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All This Hell: U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese | 
 enlarge | Authors: Evelyn M. Monahan, Rosemary Neidel-greenlee, Rosemary L. Neidel
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy Used: $6.47
You Save: $18.53 (74%)
New (8) Used (21) Collectible (1) from $6.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 1203964
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 228
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0813121485
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.54725209599
EAN: 9780813121482
ASIN: 0813121485
Publication Date: March 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
After the capture of Guam by the Japanese more than 70 American female nurses were captured. During their long captivity they continued to care for the wounded. This book seeks to uncover the heroism and sacrifices of these brave women.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Understated and worthwhile May 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This remarkable book captures the oral histories of American Army and Navy nurses who served in the Pacific before and during WWII. With excerpts from illicit diaries, hour-by-hour accounts of shellings, and food allotments described in grams, the book brings these women's stories to modern readers.
It is hard to imagine. Many of these women did not know that war was coming to the Pacific when they signed up for their two-year tours of duty in 1941. The Philippines were a fun, exotic duty station, with parties and balls and outdoor activities. War caught most of them by surprise. And there they were, isolated on islands, giving care to their wounded and dying friends as little by little, the Japanese overran the country.
Subject to front-line war conditions -- including shelling -- and treating the wounded of enemy bombs and hand-to-hand combat, these women KNEW the soldiers they were helping. These were their friends cut to pieces, infected with gangrene. And conditions kept worsening, as supply lines were cut and the front lines kept encroaching on military hospitals. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, tropical diseases, dysentary, fleas, rats, lack of medical supplies... these women grimly, bravely, knowingly endured it. Many were offered opportunities to flee the Philippines before their internment as POWs, but refused to leave the wounded they were tending.
After the American surrender, the nurses were interned in POW camps. At first, the Japanese allowed the black market to operate, and people could buy extra food and supplies (soap, razor blades, cigarrettes). But the Japanese were losing the war, and the Philippines had few to no supplies left. The black market ended. Starvation ensued.
The book retells the experience of these nurses: surviving years of war and imprisonment, knowing your fellow prisoners by name, saving their lives, and watching them die of starvation. Reduced to eating garbage, when it was available. Powerless to help, because they were themselves starving, too. Continuing to work despite fainting on the job, hand tremors, and failing eyesight due to malnutrition.
They were liberated hours before they could be killed by their captors as planned.
Returning home, freed at last, they were asked by the army and navy to refrain from mentioning their time as POWs. They were encouraged to become "ladylike" again.
So they did.
Extraordinary.
How fortunate we are to have this book, full of oral histories and eyewitness accounts, written while the memories were still alive.
Human endurance amazes me.
All This Hell: U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese October 12, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a good history of the nurses imprisoned at the start of World War II. I purchased this book and "We Band of Angels" at the same time They are both good books but tell almost the same story.
For Anyone Interested in Women in World War II November 10, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an intensely riveting book. The stories and flow make it seem like you are with the nurses. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in World War II, Nurses' tales or just a really great book to read!
 Fascinating but flawed history January 19, 2001
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
I ordered this book for the story of the Guam nurses. I found it a very important addition to the history of military women, WWII in the Pacific and POWs. But I also found some basic factual errors in the part of the story I know something about; the invasion of Guam. Read this fascinating book for the personal stories and details of war/POW experiences, but check the military/historical details in other books. The writing is somewhat difficult to wade through and the appendices confused me. The titles of the tables imply that they cover all the women POWs written about, but (except for the listing of Guam nurses) they do not appear to include the Guam POWs. I finally decided that the one listing ages shows their age at release. (Some were surprisingly old - in their 50s, few in their 20s.) In all a very interesting topic that deserves wider recognition.
 There is hell and then there is hell November 6, 2000
11 out of 20 found this review helpful
While it is horrible how our nurses were treated as POWs, by this account they lived in relative safety and comfort compared to their male counterparts where many were killed for sport, used for medical experiments, etc. While the facts are shocking, they reinforce the story given me by a Swiss friend who was also interred by the Japanese in the Philippines. I found the book difficult to read not due to content but rather due to writing style.
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