Australian nurses’ prison experiences sanitised, and, if so, how does this distort the history of the experience? Methodology The diaries and other writings of the Vyner Brooke nurses are critiqued from the point of view of feminist autobiographical theory. This theory works to revisit the history of the events through the female perspective. By re-reading the literature already in place and reviewing history from the female viewpoint it therefore focuses on the females’ experiences of the events and history they lived through. The inclusion of a female point of view adds to the historical framework already in place about Australia’s involvement in World War II. Chapter 2 provides examples of how the female perspective applies to the stories of the Vyner Brooke nurses and their prisoner of war experience. The history of the events of the Vyner Brooke nurses are explored through archival research, focusing on primary and secondary resources. These include the nurses’ diaries, and interviews taken after their imprisonment and as older women. Transcripts and newspapers articles which concentrate on the army records of the nurses and their experiences during the war have been accessed from the Australian War Memorial. Other sources include autobiographies and histories written not only about the Vyner Brooke nurses, but also about the history of Australian nursing from the time of Florence Nightingale and Australia’s involvement in World War I and World War II. The literature of captivity The experiences of the Australian Army nurses who served during World War II are described in a number of texts. These include published histories, autobiographies and the nurses’ own private diaries, letters and recollections of the events. A number of books have been written which record the events as they happened and explain the actions and commitment of the nurses to their patients and to each other during their wartime experiences. An aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that the camaraderie of the group and the bonds of friendship strengthened during this experience and assisted the survival of the women imprisoned after the sinking of the Vyner Brooke. The great majority of texts written about World War II prisoners of war encapsulate the stories of the Australian men who were imprisoned and do not 4 often deal with the female members of the Australian Army, who were also taken prisoner by the Japanese. The stories are written from a male standpoint; consequently, they continue to perpetuate the masculinisation of the Australian war experience1. A number of works exemplify this type of literature. Peter Ewer’s The long road to Changi, concentrates on the stories of the men who fought in Singapore before the capitulation to the Japanese and how they specifically endured life as prisoners of war. The book gives an historical understanding of the events surrounding the men of the 8th Division but does not include the story of the nurses’ own evacuation from Singapore and subsequent detention as prisoners of war. The Spirit of the Digger by Patrick Lindsay also focuses mainly on the stories of men, explaining the kindred connection they had towards one another by using direct reference to individual stories. Before the conclusion of the war in 1944 General Gordon Bennett, the Commander of the 8th Division, published his book Why Singapore fell. He is known for deserting his troops for his own safety as Singapore capitulated2. This work offers his own perspective of the events and why the Australians were defeated. He includes fleeting references to the AANS, for example: “The remainder of the Australian nursing sisters and the two matrons have embarked for return to Australia. This is good news, as I am firm in my resolve that our nurses shall not become prisoners of the Japanese”3. He may have been resolved in his own retelling of the events, but it was the delay in making the decision to evacuate the nurses that led to their imprisonment when their ship was sunk. The Literature on Training To focus the thesis on nurses and to provide a context to the way nurses were trained and the expectations placed on them, including the regimentation of their lives through their living-in-training, a brief overview of the history of nursing itself has been included. This explores the changes enacted by Florence Nightingale as evidenced in Helen Rappaport’s No Place For Ladies (2007). Rappaport’s work explores Nightingale’s experience during the Crimean War and how her philosophy of nursing was instituted in the war zone. Prior to Nightingale arriving there had been a large number of casualties due to the 1 Hirst, Sense and Nonsense in Australian History. Rivett, Behind Bamboo. Russell Braddon, The Naked Island. 2 Ewer, The long Road to Changi: Australia’s great military defeat and how it broke the bonds of empire, (Sydney: Harper Collins, 2013), 283 3 Gordon Bennett, Why Singapore Fell, (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1944), 184 5 unsanitary conditions, rather than from wounds caused by fighting. Nightingale, as Matron, took dictatorial charge over her Sisters, ensuring absolute obedience from them as they changed hospital nursing through enforcing strict cleanliness of the wards and of their patients. This book described the training regimes of the nurses, the expectations placed on them by Nightingale and how this training program changed nursing in Britain and subsequently around the world, after this war. The work highlights the importance of the camaraderie that existed between the women, how their experience of war bonded them further and the resourcefulness they implemented through the long hours and difficult working conditions they endured. Notes on Nightingale: The influence and legacy of a nursing icon” (2010) edited by Siobhan Nelson and Anne Marie Rafferty, also explores

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