Kate’s 2¢: “We, Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan, By Elizabeth M. Norman

“We, Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan, By Elizabeth M. Norman

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

I read about “The Battling Belles of Bataan”, as told in We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese by Elizabeth M. Norman (1999) Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc. ISBN 0-671-78718

They were the members of the United States Army Nurse Corps and the United States Navy Nurse Corps who were stationed in the Philippines at the outset of the Pacific War and served during the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42). When Bataan and Corregidor fell, 11 Navy nurses, 66 army nurses, and 1 nurse-anesthetist were captured and imprisoned in and around Manila.

If this type of book would be made required reading for young people, maybe more would realize that real wars are lose/lose situations.

I encourage you to read this book.

There are several other books on this topic.  I wonder if they all agree?

From Wikipedia:

Norman earned a Ph.D. and M.A. from New York University and a B.S. from Rutgers University. She is a registered nurse.[1] Norman has served as director of the doctoral program at New York University’s Division of Nursing in the School of Education.[2]

As an author, Norman has made significant contributions to the field of women’s military history. Her work brings to light the often-neglected experiences of women during wartime. Her first book, Women at War, examines the previously untold experience of fifty women who served as nurses during the Vietnam War. Her second book, We Band of Angels, is based on interviews with female nurses who were held captive by the Japanese for three years in Bataan, Philippines during World War II. Norman was the first to speak to these women, known as the Angels of Bataan, about the tragedy they endured.[3] She described the experience of conducting these interviews as, “women talking candidly about women swept up in a lethal enterprise of men.”[4] Her third book, Tears in the Darkness, is a history of the Bataan Death March and the American, Filipino, and Japanese combatants who were involved.[5]

Her inspiration to write about military nurses came from her experience as a nurse as well as the fact that both her mother and husband have served in the U.S. military.[3]

Works[edit]

• Norman, Elizabeth M. (1999). We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese. New York: Random House. ISBN 0671787187. OCLC 39930499.
• Norman, Elizabeth M. (1990). Women at war: the story of fifty military nurses who served in Vietnam. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812282493. OCLC 21332836.
• Norman, Michael; Norman, Elizabeth M. (2009). Tears in the darkness : the story of the Bataan Death March and its aftermath. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 9780374272609. OCLC 263984541.

From NLX/BARD/LOC

*We band of angels: the untold story of American nurses trapped on Bataan by the Japanese DB50664

Norman, Elizabeth M. Reading time: 13 hours, 30 minutes.

Read by Kerry Dukin.

War and the Military

World History and Affairs

Traces the experiences of the army and navy nurses who were trapped on the Philippine Islands during World War II. Nicknamed the “Angels of Bataan and Corregidor,” the women worked in makeshift jungle hospitals before being captured and sent to prison camps for three years. But all seventy-seven survived. Some violence. 1999.