When We Had Wings

by Ariel Lawhon

This is the dance of life, isn’t it? she mused to herself. As the music changes, the steps change, and so then does the dancer. But the people we choose to dance

with, well, they remain as close to our beating hearts as we will hold them, don’t they?

the Angels of Bataan,

States government forced these women to sign papers saying they would not discuss their experiences after the war.

Here is the truth: General Douglas MacArthur allowed these women to be taken captive. He had an opportunity in April 1942 to evacuate all Army and Filipina nurses from Corregidor and out of the Philippines, but he chose to take other military personnel instead. As a result, the nurses were imprisoned by the Japanese and spent more than four harrowing years in various camps. The U.S. government could not explain the general’s choice, so they hid it instead. The fact that every one of those nurses survived the war and came home is nothing short of a miracle.