Sisters Under the Rising Sun

After a night on the pier, nurse Jean Ashton breaks down over their uncertain future. At dawn, a rainbow appears as two freighters arrive. Japanese soldiers force the prisoners onto the ships and send them downriver to Palembang. After disembarking, they are driven through villages where locals jeer; some nurses boo back. The women are confined overnight in a school and tormented by mosquitoes. The next morning, Nesta, who is now the senior nurse, meets with Commodore Charles Modin, a British naval officer, who explains that the Japanese refuse to classify the nurses as prisoners of war. At Nesta’s request, Vivian tells Modin about the Bangka Island Massacre, and Modin promises to report the war crime when he can. Meanwhile, Ena comforts a despondent Norah, urging her to eat for June’s sake.

Soon, guards march the prisoners to a village at Irenelaan and assign them houses that formerly belonged to Dutch settlers. The nurses explore their new quarters. Betty Jeffrey and others find a cot for Nesta, who is less than five feet tall, to use as a bed. Nesta and Jean lay out orders for the rest of the nurses: regular house visits to try to curb illnesses before they set in fully.