Everything that floated got pressed into service. The brown, oil-slicked water churned with debris. The images of the attack on Manila by the Japanese are vividly rendered: 'Down at the docks, chaos reigned as masses of people crowded the shore, desperately seeking transport to safer islands. This story not only reveals the struggles and discrimination women endured in this period of history, but the lengths some had to take to protect themselves. The author then moves Margie back in time in a rather unique way that makes the reader wonder whether Margie is experiencing her own thoughts or really witnessing her younger life.

The book begins in November 2000, when Margie is an old woman attending the funeral of her daughter, Barbara. The author does a dazzling job of pulling the reader into the story. This intricately woven novel asks the question, “how much can one woman take before she breaks?” Margie is a young farm girl who goes to nursing school and becomes an active nurse during World War II. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. When American planes appear in the sky, she excitedly waves and calls, 'We're here! We're here!' The liberation forces, however, bring with them a threat more dangerous than the Japanese guards, ensuring she will never truly be free of this evil place and all that has happened. For three years, she doubts her survival in the harsh environment, where she faces escalating danger, starvation and loss. Ultimately captured, she is interned at Santo Tomas, a Japanese prison camp in Manila.

With the Nips at her heels, she withdraws to an underground tunnel-hospital on the heavily fortified island of Corregidor. Army evacuates all personnel to the jungles of Bataan, where Margie tends to wounded, sick, and dying soldiers in open-air field hospitals.

Racing to stay ahead of the enemy, the U.S. Japanese bombers roar into the Philippines, turning everything in their paths to smoldering piles of rubble. Though rumors of war circulate, she feels safe-the island is fortified, the airbases are ample, and the Filipino troops are training intensively.ĭecember 8, 1941, her dream world shatters. She falls in love with the beauty of the island and a carefree social whirl of bridge games, pool parties, and dancing under twinkle-light stars with handsome young doctors. She delights in her assignment to Manila-the Pearl of the Orient. January 1941, Margie Bauer is called to active duty in the Army Nurse Corps of the United States Army Reserves. Follow a young woman whose life changes forever when she is captured and held prisoner of war by enemy forces. A World War II novel based on the American military nurses who served in the Philippines.

A pledge of silence by flora j solomon