Sister Bullwinkel: quick links
Sister Bullwinkel, the untold, uncensored story is not the first biography of Australia’s famously courageous wartime nurse (several have preceded it), but there’s a strong argument to be made that it should be the last and certainly most definitive.
But to begin appraising the book, it’s important to first address the overarching question that some readers may have. Is it the actual true (and uncensored) story? And if so, why wasn’t it published during Bullwinkel’s lifetime? Especially when it is considered that she recounted her experiences at the hands of the Japanese in World War II many times, but did not reveal what this author does. To the end she always stuck with the official sanitised version.
Sister Bullwinkel: forensic approach
Lynette Ramsay Silver AM OBE is well aware of this. And, accordingly, the octogenarian ‘history detective’ takes pains to address any doubts as to what Bullwinkel may have wanted to say, but didn’t (or couldn’t).
A Fellow of the Australian Institute of History and the Arts, her forensic approach to her craft and to verisimilitude is nothing if not rigorous. The briefest scan of her many publications and awards, to say nothing of her work in other related fields, such as the identification of war graves and investigation of fraudulent military service claims, is testament to this. She didn’t get those letters after her name for nothing. Silver is a genuine Australian history powerhouse.
Plus, she has covered some of this particular history before – in Angels of Mercy: Far West and Far East, in which she explored the experiences of one Vivian Bullwinkel’s fellow prisoners of war, Pat Gunther. Silver also presents compelling evidence in this book of not only what really happened to Bullwinkel on Bangka Island off the coast of Sumatra in February 1942, but also the long history of obfuscation, suppression and lying by omission that followed.
Sister Bullwinkel: massacre survivor
So when Silver writes that Bullwinkel and the other 21 nurses with her on Radji Beach that day were brutalised and raped before being mown down with bullets and bayonets, you have to believe her. She also presents detailed evidence suggesting that not only was Bullwinkel – the sole surviving nurse from this dreadful event – abused in this way, but that her treatment very probably left her with a long-lasting and undiagnosed sexually transmitted disease.
This is a very different scenario to the reported story, a story that has become legend over the last 80-plus years. The sanctioned version relayed countless times since the end of the war was of a group of women marched to the edge of the sea, ordered to walk in and then killed, in silence.
Bullwinkel herself would tell the story thus: ‘The sisters died bravely … I saw many of the sisters falling, but did not hear a single cry.’
With a non-life threatening wound, she played dead until the soldiers of Japan’s 38 Division had left the beach, before hiding in the jungle with a mortally wounded English soldier for some days before surrendering and spending the rest of the war in various Indonesian prison of war camps.
Sister Bullwinkel: the Australian government line
Why has it taken so long for the huge and deeply traumatic gaps in this oft told story to be revealed? In many ways, the original decision is understandable. The Australian government line was to protect the families of the victims – believing that if they had been made aware of the extent of the horror experienced by the nurses it would be even more devastating for them than the simple loss of a loved one.
That this remained the policy for so long, and was even adhered to as recently as Norman G Manners’ 2008 biography, Bullwinkel: The True Story of Vivian Bullwinkel, is where it starts to become less forgivable, and is certainly the reason that Silver writes in her prologue: ‘Vivian wanted a voice. I am proud, finally, to be able to give it to her’.
Sister Bullwinkel: the story continues
Horrendous as it may have been, and enough of a revelation to warrant Silver’s investigation, the massacre on Radji Beach is not the book’s entire focus. The author also supplies a thorough account of Bullwinkel’s background, journey into the nursing profession, life after the war and, most notably, the three years that she spent as a prisoner of the Japanese forces, following the Radji murders of her colleagues.
And it’s here that the author’s scholarship and astonishing eye for detail really comes into its own. Clearly (and the seven-page ‘select’ bibliography attests to this) she spent a vast amount of time poring over records, diaries and the like to glean the most detailed and full account of the POWs’ daily lives – down to the most minute details of the rations they were allocated at any given time.
This exhaustive result is incredibly impressive, but it does also mean that the narrative becomes challenging to follow eventually, particularly when it comes to the names and histories of the many people that cross Bullwinkel’s path – both fellow detainees and their oppressors.
There is also a lack of the same sort of detail when it comes to image captioning, which is a pity, but only because the text is so incredibly dense and well-researched.
Read: The Far Side of the Moon and Other Stories: former journalist Jana Wendt’s new book
Perhaps one of the most important sections comes right at the end, however, where Silver takes the time and space to write about each and every one of the 21 nurses who didn’t survive the massacre on Radji Beach. They are all listed with their name, photograph and an explanation of exactly who they were.
It’s a deeply respectful touch from the author and another sign of her unquestionable integrity.
Sister Bullwinkel: the untold, uncensored story by Lynette Ramsay Silver is published by Sally Milner Publishing.
Discover more screen, games & arts news and reviews on ScreenHub and ArtsHub. Sign up for our free ArtsHub and ScreenHub newsletters.
