A Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2017
Glamorous American singer Claire Phillips opened a nightclub in manila,
using the earnings to secretly feed starving American POWs. She also
began working as a spy, chatting up Japanese military men and passing
their secrets along to local guerrilla resistance fighters. Australian
Army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel, stationed in Singapore, then shipwrecked
in the the Dutch East Indies, became the sole survivor of a horrible
massacre by Japanese soliders. She hid for days, tending to a seriously
wounded British soldier while wounded herself. Humanitarian Elizabeth
Choy lived the rest of her life hating war, though not her tormentors,
after enduring six months of starvation and torture by the Japanese
military police.
In these pages, readers will meet these and other courageous women and
girls who risked their lives through their involvement in the Pacific
Theater of Operations during World War II. Fifteen suspense-filled
stories unfold across China, Japan, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East
Indies, and the Philippines, providing an inspiring reminder of womens'
and girls' refusal to sit on the sidelines around the world and
throughout history.
These women--whose stories span 1932 to 1945, the last year of the
war--served in dangerous roles as spies, medics, journalists, resisters,
and saboteurs. Seven of them were captured and imprisoned by the
Japanese, enduring brutal conditions. Author Kathryn J. Atwood provides
appropriate context and framing for teens 14 and up to grapple with
these harsh realities of war. Discussion questions and a guide for
further study assist readers and educators in learning about this
important and often neglected period of history.
