"The Angels of Bataan"
Dublin Core
Title
"The Angels of Bataan"
Subject
US Government racist propaganda about nurses interned by Japanese
Description
The colorful image here is a government poster promoting increased morale during the war. This propaganda calls for the American people to keep fighting in order to free American military nurses imprisoned by the Japanese, portraying the captive nurses as pristine, white, "angelic" beings held captive by a Japanese soldier with grotesque features typical of the racist imagery of people of color, particularly war enemies. It is also an overly fantasized image of what imprisonment by the enemy in a foreign climate was like for these women.
Nurses interned on Bataan, Corregidor, and in other parts of the Philippines by Japanese forces suffered various injustices and inhumane conditions. Many lost severe amounts of weight due to constant hunger, especially when the food that was provided was not worth consuming. Many women suffered from dysentery and malaria, and had to combine their efforts with fellow nurses and with interned American soldiers to build shanty-like shelters out of bamboo and other available materials for some semblance of privacy. There was little medicine available for most, and day in and day out these women lived in fear of being poisoned, shot, and starving to death, amongst other possibilities for harm. Many witnessed brutalities against civilians in the area and Allied soldiers interned as POWs in the camps that they would never forget.
Yet, despite all of this pain, humiliation, terror, and suffering, the majority of the nurses interned continued to do their jobs. They cared for their fellow internees, cleverly using whatever resources they had available to them. They treated civilians, American soldiers, Australian soldiers, and other inmates at the camps they were trapped in, and even treated enemy patients. They managed to continue their mission of healing the sick and wounded even in their dire circumstances. They deserve more recognition for their sacrifices and their courage than racist propaganda portraying them as helpless victims of circumstance.
The second, black and white image shown here is of the liberation of some of the real "Angels of Bataan" on February 12, 1945.
Nurses interned on Bataan, Corregidor, and in other parts of the Philippines by Japanese forces suffered various injustices and inhumane conditions. Many lost severe amounts of weight due to constant hunger, especially when the food that was provided was not worth consuming. Many women suffered from dysentery and malaria, and had to combine their efforts with fellow nurses and with interned American soldiers to build shanty-like shelters out of bamboo and other available materials for some semblance of privacy. There was little medicine available for most, and day in and day out these women lived in fear of being poisoned, shot, and starving to death, amongst other possibilities for harm. Many witnessed brutalities against civilians in the area and Allied soldiers interned as POWs in the camps that they would never forget.
Yet, despite all of this pain, humiliation, terror, and suffering, the majority of the nurses interned continued to do their jobs. They cared for their fellow internees, cleverly using whatever resources they had available to them. They treated civilians, American soldiers, Australian soldiers, and other inmates at the camps they were trapped in, and even treated enemy patients. They managed to continue their mission of healing the sick and wounded even in their dire circumstances. They deserve more recognition for their sacrifices and their courage than racist propaganda portraying them as helpless victims of circumstance.
The second, black and white image shown here is of the liberation of some of the real "Angels of Bataan" on February 12, 1945.
Creator
United States Government, Unknown Artist
United States Army, Unknown Photographer
United States Army, Unknown Photographer
Source
"Angels of Bataan" Military Wikia Page, wikia.org: https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Bataan
Wikimedia Commons Page: "File: Nurses from Corregidor," image courtesy of the United States Government, 1943: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nurses_from_Corregidor.jpg
Wikimedia Commons Page: "File: Army Nurses Rescued from Santo Tomas 1945," image courtesy of the United States Army: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Army_nurses_rescued_from_Santo_Tomas_1945g.jpg
Wikimedia Commons Page: "File: Nurses from Corregidor," image courtesy of the United States Government, 1943: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nurses_from_Corregidor.jpg
Wikimedia Commons Page: "File: Army Nurses Rescued from Santo Tomas 1945," image courtesy of the United States Army: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Army_nurses_rescued_from_Santo_Tomas_1945g.jpg
Publisher
United States Government, United States Army
Date
Accessed 3/16/2020
Rights
Public Domain
Relation
We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan, by Elizabeth Norman, October 29, 2013:https://www.amazon.com/We-Band-Angels-American-Trapped/dp/0812984846
Format
Digital image of poster (jpg) and photograph (jpg)
Language
English
Type
Still Images
Identifier
US Government Propaganda World War II, Angels of Bataan, racist propaganda, nurses in World War II
Coverage
Racist US Government Propaganda World War II, Angels of Bataan, American nurses in World War II
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
colorized paper poster and black and white photograph
Collection
Citation
United States Government, Unknown Artist United States Army, Unknown Photographer, “"The Angels of Bataan",” US Nurses in World War II, accessed April 20, 2024, https://usnursesww2.omeka.net/items/show/6.