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Grit’: An informative, harrowing tale of nurses’
survival as Japanese prisoners
By Abby McGanney Nolan March 11,
2014
War is hell, whether you are the
soldier fighting the enemy, the medic tending the wounded or the civilian
caught in the crossfire. Mary Cronk Farrell’s informative, sometimes upsetting
book follows a group of U.S. military nurses
who had been stationed, quite happily, in the Philippines before Pearl Harbor.
“I had no idea there was going to be a war,” one later lamented. “That’s how
naive I was.” “Pure Grit” begins with a map featuring Luzon,
the country’s largest island and the location of Manila, Bataan and a number of
POW camps during World War II. The well-
researched narrative, however, is less about military campaigns than about the drama of the people on the ground, particularly those 67 nurses
who became prisoners of war. All they knew about Allied strategy was that they
weren’t being rescued. Amid near-constant bombing, food ran short and trenches
were dug around makeshift hospitals to protect staff, patients and medical
supplies. Thousands of people were transported to a massive underground
facility that was safe from bombs but not from “the stench of sweat, blood,
disinfectants, anesthetics, overused latrines, and wounds with decomposing
flesh.” Farrell doesn’t spare her young readers any grim details, including the
physical effects of starvation, malaria and dysentery, as well as the mental
strain of caring for the sick, the injured and the dying under harrowing
conditions. She includes the challenges these women faced and the joy they felt
on returning home. As awful as history can be, now might be the right time to
introduce the next generation to this important period.
who had been stationed, quite happily, in the Philippines before Pearl Harbor.
“I had no idea there was going to be a war,” one later lamented. “That’s how
naive I was.” “Pure Grit” begins with a map featuring Luzon,
the country’s largest island and the location of Manila, Bataan and a number of
POW camps during World War II. The well-researched narrative, however, is less about military campaigns than about the drama of the people on the ground, particularly those 67 nurses
who became prisoners of war. All they knew about Allied strategy was that they
weren’t being rescued. Amid near-constant bombing, food ran short and trenches
were dug around makeshift hospitals to protect staff, patients and medical
supplies. Thousands of people were transported to a massive underground
facility that was safe from bombs but not from “the stench of sweat, blood,
disinfectants, anesthetics, overused latrines, and wounds with decomposing
flesh.” Farrell doesn’t spare her young readers any grim details, including the
physical effects of starvation, malaria and dysentery, as well as the mental
strain of caring for the sick, the injured and the dying under harrowing
conditions. She includes the challenges these women faced and the joy they felt
on returning home. As awful as history can be, now might be the right time to
introduce the next generation to this important period.
— Abby McGanney Nolan
PURE GRIT
How American World War II
Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp
in the Pacific
Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp
in the Pacific
By Mary Cronk Farrell
“Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific” by Mary Cronk Farrell and Diane Carlson Evans. (Abrams/Abrams)
Abrams. $24.95. Ages 10 to 16
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