Interview of Josephine Boecker on her service in the American Red Cross in the South Pacific during WWII
In a wide-ranging oral history interview, Josephine Boecker discusses her service in the American Red Cross in the South Pacific from September 1943 to September 1946. Boecker says she was contacted by the Red Cross and later called for war service and recalls anticipating being sent to North Africa and being surprised when she found herself on a train bound for the west coast. Boecker talks about activities on board ship during the four week trip to New Guinea, the reception the nurses received from the soldiers when they came ashore and being assigned to the 47th General Hospital near Milne Bay where Red Cross workers staffed recreation programs. She describes camp conditions, sanitation, food, the malaria epidemics, finding activities to keep the troops occupied, and spending her leave in Australia and later following the Army to the Philippines. Boecker says that she was overjoyed when she heard the news of the dropping of the atomic bomb and that the war was over. She says she was later and shipped to Japan to staff a hospital in Tokyo and discusses the destruction she saw and the effects that the U.S. occupation had on Japanese society. Boecker is recorded for the Radcliffe College Library.
Read
- In Collections
-
Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Copyright Status
- In Copyright
- Date Published
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1989
- Interviewees
-
Boecker, Josephine
- Subjects
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Boecker, Josephine
American National Red Cross
Allied Occupation of Japan (Japan : 1945-1952)
Bombardment of Hiroshima-shi (Japan : 1945)
World War (1939-1945)
Destruction and pillage
Hospitals
Military participation--Female
Travel
Australia
Japan
Japan--Hiroshima-shi
Pacific Area
- Material Type
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Sound recordings
Interviews
- Language
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English
- Extent
- 00:28:38
- Holding Institution
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Vincent Voice Library
- Call Number
- Voice 32673
- Catalog Record
- http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b11749081
- Permalink
- https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5tm75859