Vivian Bullwinkel, the Bangka Island massacre and the guilt of the survivor: FLASHBACK 2017
The shocking truth about the Bangka Island Massacre, in which more than 80 nurses and soldiers were killed by Japanese soldiers, was re-examined by the ABC this week. Compass program, referencing the Independent Australia article below.
This important report by Tess Lawrence, a nurse and one of two people trusted by survivor Vivian Bullwinkel, revealed the truth about the infamous massacre and was first published in 2017.
*CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses rape
NURSE VIVIAN BULLWINKELSurvivor’s guilt gnawed at his brain and heart more than the Japanese bullet that had pierced his body.
How to close such an invisible wound? Where is the bandage that can bind a broken heart?
Where is the key that will lock the memories and tame the unwanted and haunting flashbacks of the horrors he witnessed and experienced?
How can we ignore such inhumanity? How can the brain not think of this?
I’ve seen this look in Vivian Bullwinkel’s eyes reflected in the eyes of other survivors of man-made and natural disasters: Holocaust survivors, famine survivors, car accidents, sexual abuse, wildfires, bombings, veterans, whistleblowers, bank victims, refugees, and more.
Survivors’ post-traumatic stress not fully understood
post-traumatic stress The situation of the survivors is still not fully understood. It remains difficult to treat.
Different things may work for different people. Or we don’t work at all.
While for some, talking about the actual trauma can be helpful and therapeutic, for others, remembering and retelling the “event,” whether public or private, or even to oneself, causes the horror to be relived in such a brutal, vivid way that further and more serious mental injury occurs.
This week’s 75s commemorationshe Anniversary of the Malayan Expedition and Fall of Singapore and today’s 74he anniversary first Japanese bombings Darwin’s story brought back memories of encountering the sole survivor of Japanese soldiers’ cowardly and infamous massacre of 21 nurses from the Australian Army Nursing Service and a civilian woman in the waters just off Radji Beach on Indonesia’s Bangka Island near Sumatra.
The Japanese occupied the island and operated several prisoner of war camps; Muntok.
Even though they wore nurses’ uniforms with the Red Cross emblem on their sleeves, the women were shown no mercy.
Bullwinkel could taste the blood of her sister nurses
They were ordered to march towards the sea, but were brutally shot in the back by their captors, who rowed into the Bangka Strait and bayoneted the women who were still alive.
Bullwinkel told me that the surrounding sea was stained with blood leaking from his and his friends’ bodies. He felt like he could taste blood in the water; he was swallowing.
Seeing that he was still alive despite being shot, Bullwinkel faked his death, trying to float, remaining motionless, trying not to drown. He tried desperately not to cough or vomit. He very much wanted to do both. He wanted to live, not die.
In fact, he said, a part of him died that day, February 16, 1942.
The nurses, like the other 181 passengers and 47 crew on the Scottish-built ship, had already endured the tragedy. S.S. Vyner Brooke (the third and last one is named) White Rajah of Sarawak), who were evacuated from Singapore On February 12.
The next day, shortly after crossing into the Bangka Strait, in a flat sea, the steamer was bombed by Japanese aircraft and took less than half an hour to sink.
After spending long hours in the water, some clinging to debris, some clinging to life alone, approximately 150 passengers, including Bullwinkel and her sister nurses, finally managed to reach the shores of Bangka Island.
Later, while Muntok was in the prison camp, Bullwinkel and the other nurses kept quiet about her being the sole survivor of that massacre (there were several), otherwise it would have meant certain death for her.
However, everyone agreed that those who survived this hell and returned home would honor and keep alive the memories of those who were killed.
As the sole survivor, Bullwinkel felt a heavy responsibility on several levels. Firstly, to give any information to their family and friends to honor their deceased sister.
He was generous about it.
Second, to give an official account to the authorities and the world, so that these war crimes do not go unnoticed, if not punished.
Vivian Bullwinkel was tormented by two terrible secrets
Vivian continued to testify at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which met in Tokyo in 1946. The trial was a less than honest affair and was “postponed” in 1948.
The Americans did not want to overly anger Japan and jeopardize political, strategic, and economic opportunities. Wikipedia bill gives a more accurate picture than some official dates.
The tyrannical and aggressive influence of the notorious General Douglas MacArthurTrump, who was an absolute certainty for a job in President Trump’s administration had he lived in less interesting times, found himself at least getting his way, if not the United States.
Each time Bullwinkel revealed his memories of the massacre, he willingly ripped out another piece of his heart; This accelerated his own recovery. He wasn’t jealous even for a second. He felt that this was his calling. He was allowed to live so that he could become a messenger.
He told the truth, but he did not tell the whole truth about the events that led to the massacre. He didn’t lie.
I met Vivian Bullwinkel a few times in Melbourne; at least twice at the defunct Naval and Military Club on Little Collins Street, which was once a leisure centre. Earl Mountbatten and their president boasts of the General John Monash and Marshal Thomas Blamey.
We thought about how his life might have gone in a different direction if he hadn’t been flat-footed and rejected by the Royal Australian Air Force.
I don’t remember whether he was there or at the nearby Windsor Hotel when he confidentially told me two things he is keeping secret for now – but he said there would come a time when he would speak publicly about both.
These secrets tortured him, and by keeping these secrets locked up, his sense of justice was offended.
Japanese raped nurses before massacre on Bangka Island
The first issue was that he confirmed the poorly kept secret that most of “us” (i.e. he and the women who were shot) had previously been “violated” by Japanese soldiers.
The second issue was about this violation, and it bothered him greatly. This situation caused him great mental and emotional anguish and distress.
Bullwinkel was instructed by the government not to say anything about the rapes
He wanted to mention this in his testimony at the war crimes tribunal, but was under orders from the Australian Government not to do so.
This is another outrageous example of the conflation of political and military interests in rape as a weapon of war and rape as a right of militia entertainment, sanctioned by nation states and warmongers.
Japan’s long-standing denials and its wholesale rape of prisoners of war and even the so-called “comfort woman” has actually been further fueled for decades by the reluctance of countries, including Australia, to support calls for justice and hold the Government of Japan accountable.
remember Anger, propaganda and denial when the priest Invoice Teams Was there a place in the Ashfield Uniting Church where there was a memorial dedicated to comforting women?
Where were our opposition politicians of all colors when he became Prime Minister of Japan? Shinzo Abe Were you here the other day? Where is our political courage and sense of justice?
Why are we uncomfortable with our own abused comfort women?
We should definitely say hello here. bravery Australian Jan Ruff-O’HerneShe was imprisoned by the Japanese as a “comfort woman”.
At 94 years old, she is still fighting for justice and recognition not only for South Korean women, but also for women of other nationalities held as sex slaves.
It is often thanks to the insistence of family members that war atrocities are acknowledged, let alone owned, by the perpetrators.
Consider the Fairfax reporter Jewelry Topsfield‘s moving article About families honoring nurse Kath Neuss and 8 other nurseshe An Australian Imperial Force Division was shot dead in the massacre.
On what was in many ways a journey of discovery for Kath’s nephew, Michael Noyce, Topsfield writes:
When Sister Bullwinkel returned to Australia, she contacted the families of all the deceased sisters. He gave some of his remarkable last words before he was murdered. Mr Noyce will read them on Thursday at Radji Beach.
“Girls, take this, don’t squeal,” said Sister Esther Sarah Jean Stewart.
These may have been the last words spoken by any of her sisters that Vivian Bullwinkel heard that day, and which resonated with her for decades to come.
It’s time to scream for justice and truth
Bullfighting She went on to have a wonderful nursing career in Australia, collecting honors that I know she accepted graciously and always on behalf of her fallen comrades.
his entrance Australian War Memorial website is insufficient and the lack of information and detail needs to be addressed.
Ironically, given her “no shouting” order about rapes at the war crimes tribunal, she was appointed the first female trustee of the Australian War Memorial Council.
It is time to reconsider the Bangka Island Massacre. It’s time for a real investigation.
It’s time to shout and scream for justice as well as truth.
If you would like to speak to someone about sexual violence please call the 1800 Respect helpline on 1800 737 732 or chat online.
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