The Woman with a Purple Heart by Diane Hanks

 

"Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God. I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."

       -from President Roosevelt's address to Congress and the nation

I enjoyed this WWII historical fiction and more than that, I learned some things. I have read many stories of the European side of the war but not so much about the Pacific. My rating is 4.

First Lieutenant Annie Fox, veteran army nurse, is transferred from the Philippines to Hickam Field on Oahu in November of 1941. Like almost every American I knew of Pearl Harbor but had never heard of Hickam Field, the army airfield adjacent to Pearl Harbor. The Japanese attack did tremendous damage to both military bases. 

Courageously, Lt. Fox gets her team of nurses busy trying to save as many injured soldiers as possible. She even goes to town to garner supplies and medicines and to recruit nurses. She includes Japanese American nurses which could be a problem and also finds prostitutes who are willing to give blood.

One of the nurses, Kay, becomes a close friend of Annie and when Kay is taken into custody as a suspected insurgent, she works very hard to get her released. (It is discovered that Kay's husband is a military officer in Japan.)

This is the story of courage in the face of danger, friendship dangerously tested and a shameful time in America's history. Thousands of Japanese Americans from Hawaii and the west coast were relocated to centers in remote areas for the duration of the war. I personally knew a man who experienced this relocation with his family, making this part of the novel even sadder to me.

In 1942, Annie Fox became the first woman to receive a purple heart for her valor in time of war. Later when the Purple Heart was reserved for those injured in the line of duty, it was rescinded and in 1944 replaced with a Bronze Star, with the same citation. Annie Fox was quite a woman!