All This Hell

Heroic accounts of American women who faced combat, surrender, and captivity. “One chapter in the annals of World War II that must be told.” —Rear Admiral Frances Shea Buckley, Nurse Corps, US Navy (Ret.)

Before December 1941 drew to a close, five navy nurses on Guam became the first American military women of WWII to be taken prisoner by the Japanese. More than seventy army nurses survived five months of combat conditions in the jungles of Bataan and Corregidor before being captured, only to endure more than three years in prison camps. In all, nearly one hundred nurses became POWs.

Many of these army nurses were considered too vital to the war effort to be evacuated from the Philippines. Though receiving only half the salary of male officers of the same rank, they helped establish outdoor hospitals and treated thousands of casualties despite rapidly decreasing supplies and rations. After their capture, they continued to care for the sick and wounded throughout their internment in the prison camps.

When freedom came, the U.S. military ordered the nurses to sign agreements with the government not to discuss their horrific experiences. Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee have conducted interviews with survivors and scoured archives to uncover the heroism and sacrifices of these brave women. All This Hell “adds a tremendous chapter to the narrative of women prisoners in wartime by following a cast of characters almost cinematically through their daily routines and their reflections recorded in letters, diaries, and interviews” (Rain Taxi).

“Based upon both oral histories and published biographical and autobiographical accounts, the book provides a readable and gripping introduction to the topic for all readers.” —Library Journal