It is situated near, Radji Beach, the spot where survivors of the sinking of SS Vyner Brooke came ashore and where … As well as commemorating the Fall of Singapore, this week also marks 75 years since the infamous Bangka Island Massacre. American General Douglas MacArthur had dispersed his troops and supplies widely and thinly over nine major islands of the Philippine archipelago, and the Japanese were able to land with little opposition.
In 70 days the victorious Japanese captured Malaya and landed on Singapore Island where the Australian Military Hospitals overflowed with wounded and staff worked around the clock under shell and mortar fire.

Fairfax Media/Supplied Sister Kath Nuess was killed during the Bangka Island massacre.

As the sole survivor of the Bangka Island massacre of 1942, Sister Bullwinkel was able to give crucial evidence about the atrocities she had endured to the Tokyo war crimes tribunal after the war. The Japanese soldiers had separated men and women on Bangka Island before shooting both groups out of sight of the other. The Japanese invasion of the Philippines began when Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma landed on the main northern island of Luzon with two army divisions on 22 December 1941.
Bangka (or sometimes Banka) is an island lying east of Sumatra, administratively part of Sumatra, Indonesia, with a population of about 1 million.It is the 9th largest island in Indonesia and the main part of Bangka-Belitung Province, being one of its namesakes alongside the smaller Belitung across the Gaspar Strait.The provincial capital, Pangkal Pinang, lies on the island. Remarkably, there was one survivor. Ordered to evacuate, to escape a looting, raping and murderous enemy, their ship was bombed and sunk off Bangka Island. Contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence reports.. Raped and murdered, all bar one — and she wasn't permitted to tell the full horrific tale (Image via awm.gov.au). Australian Sister Kath Neuss ws gunned down in the Bangka Island Massacre. Nurses Memorial on Bangka: On March 2, 1993, in the presence of seven of the surviving nurses, including Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, the Nurses Memorial was dedicated on Bangka Island. Nurse Vivian Bullwinkel was shot in the massacre but survived by playing dead. Bangka Massacre Seventy-two years ... Simmons' book was the basis of the movie Paradise Road.