The Wire

In 1942 when Singapore fell to the Japanese, 65 Australian army nurses boarded a coastal freighter in an attempt to flee. The boat was bombed, some drowned and others were separated as they found themselves washed up on one of several beaches of an island near Sumatra. 22 of the nurses landed on Radji Beach with some forty other survivors, and they surrendered themselves to a Japanese patrol. Their surrender was not accepted and they were made to walk abreast into the ocean as they were executed by gunshot from the beach. Only one survived. It is an amazing story, but has somehow not made it into the folklore of our history. Ian Shaw, author of On Radji Beach, has decided to bring it back into focus.