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A review by is_this_mutton_
Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris
5.0
Danger - don't read this on public transport! During the last few pages I was constantly in tears and had to hurriedly switch to a different book on my Kindle.
Heather Morris is rectifying a wrong: giving us the names of Australian nurses who volunteered to care for Allied forces. Some of them were killed in cold blood by their Japanese captors. Others survived three years and seven months of near starvation and brutality in Japanese POW camps. The diminutive Nurse Nesta James provided inspirational leadership to her team of nurses, putting herself between them and the brutal soldiers on occasion.
Morris's research also led her to some remarkable British women in the same camps, whose lives were intertwined with the nurses. Norah Chambers and her sister Ena find themselves separated from their husbands, and in Norah's case, her young daughter, sent away on an earlier ship to flee Singapore. Ena found herself caring for a young girl, June, whose mother had been killed.
Along with Margaret Dryburgh, Norah, a talented musician, helped keep morale high by getting the captives singing. Their concerts were so popular they were attended by Japanese senior officers. Norah created a voice orchestra, tackling difficult scores by Ravel and Beethoven, and writing them on tiny scraps of paper. The last few months of captivity took a heavy toll. The women were often moved to different camps in awful conditions on ships. Many died of starvation and fever: 76 in all.
During their captivity the women had to deal with flooding latrines, torrential rain, burning hot sun. When food was being severely rationed, they were given seeds to grow vegetables but weren't allowed to eat them. They had to bury their friends and put makeshift wooden crosses and mounds of flowers on the graves, equipped with just two machetes to dig the rock hard ground.
When liberation finally arrived, the nurses received a heroes' welcome when they arrived in Australia. By contrast there was no acknowledgement or welcome for the British women, who returned home on the same troopship as servicemen. Relatives were not told not to meet the ship when it docked. A remarkable book. This sisterhood will live on in my memory.
Heather Morris is rectifying a wrong: giving us the names of Australian nurses who volunteered to care for Allied forces. Some of them were killed in cold blood by their Japanese captors. Others survived three years and seven months of near starvation and brutality in Japanese POW camps. The diminutive Nurse Nesta James provided inspirational leadership to her team of nurses, putting herself between them and the brutal soldiers on occasion.
Morris's research also led her to some remarkable British women in the same camps, whose lives were intertwined with the nurses. Norah Chambers and her sister Ena find themselves separated from their husbands, and in Norah's case, her young daughter, sent away on an earlier ship to flee Singapore. Ena found herself caring for a young girl, June, whose mother had been killed.
Along with Margaret Dryburgh, Norah, a talented musician, helped keep morale high by getting the captives singing. Their concerts were so popular they were attended by Japanese senior officers. Norah created a voice orchestra, tackling difficult scores by Ravel and Beethoven, and writing them on tiny scraps of paper. The last few months of captivity took a heavy toll. The women were often moved to different camps in awful conditions on ships. Many died of starvation and fever: 76 in all.
During their captivity the women had to deal with flooding latrines, torrential rain, burning hot sun. When food was being severely rationed, they were given seeds to grow vegetables but weren't allowed to eat them. They had to bury their friends and put makeshift wooden crosses and mounds of flowers on the graves, equipped with just two machetes to dig the rock hard ground.
When liberation finally arrived, the nurses received a heroes' welcome when they arrived in Australia. By contrast there was no acknowledgement or welcome for the British women, who returned home on the same troopship as servicemen. Relatives were not told not to meet the ship when it docked. A remarkable book. This sisterhood will live on in my memory.