THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605290600
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY EDITH R. WHITE
LENGTH: 72 lines
WHAT A WAY TO SPEND A WAR
Navy Nurse POWS in the Philippines
DOROTHY STILL DANNER
Naval Institute Press. 230 pp. $27.95
Dorothy Still Danner, or Dottie, Registered Nurse, signed on as a U.S. Navy nurse in 1937 and spent two wonderful years working in Los Angeles near her home. The duty was good, and there were lots of young doctors and aviation cadets to date.
So she was stunned when she received orders to the Naval Hospital at Canacao, Philippine Islands. She had never even been out of California. This book is a journal of the next six years of her life.
Danner describes herself in What a Way to Spend a War as tall, slim, athletic, with a turned up nose that gets her teased. From her pictures it is clear that she is blonde and pretty. She found her duty in the islands good and enjoyed the romantic atmosphere, parties and attractive men.
But she was so naive.
She thought that anything in writing must be true, and that if a handsome Navy man named Johnny dated her often, he must intend marriage. When he laughed at this idea, she flounced out and fired off a furious note telling him that he and his ship, the Houston, could go to hell.
Next day came the Pearl Harbor attack. Soon Japanese planes bombed and flattened the U.S. Navy yard in the Philippines and sank many of our ships. The hospital was flooded with casualties, and Danner had her first experience with mortally wounded men. The hospital was in a target area and had to be moved. But through all the strains of war there kept running through Dottie's head worries about Johnny. Would her letter bring him bad luck? Was his ship sunk? Was he alive?
Danner was among 11 Navy nurses held prisoner for more than three years, first at a makeshift hospital, and then at a civilian internment camp named Los Banos. The camp was crowded. Hours were spent waiting in long lines. The food was monotonous, and rumors of Japanese victories were disheartening. But under the command of the meticulous chief nurse they continued caring for the sick with whatever medical supplies they could find.
Danner is not a literary artist, but she sketches in the gray days of confinement convincingly with the discomforts, bickering, prayers and worries about their fate. She touches in high spots such as the makeshift roaring flush toilet, the small gardens where the nurses could grow a few edibles, the arrival of Red Cross packages and moments of warmth and humor. Always she is aware that the prisoners in the nearby military camps suffer greater privations. She draws from diaries and journals and her memories of half a century ago, and colors her picture with a few fictional conversations and names.
As the years drag by, more people are crowded into the camp and supplies dwindle. Japanese commanders could be cruel. There was pleasure in stealing food and harassing the starving inmates. One source of strength to Danner was her friendship with Mitch, a young man who helped to keep order in the camp and taught her many things. But he was a source of heartache, too. Mitch was married, and Dottie fought hard to keep herself from falling in love with him.
Danner, who later married and is now a grandmother in Boise, Idaho, makes little mention of her own illnesses - infectious hepatitis and beriberi. By 1945 the internees were so hungry that ``it was suicidal for a rat, a snake, or a snail to venture into our camp, much less a stray dog.'' But she sums up her role by saying, ``being cheerful wasn't easy, but I made it a point to put on an optimistic front, especially for our patients. Along with the other nurses, I cared, and they knew it.''
The Naval Institute did well to publish Dorothy Still Danner's story. Although she is humble about her experience of ``sitting out the war in a POW camp,'' it took real grit to come through the long years of prison and still be a caring nurse. She deserves to be included among the other heroes of the war. MEMO: Edith R. White is a Norfolk storyteller, artist and librarian. by CNB