63 pages • 2 hours read
Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, Susan MeissnerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Bataan Peninsula, January 1942
As their convoy evacuates its current position, Lita and the other nurses stare in shock at rows of white crosses indicating the American military dead. Japanese forces have breached the Allies’ defenses and are at the neck of the Bataan Peninsula. On the convoy, Helen Cassiani (known as Cassie) leads the nurses in a singalong. It reminds Lita of her family, and she envisions her sisters in New York City, “where war would exist only in newspapers and on the airwaves” (45).
The new Hospital One location is called “Little Baguio” because it resembles a cool, lush mountain retreat of the same name. However, this far inland, the nurses battle malaria from mosquitoes and malnutrition from a dwindling food supply in addition to battlefield casualties. As Lita goes to get water for a feverish soldier, Dr. Thomson stops her, scolding her for failing to put Vaseline under the gauze of a soldier’s arm bandage; he assigns Reyna Delos Santos, Lita’s nemesis from nursing school, to correct the error. Shamed, Lita forces herself to continue working but learns that the soldier she was treating went into shock and died. Lita goes outside to weep in the dark.
By these authors
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Equality
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Friendship
View Collection
Loyalty & Betrayal
View Collection
Marriage
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
Order & Chaos
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection
The Past
View Collection
Trust & Doubt
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection
War
View Collection