Australian nurse was ordered to keep war crimes secret (World War II)

[TomSea]

Sydney Morning Herald:

Australian nurse was ordered to keep war crimes secret
Tim Barlass

"The reason Vivian Bullwinkel did not come clean, which she intended to do before her death, was because she was ordered when she was still in the army, not to include these details in her depositions to the Tokyo war crimes tribunal."

The only other reference to violation was taken out of archives and destroyed because it never went to trial, she said.

    They said to me on several occasions there are some things we have agreed to never talk about, but they wouldn't say what it was.
    Lynette Silver, historian

Sixty-five Australian nurses were evacuated from Singapore before it fell to the Japanese in February, 1942. Their ship, the Vyner Brooke, was bombed and sank, with 22 nurses reaching Radji beach on Banka Island, Sumatra. They were later joined by 25 British soldiers.

When Japanese soldiers arrived, the men were taken aside and murdered and the women were marched into the water and machine-gunned. As they were prodded with bayonets into the water, Sister Esther Stewart called out: "Girls take it, don't squeal."

Read more at: https://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-nurse-was-ordered-to-keep-war-crimes-secret-20190322-p516jg.html