November 11, 2016 Hello ,
I'm having a great time in Pittsburgh! Fannie is a huge hit. I've been speaking to two or three groups a day, including students and various local groups.
This afternoon at Jubilee Christian School, I learned the curriculum is an integrated program where
they teach a subject for two months in depth covering all disciplines, including math, science, language, current events and history. Along with those disciplines, every aspect is looked at through the lense of justice.
I was amazed by these bright young students and their
committed teachers. Sixth graders are in the middle of a unit on U.S. Immigration and they had great context for Fannie's story. Visiting this school gave me a lot of hope.
But this book tour thing is exhausting! I
haven't found the time and energy to write a story for this weeks newsletter. Forgive me for re-running this prior post in celebration of our nation's veterans.
The Last Desperate Days on Corregidor |
"Situation here is fast becoming desperate," General Jonathon Wainwright cabled General Douglas MacArthur May 3, 1942. The next night the Navy risked a daring mission, as Submarine Spearfish glided past a Japanese minesweeper and destroyer, to surface. A small boat motored out to meet it carrying 25-passengers, including eleven nurses. Read more about Spearfish rescue...
What would turn out to be the last U.S. mail shipment to leave Corregidor was also taken
aboard, including some hastily scrawled letters to family. Army Nurse Hattie Brantley didn't bother. "I couldn't write a letter to my family. What was I going to say?"
The Spearfish dived 200 feet below the sea, stealing away toward Australia, leaving fifty-four army nurses and twenty-six Filipina nurses behind.
In the next 24-hours over May 4 and 5, the Japanese hammered Corregidor with some 16,000 shells, then as the first
landing force took the beaches, nurses on duty in Corregidor's underground hospital destroyed records, keeping their gas masks handy.
Alice is shown below in the center with the white turban. Along with L to R,Army nurses Helen Cassini, Anne Wurtz, Letha McHale, Kay Acorn, and Rita Palmer, all eventually captured by the Japanese. Submarine In the next 24-hours over May 4 and 5, the Japanese hammered Corregidor with some 16,000 shells, then as the first landing force took the beaches, nurses on duty in Corregidor's
underground hospital destroyed records, keeping their gas masks handy.
Another nurse ventured into the main tunnel just before the surrender. Dirty, hungry and exhausted men filled the passageway. "Some asked for water, some for food, and the pity was that we had very little of either. Some were swearing, some staring into space. She hurried back to the nurses' lateral, where her off-duty colleagues huddled, starved for food and for
news.
The next wave of Japanese rolled tanks onto Corregidor's beaches and Wainwright imagined the wholesale slaughter that would befall his men, and "...I thought of the havoc that even one tank could wreak if it nosed into the tunnel, where lay our helpless wounded and their brave nurses."
He sent men out with white flags at 10A.M. Most nurses heard the news over the tunnel radio. Surrender would come at noon May 6.
"Now our facial expressions were stony, and we avoided letting our eyes meet," said Army Nurse Denny Williams. "Not only our
own hopeless fear, but collective fear, with it's power to panic, passed from person to person like a current, lurching and jolting on-off on-off, but always more intense until I had visions of our soldiers fighting until all were dead outside and the enemy came inside, screaming and brandishing swords and bayonets. I wondered if I would die and how I would die. I hoped to be quiet and brave."
The women had arrived
in the Philippines unprepared for war, but learned quickly when driven to the limits of endurance nursing wounded and dying American soldiers. Now they would face the horrors of prison camp for three years before General MacArthur would reclaim the Philippines and liberate them. Learn more...
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The weather's been great in Pittsburgh, and I'm have a great time exploring the city.
"Filled with
actual newspaper clippings—still readable—photographs, and eyewitness testimony, Fannie Never Flinched is mesmerizing...Mary Cronk Farrell, thanks to Fannie Never
Flinched, and her other titles, may be one today’s most influential and important historian in children’s literature." Seriously. That's what it says.
Are you on Goodreads? It's a site where you record all the books you read, discover books you might want to read and rave about books you love. Why do I like Goodreads? Because my brain has turned into a sieve and I can't remember all the books I
read. On Goodreads, I can look them up, and even read what I thought about them when I read them!
If you are a Goodreads member, please click here to vote for FANNIE
NEVER FLINCHED on a list of books for kids about outstanding women. Until next week... Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy
my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe below anytime with a single mouse click. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary
Questions? Comments? Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. |
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