A full day for us tomorrow
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (356320)
Rockingham, Australia
June 18, 2025 7:04pm CST
Tomorrow, we have two functions to attend. Hopefully, we’ll be able to cope with so much activity on the one day. 
In the morning, we’ll attend a play called 21 Hearts. It tells the story of Vivian Bullwinkel, one of 65 Australian nurses who were on board the Vyner Brooke in February, 1942. The ship was loaded with people attempting to flee the Japanese invasion of Singapore, but was bombed by fighter planes and sank.
Some survivors made their way to Radji Beach on Banka Island but were eventually forced to surrender to the Japanese. The men in the group were all murdered and 22 nurses were forced to march into the sea before being machine-gunned by soldiers on the beach. A bullet passed through Vivian Bullwinkel, missing vital organs. She pretended to be dead until the Japanese left the scene. She then spent 12 days in the jungle, together with a badly wounded British army soldier.
Although under very different circumstances,, Vivian shares a link with the sole survivor of the Indian air crash, Vivian also would have had to cope with being the only of her group to survive. She devoted her life to nursing and to honouring those killed on that beach.
This play tells the story of Bullwinkel and her comrades, and remembers the courage and resilience of those who were silenced.
In the morning, we’ll attend a play called 21 Hearts. It tells the story of Vivian Bullwinkel, one of 65 Australian nurses who were on board the Vyner Brooke in February, 1942. The ship was loaded with people attempting to flee the Japanese invasion of Singapore, but was bombed by fighter planes and sank.
Some survivors made their way to Radji Beach on Banka Island but were eventually forced to surrender to the Japanese. The men in the group were all murdered and 22 nurses were forced to march into the sea before being machine-gunned by soldiers on the beach. A bullet passed through Vivian Bullwinkel, missing vital organs. She pretended to be dead until the Japanese left the scene. She then spent 12 days in the jungle, together with a badly wounded British army soldier.
Although under very different circumstances,, Vivian shares a link with the sole survivor of the Indian air crash, Vivian also would have had to cope with being the only of her group to survive. She devoted her life to nursing and to honouring those killed on that beach.
This play tells the story of Bullwinkel and her comrades, and remembers the courage and resilience of those who were silenced.10 people like this
8 responses
@xFiacre (13763)
• Ireland
2h
@JudyEv I reluctantly watched a holocaust film, Sarah’s Key I think, and was shocked that it was filmed in the building where my brother lived in Paris. The building really was in the Jewish quarter and we had spent so many happy times there not knowing what had gone before.
@JudyEv (356320)
• Rockingham, Australia
3h
Some plays/films are very confronting. I have seen Tenko. I remember White Coolies was a radio play on a similar subject that my folks would listen to when I was about 8 or 9. I think I used to get sent off to bed.
@AliCanary (3322)
•
10h
What a horrifying experience! The cruelty of the Japanese soldiers in the war was absolutely breathtaking, and it's so crazy because Japanese people are always so friendly and helpful nowadays.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (356320)
• Rockingham, Australia
9h
POWs in other countries were never subjected to the atrocities that the Japanese inflicted on their prisoners. Some older Australians never lost their animosity towards the Japanese but most of those older people are gone now.
