All This Hell

U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese

Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee

Narrated by Michelle Murillo

Available from Audible

Book published by The University Press of Kentucky

"Even though women were not supposed to be on the front lines, on the front lines we were. Women were not supposed to be interned either, but it happened to us. People should know what we endured. People should know what we can endure." —Lt. Col. Madeline Ullom

More than one hundred U.S. Army and Navy nurses were stationed in Guam and the Philippines at the beginning of World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, five navy nurses on Guam became the first American military women of World War II to be taken prisoner by the Japanese. More than seventy army nurses survived five months of combat conditions in the jungles of Bataan and Corregidor before being captured, only to endure more than three years in prison camps. When freedom came, the U.S. military ordered the nurses to sign agreements with the government not to discuss their horrific experiences. Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee have conducted numerous interviews with survivors and scoured archives for letters, diaries, and journals to uncover the heroism and sacrifices of these brave women.

Evelyn M. Monahan served as a U.S. Army medic during the Vietnam era and is a retired psychologist.

Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee served in the Navy Nurse Corps during the Vietnam era and has held a number of clinical and administrative posts within the Department of Veterans Affairs.