The Bangka Island massacre (also spelled Banka Island massacre) was the killing of unarmed Australian nurses and wounded Allied soldiers on Bangka Island, east of Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago on 16 February 1942. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific troops of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered 22 Australian Army nurses, 60 Australian and British soldiers, and crew members from the . The group were the only survivors from their steamship which had been sunk by Japanese bombers just after the defeat of Singapore. After surrendering to local Japanese forces on Bangka Island, which was then part of the Dutch East Indies, the group and its wounded were taken to a beach where they were killed by being bayonetted and machine gunned in the surf. Only South Australian nurse Sister Lieutenant Vivian Bullwinkel, American Eric Germann and Royal Navy Stoker Ernest Lloyd survived.
For almost 80 years, details that the Japanese troops raped the Australian nurses before they were murdered were suppressed. It was never reported at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in 1947 or included in subsequent post-war re-tellings of the massacre. Evidence that the Australian women had suffered violent sexual assault before their deaths was only reported in 2019 after being uncovered by research. Lt Bullwinkel said she was told by the Australian government to never speak about the suspected rapes that may have occurred.
Massacre
thumb|left|Nursing staff of 2/13th Australian General Hospital in Singapore, September 1941. Six of these nurses, including Vivian Bullwinkel (), were in the group who were murdered by the Japanese in 1942.
On 12 February 1942 the royal yacht of Sarawak left Singapore just before the city fell to the Imperial Japanese Army. The ship carried many injured service personnel and 65 nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service from the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, as well as civilian men, women and children. The ship was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sank. The nurses stayed to care for the wounded. They set up a shelter with a large Red Cross sign on it.
At mid-morning the ship's officer returned with about 20 Japanese soldiers. They ordered all the wounded men capable of walking to travel around a headland. The men were lined up and the Japanese set up machine guns. Stoker Lloyd realising what was going to happen ran into the sea as did a few others. The Japanese then began shooting at the escaping men. They were all killed apart from Lloyd who despite being shot managed to get away. He lost consciousness and later was washed up on the other side of the beach.
After the nurses had heard a quick succession of shots, the Japanese soldiers came back, sat down in front of the women and cleaned their bayonets and rifles. After the violent sexual assaults, a Japanese officer ordered the 22 nurses and one civilian woman to walk into the surf.
Perpetrators
The Japanese Army unit on Bangka Island at the time of the massacre was the 229th Infantry Regiment, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Iwabuchi. Iwabuchi and his subordinates were both killed by the war's end, as the regiment had been involved in heavy fighting against Australian and American forces. Takeuchi and Kato were detained in Malaya and New Guinea, respectively. However, Orita committed suicide two days after being admitted to the prison, before he could be interrogated on the Bangka Island massacre or stand trial. since 1955. A plaque commemorating the South Australian Army Nursing Sisters who died, including Drummond and six others was erected at the site.
In 2022, on its 80th anniversary, The Australian College of Nursing Foundation announced it was establishing a scholarship in the name of each of the 21 nurses who died in the Bangka Island Massacre, in addition to leading the fundraising to erect a sculpture of Vivian Bullwinkel in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial.
See also
- Clarice Halligan, killed in the massacre
References
Further reading
- Vivian Bullwinkel, by Dorothy Angell