Sister Vivian Bullwinkel joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1941.
In addition to the Australian nurses, the ship was crammed with over two hundred civilian evacuees and English military personnel. As the Vyner Brooke was passing between Sumatra and Borneo, Japanese aircraft bombed and strafed the overloaded ship and it sank quickly. Twelve Australian nurses were either killed in the attack on the ship or drowned in the sea. The remaining 53 nurses reached Bangka island in lifeboats, on rafts, or by drifting with the tide. Wearing their Red Cross armbands, and having protected status as non-combatants by convention of civilised nations, the nurses expected to be treated in a civilised manner by the Japanese when they reached shore. However, their expectations were short lived. The survivors were rounded into a building that was filthy and overcrowded. They were tired, thirsty, and hungry. Some were suffering from exposure to the sun after many hours immersed in the sea, and some had been wounded in the attacks on the ship and the lifeboats. The unlucky survivors, including 22 Australian nurses, landed in lifeboats on the northern coast of Bangka Island and lit a bonfire to guide other survivors to them. Sister Vivian Bullwinkel was in this group of nurses. The 22 Australian nurses stayed to look after the injured, and they made and erected a red cross to indicate to the Japanese that they were non-combatants. |
Then the Japanese who had gone with the men came back wiping their bayonets . . . we just looked at each other. We didn't have any emotion about it.
I think by this time we'd had shock added to everything else. The Japanese came and stood in front of us and indicated that we should go into the sea. And we walked into the sea with our backs to them. We knew what was going to happen to us, but all I can remember thinking was, 'I am sorry Mother will never know what has happened to me but it will be nice to see Dad again.' We didn't talk among ourselves. It was quite silent. We were drained of emotion. There were no tears. Perhaps I was thinking, 'How can anything as terrible as this be happening in such a beautiful place?' |