Lorna whyte

Lorna Whyte : Really? Ever seen a ghost smoke Craven A? Sister Berenice Twohill : How did you know I was here?

Lorna Whyte : I wrote to Bishop Scharmach. Told you we'd both make it back. Sister Berenice Twohill : You never said that. Lorna Whyte : You must have been too busy praying to hear. Sister Berenice Twohill : [as she embraces her friend] Lorna. You're so pretty. Lorna Whyte : [as the friends walk the grounds of the convent] You still look like a holy roller. Check our products! Mavis's account: Mavis could remember almost nothing about the bombing, the invasion or the surrender.

Her one anecdote concerning those hours immediately after surrender was: " One story, that shows you that all Japanese weren't bad: This little incident happened when we were first captured.

I was in the ward. A Japanese sergeant and a couple of other soldiers came in. He looked at me and pointed at my back. He seemed to be amused about something. He gestured to me that I was to walk outside and he led the way. Two little Japs followed and I got a couple of bayonet prods to keep me going. In the distance was this huge shed, and he was taking me there. I didn't know what was going to happen so I was lingering a bit and I got a few more prods.

We were working in fields with human manure and our duvets could have stood up they were so stiff with dirt. They knitted jumpers for children and told the Japanese mothers each would take six balls of wool when they knew it would take only four. One day the guards ordered the women to walk down the hill.

We were in a weakened state. They marched us down, our feet wrapped in rags. But a pleasant surprise awaited them in the form of a Red Cross parcel, with tea, cocoa, butter and cigarettes. They were careful to make it last. It made such a difference, it was like heaven. Lorna has vivid memories of the fire-bombing of Tokyo, which killed , people in March , more than the 70, killed by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in August the same year.

The sound of sirens went on for half an hour before more than bombers flew across in waves. It was like daylight, there was so much light in the sky. It was one of the worst things anyone could see. The Japanese weren't prepared for the bombing and didn't have underground shelters. Corpses were stacked on top of each other in graveyards and family members laid rice balls on them to give to their spirits.

The nurses crept in at night and ate the rice balls, despite the putrid smell. We decided the spirits that are alive deserve them more. They overheard the Japanese Emperor's surrender speech on the radio but it wasn't until American soldiers visited them that they knew the war was over.

We didn't know who they were, we'd never seen Jeeps. The emaciated women celebrated by eating a large lump of meat, but their digestive systems were so damaged it caused diarrhoea.

They were flown to Manila for a month, fed, tested and detoxed, before returning to Australia on 25 September We were out of the world for four years and coming back to a strange place. Lorna's mother had died while she was away and her family home had been removed. By she decided she wanted to experience the world, so planned a trip to the US with a friend.

They stopped in New Zealand, and Lorna never left. She stayed at a private nurses' home in Auckland but fell ill and spent six months in hospital. Her body became stiff and she couldn't move, so her legs were put in splints.