MASSACRE OF NURSES

Grey River Argus, 18 September 1945, Page 5

MASSACRE OF NURSES

By Japanese ON EAST INDIES ISLAND. SINGAPORE, September 16. Twenty-four Australian nurses, the only, survivors of a party of 65 whom the Japanese machine-gunned on Banka Island beach in February, 1942, have been rescued from Sumatra. They were found this morning about. 100 miles west of Palembang, and were flown to Singapore this afternoon. The 65 nurses left Singapore just before the fortress fell, in the auxiliary naval vessel, Vyner Brooke, which was sunk by Japanese bombers in Banka Strait.

Twenty-one nurses were massacred on Banka Island beach. Twelve are missing, and believed drowned, and eight died in prison. These, with the 24 survivors, make up the total of 65. ’ The Japanese ordered a party of 22 nurses to walk into the sea. A soldier with a tommy-gun opened fire and shot them down. After the shooting Japanese bayoneted those who were still alive, with the exception of Nurse Bullwinkel, who was thought to be dead. Before the massacre of the nurses, naval ratings and civilians, who were also on the Vyner Brooke, were lined up and ordered to face the sea, and-were shot, but some escaped by dashing into the sea. Among the nurses who died in prison was Sister Gladys L. Hughes, of Walmsley Road, Waihi.

Sub-Lieutenant R. J. Murray, of New Zealand, who has just been rescued in Siam, narrated that three of the nurses were drowned, with many of the crew. A group of officers got ashore with the rest of the nurses, but ran into a Japanese patrol. Japanese took the naval officers off into the jungle and returned without them. They next marched a group of nurses into’ the water and bayoneted them in the back and machine-gunned them. Staff Nurse Bullwinkel, of Adelaide, survived, falling into the water with bullet wounds in the shoulder and being left for dead. Crawling into the jungle she wandered several days before being captured. Escaping once again, she reached Java, where the Japanese found her working in a village hospital. A German doctor in the same’village made secret arrangements with friends, and had Nurse Bullwinkel removed to another hospital in Bandoeng, where Murray met her and heard her story. Nurse Bullwinkel said: “We all knew that we were going to die. We stood waiting and there’ were no protests. The .sisters died bravely. Their marvellous courage prevented my calling out when I was hit.” ■ The rescued nurses are all much below normal weight. They told of drudgery, semi-starvation, cuffings and indignities. Eight died in prison camps. The evacuation of Australian war prisoners from Singapore has been suspended, because the Australians refused to travel on the troop deck, and demanded cabin accommodation. The Flag Admiral of Malay_a declined to allow shins to leave the port with SO per cent.’of the space not utilised. General Dempsey has assumed command of the British forces in Malaya.

“AUSTRALIA WILL NEVER FORGET! 1 ” MR F’CRDE ON NURSES’ MASSACRE. (Rec. 8.50) SYDNEY, Sept. 17.. Mr J. M. Forde, Australian Minister for the Army declared: “Australia will never forget,” when he was describing the massacre of the nurses at Sandakan. He said:. “These were two of the worst atrocities evei perpetrated in the world’s history. This is a further proof of Japanese barbarity. It lays emphasis on the need for rounding up the Japanese war criminals and bringing them to book,” he added. LINER’S PASSENGERS SLAIN (Rec 115) SINGAPORE, Sept. 17. Further details of the massacre of nurses show that after the sinking of the liner “Brooke,” her passengers were fired on while struggling in the sea. Those who were not drowned or killed landed from lifeboats and rafts at separate _ places on the hanks' of the island. Many survivors, including children, were killed on the beach soon after landing. All of the party that got ashore would have been clain they had not escaped observation oy a Japanese patrol

which killed the earlier ones. The liner “Brooke’s” passengers were widely scattered during the night after the sinking, and parties landed at various places along the beach. To this fact most of the survivors owe their lives. After being rescued on Sunday, survivors were taken to hospital. Some were human skeletons, barely able to walk, and others were painfully thin after three and a-half years of privations. CHINESE WANT YAMASHITA INDICTED. (Rec. 11.5). SINGAPORE, Sept. 17. .There is a banner stretched across the main street of the Chinese section of Singapore which appeals to the United Nations to return General Yamashita (who commanded in the Philippines) to Singapore for trial as a war criminal, because, it says, he is to be held responsible for the deaths of thousands of Singapore Chinese at the hands of the occupation army’s secret police.