A 96-year-old Auckland woman has flown to Japan to receive a face-to-face apology from the Japanese Government for the way she and other nurses were treated during World War II.
Lorna Johnston, of Kohimarama, was held as a prisoner of war for three years from 1942. Taken from the island of Rabaul (now part of Papua New Guinea) to Yokohama, she is the only survivor of a group of 76 Australian POW nurses in the region at the time.
For the first time, Mrs Johnston, who was born in Australia but has lived in New Zealand for more than 60 years, has told her story of the Japanese invasion of an Australian army hospital and her capture with 12 other women.
The nurses were imprisoned in Yokohama, forced to knit silk bags and make envelopes. After a year, food ran out and they licked glue off the envelopes to survive. They were frequently beaten.
Among her vivid memories is the fire-bombing of Tokyo, which killed 100,000 people in March 1945.
