Lost Women of Rabaul

Description

Travel with a group of captured Australian nurses into the dark heart of the ascendant Japanese Empire at the start of the Pacific War. Quiver with the nurses, abandoned by their own government, as they raise their hands in surrender to Japanese troops swathed in jungle camouflage. Witness the intrigues of international diplomacy and the fog of war as loyalties are tested, confidences betrayed and acts of defiance made at great personal risk. Retreat into the private world of the women's diaries, where poetry, memory and hope could still be kept alive. Cower before the might of the US War Machine that incinerated Tokyo, with firestorms, hunger and the ever-present threat of Japanese "die-hards" still holding complete power over the women. Thrill to the joy of liberation and the amazing priority given to the Lost Women, as they became the very first liberated prisoners to be airlifted to Australia ... But why? Australian nurses captured and at the mercy of the rampaging Japanese Empire; how did they survive and what were the international secrets that determined their fate?

ROD MILLER was a Sydney auctioneer clearing an estate when he stumbled across an old diary written in code and rhyme. He didn't throw it away, but launched into years of research to reveal the amazing story of a group of World War II Australian nurses and civilian women who were abandoned by their own government, captured and taken as bargaining chips into the heart of the Japanese Empire. Rod gathered evidence and surviving witnesses and wrote this enthralling book, Lost Women of Rabaul. His first draft remarkably became the basis of the award-winning ABC-TV miniseries Sisters of War. Rod has now retired from his auctioneering business and lives with his wife and three crazy rescue dogs in Sydney. He continues to research the concealed stories of WWII. Author based in Putney, NSW.