May 5, 2016 Hello ,
I'm so grateful to the Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society for the opportunity to talk about the American WWII POW Nurses last week. I focused on the qualities that helped the nurses survive during the long years of their
captivity.
The nurses gathered at this conference have many challenges as they help kids with juvenile diabetes and other endocrine issues stay healthy and live full
lives. Here's what I told them about How Grit Arises in the Darkest Places.
In my research I discovered that the POW nurses kept a sense of humor, often in the worst moments they chose to make a joke. Many mentioned their religious faith and their belief that they would be rescued by "the good old U.S.A."
The Army and Navy nurses had strong leadership. Their officers preserved the
group identity as US military personnel, and set a standard of discipline and behavior. All of these things were important. (Below, Army Nurse Frankie Lewey takes a wounded man's pulse. 1945)
But I believe the key factor that helped the WWII nurses survive was their sense of purpose. In setting up a hospital and
caring for others, they had an internally-driven purpose toward which they could use their gifts, a purpose that was greater than themselves.
When they were weak from disease and starvation, this purpose, this vocation, drove them to get up in the morning and caring for others gave meaning to the never-ending days, to the long hours, to each moment. Nursing them a reason to
live. I was so honored to give my first keynote at a national conference. It was a wonderful, supportive audience resulting in my longest autograph line ever. I felt like a rock star! I also had a terrific time visiting with the Minnesota
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators while I was in Minneapolis. We discussed how to write compelling nonfiction for kids.
With both groups I talked about how we don't have time for fear.
Fear causes us to pull inward with a grasping, clutching mentality. Often in times of a huge crisis like war, our
decisions and choices appear much more stark. Can we look to these women who were brave in wartime to inspire us in the circumstances of our own lives? Coincidentally, after last week's story from Kathryn Atwood, Unbroken: The Women's Story, another little-known heroine of the Pacific War turned up in the news.
Florence Smith Finch, member of the Philippine resistance during WWII was buried with full military honors in New York, Saturday, April 29, though she had died last December, get this, on December 8th, the day the Japanese had
attacked the Philippines in 1941. The daughter of an American army vet of the Spanish-American war and Filipino Maria Hermosa, Florence was tortured and imprisoned by the Japanese for aiding American POWs.
Before she died last year at age 101, Florence told her family she did not want her funeral to interfere with family holiday celebrations, nor require people to travel in winter weather, which is why she was not buried until this past weekend.
This concern for others seems to have characterized Florence's long life.
When the Japanese
took Manila, Florence chose to keep mum about her American heritage and was hired by the enemy forces to write out coupon books issued for fuel.
"A Filipino man asked for my help in falsifying documents to enable guerrillas to obtain fuel to operate
their trucks and then [I] wrote names on coupons to enable them to pick up their fuel supplies," Florence told a Coast Guard interviewer in 2008.
Florence was a newly-wed when the Japanese attacked, her young husband a navy
electrician's mate on a PT boat in Manila Bay. He was killed in action trying to bring supplies to American-Philippine forces surrounded on Corregidor Island. She was more than eager to assist the Philippine guerrilla fighters. (Shown below.) Besides diverting precious gasoline to the resistance, Florence was also a pick-up point for food, medicine, soap and clothing that the resistance smuggled to
starving American POWs.
For this she was arrested and interrogated. When she would not divulge names or information, she endured electric shocks and beatings. Like the American POWs shown above, Florence was imprisoned in the notorious Bilibid Prison in Manila before being sentenced to three years of hard labor and transferred to the women's prison.
She was incarcerated in a 2 by 4 foot cell and given only a small amounts of rice gruel. Liberated by America forces several months later in February 1945, she weighed 80 pounds.
Six months after being liberated from prison in the Philippines, Florence enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard SPARS to continue aiding in the war against the enemy that had taken her
husband, her home and her livelihood.
She was honored with the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon, and in 1947, she received the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the highest medal of honor awarded to Americans civilians.
Here's what she's
writing about in a recent blog. One more instance of how grit arises in the darkest places.
"I’ve written and spoken before about the role libraries played in saving my life. And about how literacy turned out to be the engine that would propel me out of poverty. I know, first hand, the power of your work. What’s more, I know that for many of your students, you are their last hope. And I also know that while
the problem of childhood poverty is huge and can feel overwhelming, you can make a difference and change outcomes for students."
"Like most kids, when I was little, I had a small collection of picture books. I don’t remember all of the titles, but some of my favorites included Curious George and those by Richard Scarry. When I was five, these books were lost to a fire - not a house fire, but rather, they were
used as kindling during a particularly cold winter when my family didn’t have money for electricity or firewood." ~Librarian Jennifer LaGarde
Until next week... Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know.
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