When We Had Wings

Kempeitai Headquarters, Manila, January 1945

The Japanese interrogate Lita about her activities with the Resistance and beat her for her silence. As she’s escorted to a third day of interrogation, she passes a soldier she recognizes—Yamada, the Canadian she treated—but he pretends not to see her. Guards hook Lita’s fingers up to a machine to administer electric shocks, but the wail of an air-raid siren spares her. After the bombs pass, guards return with Yamada, blindfold her, and take her away.

Santo Tomas Internment Camp, February 1945

The Red Cross delivers a bag of mail found in the rubble at Cavite Naval Yard. There’s a letter for Eleanor from John Olson, postmarked November 1941. Penny swears to get it to her friend, refusing to open it despite her curiosity.

Akibo approaches Penny with Newt. He found the girl trying to pickpocket a guard and hit her in the face, splitting her lip. Penny protests that Newt is just a child, but Akibo says she’s the enemy, the punishment could have been much worse, and Penny should remember how much she owes him.

Imperial Japanese Military Tribunal, February 1945

Lita is tried for treason. As the summary of charges and sentence are read, she learns that Yamada added a report to her file through his uncle, a Kempeitai officer. Because of his report, the Japanese allow her to live, sentencing her to four years’ hard labor.

At the labor camp, Reyna pretends not to know Lita. When Lita confronts her, noticing her fingertips are blackened from the electric shock torture, Reyna confesses that the Kempeitai broke her spirit and she gave them Lita’s name. The women cry together, and Lita assures Reyna that she forgives her and is grateful her friend is still alive.

Los Baños Prison Camp, February 1945

Konishi imposes even stricter rations—200 calories a day—and demands the return of all the supplies raided from his barracks. That night, Eleanor sees a group of female prisoners approach Konishi and demand better treatment, swearing that the Americans will see what he has done to them. Though Konishi ignores them, Eleanor is impressed by their courage. David reminds her that she’s brave every day she goes to the hospital and cares for people, adding that she makes the rest of them feel like they’re still human and worth saving. He kisses her gently on the forehead.

Santo Tomas Internment Camp, February 1945

US forces are on the outskirts of Manila; the Japanese guards fill camp buildings with gasoline, preparing to blow them up rather than allow rescue. Before they can finish, however, US tanks break down the gates.

Onozaki takes 200 internees hostage and sends Akibo and a small force out to negotiate. When a US sergeant tells them to drop their weapons, all but Akibo comply. He glares at Penny and, when the sergeant insults him, reaches to pull the trigger on his “suicide grenade.” He’s shot in the chest.

Penny approaches Akibo. Kneeling down, she unclasps her necklace, saying, “I want what’s mine. […] I owe you nothing” (323). When she offers to treat the gunshot wound and he replies that he would rather die, she walks away.

Women’s Correctional Institution, Mandaluyong, February 1945

Lita thinks she must be dreaming when sudden frantic screams announce the arrival of US troops. Outside, she sees devastation: Buildings are rubble, and the streets are full of dead Filipino civilians, men, women, and children whom Japanese soldiers massacred in the hours before the Americans arrived. Lita tries unsuccessfully to learn Lon’s whereabouts.

Los Baños Prison Camp, February 1945

Dr. Nance and Eleanor are called to treat a prisoner who was shot (in violation of the Geneva Convention) while trying to come back into the prison with food. Soon, another man is shot and injured while doing the same thing; when Dr. Nance and Eleanor try to treat him, Konishi has the man executed.

At the funeral, David offers news he hopes will encourage Eleanor: The escapee discovered that US forces didn’t even know the camp was there, but he successfully sent word to the US Army. Eleanor is upset that it took so long, saying they don’t have time to wait. Later, she feels sorry that she didn’t thank David for the news.

Santo Tomas Internment Camp, February 1945

Onozaki and his forces retreat, calling it “negotiation, not surrender” (332). Penny seeks news of Charley but can’t learn anything. Lita and Reyna arrive with other freed prisoners and immediately ask about the children at Santa Catalina. Penny has no information but introduces them to Newt, newly energized by Army rations.

Santo Tomas Internment Camp, February 1945

Penny and Lita want to go check on the children, but a guard warns them not to enter the city because the Japanese soldiers “seem hell bent on taking as many Filipinos down with them as they can” (339). With Reyna, the women defy orders and sneak out of camp. Soldiers patrol the streets. Entering through the cellar doors at the back of the convent, they find Sister Cecilia hiding with the children and two other families. They get everyone out just as Japanese soldiers pound on the convent’s front door. Dodging the soldiers’ bullets, they barely make it back to the camp; guards shoot the Japanese soldier pursuing them, and they’re safe.

Santo Tomas Internment Camp, February 1945

The Army nurses are leaving, and Maude tells Penny that Newt can’t go with them. Penny sits Newt down to say goodbye, explaining that her father has come to get her. Newt cries, and Penny gives Newt her gold nugget necklace.

Newt’s father has been fighting alongside the Filipino guerillas and is desperate to find out what happened to her. He thanks Penny for taking care of his daughter. Before leaving, Newt throws herself into Penny’s arms and whispers that her real name is Ellen, and Penny replies that she’ll always be Newt to her.

Penny bids Lita goodbye, annoyed that MacArthur plans to meet with the nurses to show off the “vulnerable girls” the Army rescued; she resents that Lita and the other Filipino nurses won’t get the credit they deserve and that the Army nurses won’t be seen as capable women who continually rescued themselves throughout four years of imprisonment while also providing care to others, including Japanese.

The nurses receive new uniforms and are presented with a “Bronze Star for valor and a field promotion of one full rank” (352). Penny touches the eight of hearts in her new pocket, a reminder that she’s allowed to hope.

Los Baños Prison Camp, February 1945

Eleanor learns that David was shot while sneaking into camp and runs to him; only Dr. Nance standing between her and the soldiers prevents them from shooting her. As he dies, Eleanor apologizes for not being a better friend, to which he replies she was the best friend and urges her to remember her promise to live.

Eleanor is upset that David took the risk of sneaking out, and Dr. Nance tells her that David did so many times to help feed the children. He says that after their rescue Eleanor must tell David’s family about the lives he saved. Eleanor mentions the ditch she saw Konishi’s soldiers digging, worrying that they’ll be executed before they’re rescued, and Dr. Nance says not to look at it. At David’s grave, Eleanor promises him that she won’t give up.

When nearly everyone is suffering from beriberi, Konishi stops providing white rice to the kitchen, instead handing out palay: unhusked (and therefore inedible) rice. Some prisoners eat the rice whole, causing their stomachs to bleed. Peg says that Konishi is finding new ways to kill them, and Eleanor replies that they’ll have to find new ways to survive.

On February 23, US forces and Filipino guerillas liberate them. The nurses and civilians are loaded onto amphibious tractors and taken through enemy territory to the former Bilibid Prison, where Allied forces log them in and feed them. At a Red Cross table, Eleanor receives seven letters from her family, full of positive news about life at home that she reads with growing happiness. Later, she learns that the Japanese had planned to execute the prisoners at Los Baños that afternoon.

Bilibid Prison, March 1945

The mass murder committed by Japanese forces—100,000 slain Filipinos—is called the “Manila Massacre.” Because of the chaos, records are difficult to find, but Lita looks for Lon at Bilibid. Instead, she finds Dr. Thomson, who tells her that Lon escaped six months ago to connect with the Resistance. Lita then sees Eleanor, who tells her that the Navy nurses are leaving but that they’ll all reunite when Lita goes to the US. However, Lita explains that she decided to stay and care for the orphans; she wants to rebuild her country to provide a better future for its children. She says that one day Eleanor and Penny must return to Manila, when it’s the paradise they remember.

Reyna receives word that her brothers survived and invites Lita to come with her to meet them, telling her that she’s family now. Lita is pleased to be included but must stay and watch the children. Lon arrives, and they kiss. After they eat dinner with the children and Lita reads them bedtime stories, she tries to tell him that she decided not to go to the US, but he knows: “[Y]ou already found your home” (381). Both also know that returning to the Philippines after the war would be too painful for Lon after all he suffered there, so they must part.

Lon shows Lita that he kept all the notes she sent while he was in Bilibid. He says she kept him going, and Lita says he did the same for her. They sit together until she falls asleep in his arms. When she wakes up, he has left her a single one of her notes, which reads, “Don’t ever forget the courage and goodness I see in you. Through the hardest of times, even when we’re apart, no matter how far away, know that I’m with you, forever” (383).

San Francisco, California, March 1945

Penny dedicates herself to “the task assigned them by the United States government: get dolled up and smile for the cameras” (384). The nurses are given a course of a newly discovered drug: penicillin. They arrive in San Francisco, where reporters and family greet them, but Penny’s parents aren’t there. Maude tells Penny how proud she is of her. When Penny reveals that her enlistment has ended and she isn’t going back, Maude hugs Penny while she cries.

Penny stays in California, waiting to give Eleanor John Olson’s letter. Eleanor reads that he called off his engagement and resigned his post in Silver Lake. He’s a school principal in St. Paul and is waiting for her to come home, no matter how long it takes. Penny asks Eleanor what she’ll do, and she says she won’t know until she sees him. Both reflect on the people they lost and gained during the war and what they learned from them.

In Texas, Penny’s parents cared for her house in her absence, which was easier than writing, they say. One day, she returns home with Charley’s quartermaster’s flag, which she repaired, to find him sitting on her porch. Penny admits that she was going to fly the flag because she hoped it would help him find her. They kiss, and Penny knows she doesn’t want to live without him.

Manila, August 1951

Eleanor flies to Manila with John Olson, now her husband, and their toddler son, David. Penny also arrives in Manila, with her parents and Charley, now her husband. They fuss over Penny, who is seven months pregnant. Also with them is Ellen Briscoe (Newt), who has visited Penny every summer since the war ended.

Lita is at home preparing for the arrival of her friends when she receives a letter from Lon telling her that he’s engaged. Lita married Reyna’s brother Cesar, and the news of Lon’s happiness is bittersweet. In Manila, she sometimes struggles with the trauma of remembering the war, but helping rebuild the city helped her too. Lon’s news makes her feel she has come full circle and might be ready to start a family of her own.

As the three women reunite, it feels “as if a lifetime had passed—and somehow no time at all” (409).