We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese [Paperback]

Elizabeth M. Norman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2000

Hailed by The New York Times Book Review as a "grippingly told" story of "power and relevance," here is the true, untold account of the first American women to prove their mettle under combat conditions. Later, during three years of brutal captivity at the hands of the Japanese, they also demonstrated their ability to survive. Filled with the thoughts and impressions of the women who lived it, "every page of this history is fascinating" (The Washington Post).

We Band of Angels

In the fall of 1941, the Philippines was a gardenia-scented paradise for the American Army and Navy nurses stationed there. War was a distant rumor, life a routine of easy shifts and evenings of dinner and dancing under the stars. On December 8 all that changed, as Japanese bombs rained on American bases in Luzon, and the women's paradise became a fiery hell. Caught in the raging battle, the nurses set up field hospitals in the jungles of Bataan and the tunnels of Corregidor, where they saw the most devastating injuries of war, and suffered the terrors of shells and shrapnel.

But the worst was yet to come. As Bataan and Corregidor fell, a few nurses escaped, but most were herded into internment camps enduring three years of fear and starvation. Once liberated, they returned to an America that at first celebrated them, but later refused to honor their leaders with the medals they clearly deserved. Here, in letters, diaries, and firsthand accounts, is the story of what really happened during those dark days, woven together in a compelling saga of women in war.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Found worms in my oatmeal this morning. I shouldn't have objected because they had been sterilized in the cooking and I was getting fresh meat with my breakfast.... I'm still losing weight and so are most of us..."

Ruth Marie Straub, an Army nurse, wrote those words in her diary on March 15, 1942, just over three months after the Japanese first bombed the U.S. military base in Manila. She and her colleagues had evacuated the city and established, in the Philippine jungle, hospitals for the skyrocketing numbers of casualties. In the face of the advancing Japanese Army, the nurses and other military personnel continued to retreat, first to the Bataan Peninsula, and then to Corregidor, a rocky island in Manila Bay. Straub was one of the lucky ones; she was evacuated with a handful of other nurses in April 1942. Her remaining colleagues, meanwhile, surrendered with the rest of the U.S. forces in May and were taken to STIC--Santo Tomas Internment Camp, where they were to spend nearly three years in captivity.

We Band of Angels tells the stories of these courageous women, tagged by the American media as "The Angels of Bataan and Corregidor." Utilizing a wide range of sources, including diaries, letters, and personal interviews with surviving "Angels," Elizabeth M. Norman has compiled a harrowing narrative about the experiences of these women--from the country-club atmosphere of prewar Manila; to the jungle hospitals where patients slept on bamboo cots in the open air; to the Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor, where they choked on dust and worked while the bombs rained down above them; to the STIC, where per-person rations were cut to 900 calories a day and the women resorted to frying weeds in cold cream for food. The story Nelson tells is compelling but slightly flawed: like many biographers, Nelson has a deep affection and respect for her subjects, which causes her to soften rough edges. At the same time, however, Nelson argues that these women were not heroes--nor were they angels (in the acknowledgments, Nelson notes that she didn't want the word angels in the title, but the publishers had their way). Perhaps because Nelson is a nurse herself, she is trying to stress that her profession is noble and that these women were, in a sense, just fulfilling their duties.

Nursing is noble, of course, but it is clear that these women were something special. Amazingly, all of the Angels of Bataan, some 99 in number, survived their ordeal--and clearly helped hundreds of the other sufferers survive. We Band of Angels deserves a space on the bookshelves of anyone interested in World War II. --C.B. Delaney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

When the Japanese took the Philippines during WWII, 77 American women, navy and army nurses, were caught on Bataan and later imprisoned by the Japanese. The few who escaped were cast by the American press more as belles than as professionals who had held steady in their devotion to their patients and their country in the face of bombing, starvation and the gruesome injuries and diseases of their charges. A headline in the New York Times, for instance, announced that in Corregidor, Hairpin Shortage Causes Women to Cut Hair. The 77 women left behind never received as much attention, and Norman (Women at War) tries set the record straight about exactly what the Angels of Battaan and Corregidor did throughout the war. The book derives from interviews with 20 of the 77 nurses who were captured and is at its best when it stays closest to their words and stories. Norman makes excellent use of extensive quotations from diaries and interviews. Her writing lags at moments, particularly when it drifts away from the specific experiences of the nurses. But Norman also captures moments of great couragefor instance, when a nurse refused an evacuation order until her superiors agreed that not just American, but also Filipino, nurses should be moved to safety. In one amusing anecdote, the nurses force a Japanese guard to shoot a monkey that has been harassing them and disrupting the hospital. But the true highlights come in the evocation of tears and sweat that went into the nurses daily struggle to maintain their tight communityand their dedication to their patientsin the face of overwhelming adversity. BOMC and History Book Club selections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671787187
• ISBN-13: 978-0671787189
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > History > Military > Prisoners of War
  • #9 in Books > History > Asia > Philippines
  • #31 in Books > History > Asia > Japan

More About the Author

Beth Norman is the daughter of two World War II veterans. Her father served with the U.S. Army in Europe in 1944; her mother was in uniform with the U.S. Coast Guard. Beth began her professional career as a registered nurse before turning to the study of history and writing. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University (where she and Michael met and were married). She earned her graduate and doctoral degrees from New York University, then joined the tenured faculty there in 1998. She currently is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Development and Education where she teaches history, writing and research design in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.

In 1990, Beth published her first book, Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam 1965-1973, (University of Pennsylvania Press). She followed this with We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Women Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese (1999, Random House.) Both books are still in print. Her work on We Band of Angels led her to look at the larger story of the battle for Bataan and the Bataan Death March, an inquiry that led to Tears in the Darkness. She has won a number of awards for her work, among them an Official Commendation from the Department of the Army, and a Certificate of Appreciation from the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

Michael and Elizabeth Norman spent ten years researching and interviewing for "Tears In The Darkness." They made four trips to Asia and crossed America several times for the book. They have two grown sons, Joshua and Benjamin, and a daughter-in-law, Rachel Cahn Norman. For most of their married life, the Normans have lived in Montclair N. J.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the perspective of a woman veteran of 22 years service., May 10, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (St Augustine, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese (Hardcover)

Just read a new book "We Band of Angels" and it is quite high on my recommended reading list for any of you interested in military women's stories. It is heartwarming and at the same time heartbreaking. Told in a style that puts the reader directly into the lives of these valiant nurses - it takes you on a journey through the horrors of World War Two in the Pacific - as if you were there. The author draws you into the Malinta Tunnel underground hospital on Corregidor and describes the almost superhuman endurance of the military nurses working there to save their patients - and she does it with balanced style. She reveals their triumphs and their humor, along with the dreary and miserable conditions under which they worked. When the Japanese capture the nurses and send them to Santo Tomas internment camp you journey with them through their three years as prisoners and their ultimate liberation. The author, Dr Elizabeth Norman, has done a remarkable job - using interviews, diaries, letters, and a wealth of research - in telling this story that has been hidden by history. America seems to forget that women are veterans too - Dr Norman has helped remind them.

Barbara A. Wilson, Capt. USAF (Ret)

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful, fatual, compelling historical writing, June 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese (Hardcover)

I, too, read Elizabeth Norman's book, We Band of Angels, The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese, over the Memorial Day weekend. She did a masterful job in her research and writing to retell this unique story about this group of America's military nurses and their dedication to duty. This story is unique in American military history, in that in no other instance in our history has this number of military women, been taken captive, held as POWs for almost three years, and all survive. However, it is not unique in its demonstration of military nurses' dedication to honor and duty.

The facts in the book speaks loudly to many of today's societal debates, but to Norman's credit, she chose not to get into what many of us euphemistically term "pissing battles of bias". She tells the story of this historical event and its impact on the women who experienced it. She let the story stand on its own merits for anyone who reads it.

Am I biased in undertaking this review of her book? To an extent, yes. I am a retired Army Nurse Corps officer, who worked with, or served under some of the women about whom Norman has written, and who we both tremendously admire. I have also had opportunity to know perhaps more about the blueprint of her story than most of the public-at-large. She has done a masterful job. Had she not, I would not have given her the time of day. Norman's research and interviews led her to more details about this historical event than many of us were aware and has interwoven them into the story in a manner that cleared up some of its mysteries. She told us enough about the lives and motivations of many of these women prior to their entering the military, and their lives following this experience, to let us determine for ourselves the extent to which this experience was a seminal and defining life experience for them, individually as well as collectively.

Elizabeth Norman is more than a historian, bringing an objective eye to the reporting of facts or experience. She is an expert nurse and researcher, who knows that historical research is not merely the story of people and events, nor does it lend itself to clinical trials or experimental studies, but rather to the analysis of phenomenon with a view toward objectively explaining events, where explanation is possible and faithful to the occurence. Personally, I do not believe anyone other than a dedicated, committed, expert nurse, who also was a historian, could have written this book with the same degree of accuracy, detail and justice deserved by those nurses who lived it.

To nurses, and particularly military nurses, this book reminds and rekindles within us that pride the remaining surviving Army and Navy nurses of the Philippines, Bataan, Corregidor, Santo Tomas, and Los Banos must feel in this retelling of "their" story. But this book is not just for nurses, it is for all who have fought for this country, and to those who waited hopefully for their family members' safe return. Many of America's warriors are alive and well because of miliary nurses like those of whom this story is about. Those casualties who made it back to our hospitals but still did not survive their injury, not only had an expert nurse at their bedside, but a surrogate mother or sister who did not have to be concerned that their caring or their own grief would subvert their expertise. Neither could their feelings be realistically viewed as a sign of weakness. Their strength and their courage was demonstrated by their desire and willingness to be there and the long hours of work they endured. My only wish is that before all of those many nurses who served in World War II are gone, or the memories become too faded, some of the other defining stories of World War II's military nurses, such as those who served and died on the Anzio beachhead, can be pieced together in a narrative as riveting and as faithful to the experience as Norman's in We Band of Angels.

Ira P. Gunn, MLN, CRNA, FAAN, LTC, US Army, Retired

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story that had to be told!, November 21, 1999

By 

Alan Smithee (Rhinebeck, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese (Hardcover)

This is a fantastic book that tells the heroism of our troops abondoned in the Phillipines and how they held out for 5 months under austeure conditions. All this is told through the eyes of the 80-90 Army and Navy nurses who worked under battlefield conditions to minister to the sick and wounded. There were no front and rear areas on Bataan and Corregidor and these nurses performed supurlative feats with all manner of bombs dropping around them constantly, snipers, friendly fire and the ever present threat of capture and mis-treatment from the Japanese Army. This needs to be made into a "Saving Private Ryan" quality movie to further celebrate their outstanding accomplishments and to tell a story that our government may not want told.