A Pledge of Silence

by Flora J. Solomon

When Margie Bauer joins the Army Nurse Corps in 1941, she is delighted to be assigned to Manila—the Pearl of the Orient. Though rumors of war circulate, she feels safe—the island is fortified, the airbases are ample, and the Filipino troops are well-trained.

But on December 8, 1941, her dream world shatters. Captured by the invading Japanese, Margie ends up interned at Santa Tomas, an infamous prison camp. There, for the next three years, while enduring brutality and starvation, her bravery, resourcefulness, and faith are tested and her life forever changed.

At once an epic tale of a nation at war and the deeply personal story of one woman’s journey through hell, A Pledge of Silence vividly illustrates the sacrifices the Greatest Generation made for their country, and the price they continued to pay long after the war was over.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, World War II, War, Historical, Book Club, Audiobook

360 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 13, 2012

Reviews

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book -- one of those "Why didn't I learn *this* in history class" type of books.

The story follows Margie, a nurse stationed in the Philippines during WWII. From enchanting Manila, to the jungle hospitals, to the Malinta Tunnel, to the POW camp, to Margie trying to get back to a normal life after the war, the plot kept me captivated. The characters are well-rounded and multi-dimensional.

It is always a pleasure to find a book that is well-edited, quick-paced, and an interesting story. A Pledge of Silence is one of those rare finds.

This book is a wonderful tribute to the nurses who served in the Philippines in WWII. Their story should not be forgotten.

[Judy Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my very favorite reads. I learned so much I never realized went on to the extent they did. I knew WWll involved the Phillipines but never really read or heard or actually saw a movie that brought to light the horror that took place there. Everything always seems to bring to light what our GIs suffered with the women more or less left in the background and never brought to the foreground. The author did a magnificent job with her research and bringing everything to light.

[Anne Mackle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story made me cry from the very first chapter. Margie is eighty one years old and attending the funeral of her daughter Barbara Ann who is has passed away suddenly. She is there with her son Gary and his wife for support but is finding it all too difficult to cope with as she feels she did not show her daughter enough love during her life.
After Margie is left safely in her new house she decides to go back to the house where she raised her family in order to feel closer to the memory of Barbara Ann. We are then told the story of her life from her childhood in Little Michigan to a wartime career in nursing,a career she did not want and only took that path to please her father.
I always enjoy books set during the war but I didn't expect this book to take me to a Japanese prison camp and move me so much, it was like watching a film where you are perched on the end of your seat never knowing what might happen next.
Although this is a fiction story it is based on true events. The thought of all those women going through absolute hell on earth is just unbelievable. There are so many twists in this book and quite a few shocks that I found it hard to put it down even for a minute.
Margie is a lovey girl,very naive having been brought up in a small town with doting parents. She makes good lifelong friendship while in Japan and some which turn to betrayal. She falls in love, but in the midst of war sometimes love can be fleeting. My heart broke for what she and the other women had to suffer.
I had never heard of the Malinta underground tunnel hospital where the nurses and cilvillians hid from the Japanese soldiers and can only imagine what it felt like to have to live there while being bombarded and with fear of capture. As if that wasn't enough Margie had the dreadful Max Renaldo to contend with and the conclusion to that is beyond belief.
I don't think this is a book you will find easy to forget, it was in my head days after I read it and is definitely one of the best books I have read this year.
If you enjoy books set during wars then you'll love this one.

[PacaLipstick Gramma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author clearly did her research on nurses being in the Philippines before and during WWII.

I wish more research would have been dedicated to the rest of the book. If it had I could have easily given it 4 or possibly 5 stars.

Things that are mentioned before their inventions, or events before their time, are prochronisms. This ruined the book for me. It's the little things that drive you nuts! Only a few of the prochronisms: Mid 1940s, in a string of Christmas lights, one loose or missing bulb did not make the entire string not work. They were not wired like that. And the whole pregnancy thing? Hiding it for six months, and no one suspected? How could a registered nurse not know something wasn't right? The whole thing was pretty unbelievable and bizarre. The pièce de ré·sis·tance was the food pantry in the early 1950s, and writing grants for it? I did a minimal amount of research, and the concept and FIRST food pantry came into existence in 1967. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Margie's daughter did her post graduate schooling, I'm guessing, in the 1960s, and they studied PTSD? PTSD did not enter officially into the DSM-IV until 1980, when it was given the name of PTSD.

The whole time period from the mid '40s to the early '50s just had too much of a modern spin on it. The dialog and interaction of people just didn't ring true to that time period.

If the author would have just stuck with WWII, what she had done her research on, it would have been better.

Read something better.

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Framed by the present, Margie's story unfolds before us, from a young 17-year old who wanted to be a fashion designer to a competent Army Nurse stationed in the Philippines, a place of beauty and fun. Then came the Japanese bombers, and a status change to prisoner of war.

We stay with Margie as she struggles to survive, mentally and physically, holding tight to her friends as they support and help each other through those dreadful years, and then afterwards as she tries to reintegrate into a society that expects her to just pick up where she left off, as wife, sister, daughter.

She gets help from her brother, husband and a psychiatrist, but ultimately society wasn't really prepared to handle PTSD from the soldiers, let alone from the doctors and nurses, and Margie has a terrible secret she feels she can never share because of her love for her husband.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the very well done story of a young American nurse (from Michigan) who is stationed in the Philippines just before and during World War II. She arrives in Manila, where, at first, life is a little nursing but mostly revolves around social life. The Japanese attack occurs and she starts to see the horrors of war. Her group is sent to Corregidor and then to the “safety” of the Bataan jungle – and then she is interned for almost three years with other nurses and many civilians by the Japanese in the Santo Tomas internment center in Manila. Through the eyes and heart of this young woman we see the destruction and terror of war and, even more clearly, the deprivation, suffering (starvation included) and pain of a Japanese internment camp. To make the novel even more interesting, not all the evil is perpetrated by the Japanese enemy – our heroine suffers brutally at the hands of an American and seeks revenge. I thought that the previous description would be the entire substance of the novel. However, had a much broader reach. The last part of the novel covers the return of our heroine to home and “civilization”. There are wonderful, moving, tragic descriptions of the deep, lasting almost uncurable emotional scars left by her war experience (and similar effects of the war experience of her brother, who served as a medic in France). This was a book I started without extremely high expectations - - and finished quite moved and emotionally involved.

[Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five Stars!!!
Well that was some book, I thought it was a very thoughtful and well adapted description of war in the Philippines. There are so many stories about World War II but this one will stick with me for some time I think. I really enjoyed what followed after the war how Margie suffered from the trauma and how she slowly revealed in the end, that which she had kept hidden for so long that generation, was really good about secrets I know that from experience and most of them took those bad experiences with them to their graves I’m glad the author choose to have Margie share her secrets with her children. Excellent book I’ll probably reread this one to my wife I’m sure she will enjoy it as I’m sure anyone who picks this up to read will find it has a depth and spirit that is remarkable and unusable deep.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. My mom was a Navy WAVE in WWII, and went to Pearl Harbor after the attack. Although she did not suffer the perils that the nurses caught in the conflicts did, this book gave me a little insight into the life of the women who served their country in those times. My mom was a soft spoken woman from a small town in South Dakota, and I realize now how incredibly brave it was for women to even enlist, travel thousands of miles from their homes, and establish themselves in an environment way outside their comfort level. It also provided insight into PTSD, not only for the men returning from war, but for the women warriors as well - then, and unfortunately now too.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sort of "meh" on this book. On one hand, it makes me want to read more about what happened in the Philippines during WWII, so on that score, it was successful.

But even though I found the history interesting, I did not find the characters so. Margie's live events were surprisingly predictable, despite the chaos around her, and the other characters were one-dimensional. The story was rather plodding and was more of a list of happenings than a well-developed story.

[SheLove2Read · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fictional account of real events. I went into this with high hopes for an engrossing read, but came away sadly disappointed. The author needs to spend more time showing and less time telling the story. The dialog was underwhelming, and at time, amateurish. Very few books are written on nurses in the WW2 theater. I wish this had been something worth reviewing. Skimmed the last 40% due to boredom.

1.5 stars

[Leslie Callahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A WW2 book that wasn't about Hawaii or hitler & jewish concentration camps! We follow an army nurse to the Philippines before/during/after the Philippine islands were attacked. I feel the author did an excellent job of intertwining historical facts into her book.
This book grabbed me from page 1!

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It makes one appreciate the things our parents endured for us. I knew the war in the Pacific was horrible but I was unaware of the signed pledge that prisoners of war were to sign upon their release. Keeping all those memories inside certainly is not healthy as the Doctor counseled.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Pledge of Silence is a historical novel based on the experiences of the nurses who valiantly served in the Philippines during WWII and became the first U.S. military women to be taken prisoners-of-war by a foreign enemy.

This was a reading I enjoyed a lot. Flora J. Solomon did a great job recreating the situation in the Philippines during the war. Though I've enjoyed many historical fiction novels set during WWII I haven't really read any set outside of Europe. I wasn't familiar with the facts happened in the Pacific and I loved to know more about them.

The story follows the life of Margie Bauer, who studied to be nurse (a career she's not interested in, but her father thinks is her best option) and is assigned to serve in Sternberg Hospital in Manila. She falls in love with the safe and beautiful Pearl of Orient until face the reality of war when in December 1941 Philippines is taken by Japaneses. She serves in the fields, is captured by the enemy and interned in a war camp during 31 months. Being released does not solve her problems since coming back home is a new painful challenge.

Solomon touches in this novel topics like being a women in the middle of a war, starvation, humiliation, abuse, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how it was handled at the time. The outcome is a great novel that was difficult to put down. I absolutely recommend the book to everyone who is interested in experience the war from the perspective of a woman serving in the fields.

I won a copy of A Pledge of Silence in a GR giveaway.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a special one for me. One that you are just glad you came across. Very good and researched historical fiction. It is about a young nurse who is drafted (sort of) and sent to the Philippines during WWII. Manilla is a beautiful, exciting place of parties, fun and love for Margie. But when the Japanese bombs began falling the horror begins. The book follows Margie through 3+ years as a field nurse-literally outdoors under a canopy of trees caring for hundreds and hundreds of injured and broken men (who were just boys prior to war). No fresh water, rationing pain meds, surgeries with nothing in the way of anesthesia except morphine and no such thing as antibiotics! Ordered reassignment to the Malinta tunnels to live and work underground within the same medical conditions but in a confined space. Next, captured by the Japanese and sent to a prison camp where she barely survives (and many did not). She returns home and endures the pain and confusion of PTSD which continues throughout out her life in varying degrees.
The horror and barbarity of the Pacific theater in WWII is not something I really ever studied in school...it was just never discussed past the actual bombing of Pearl Harbor and then the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan which is amazing to me since people were killed and tortured by the millions. I wonder at this. Solomon describes the horror in a gradually increasing way as the war continues that seems realistic and also allowed me to continue reading. I confess that I had trouble sleeping while reading this book.
Margie survived because of her inner strength and support of a few friends and I think because she left herself open to love when she could.
She returns home and her struggles with PTSD are as vivid as the war. This author got it all right in regards to that. It was as difficult to step through this part of Margie's life as the war years.
I would recommend this book to anyone who knows little about WWII beyond Europe and to anyone who admires good writing and good research done for historical fiction. It is not for the faint of heart.
Nurses, in particular, might be interested. It is why I picked up the book.

[Christoph Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A Pledge of Silence" by Flora J. Solomon is based on true stories although it focuses on a fictional character, war nurse Margie and her remarkable story.
Pre-war romance in the 1930s, a broken heart and patriotism land Margie in the Philippines in the fight against the Japanese. It is an amazing story of war time survival, personal resolve and bravery; is the personal story of one woman and her private life affected so deeply by the war and its many atrocities.
The book provides a lot of interesting and well documented historical facts that in themselves would make a page turner, but Solomon has created excellent characters to live through the hell and illustrate on more levels what these people were going through and why they made the choices they did.
I am amazed that after all these years and all the books published on WWII there are still more new stories and dramas to be told and new information to be digested.
A gripping book from start to finish.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this book on Audible & it came across like a memoir. I liked that the story covered so many years and war-related events. Hearing how the nurses trained, handled combat nursing & survived the prison camp was really interesting. However, I felt the melodrama of the post-war years dragged on. (Adult situations.)

I listened to this book on Audible & it came across like a memoir. I liked that the story covered so many years and war-related events. Hearing how the nurses trained, handled combat nursing & survived the prison camp was really interesting. However, I felt the melodrama of the post-war years dragged on. (Adult situations.)

[Breanne T · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This one is hard to rate. The beginning of the book was not great. The writing was stilted and I felt like key verbs were missing to move the characters around. I don't feel like I "met" the characters, they were just there. The friendship between Margie and Evelyn didn't make sense because it seemed like they had very little (if anything) in common. What Margie and her friends experienced though, was horrific and should not be a silent topic.
What this book did well was address post-war issues. I've read a decent amount of WW2 fiction and most do not address the post-war years - what happens when people come home and how they deal with the trauma in their lives. I felt the depiction of PTSD and flashbacks were very real. Also, the book addresses the women who stayed home and how their lives were upended when the men came home from war. I didn't think about this, but when the men came home, the women who had been working in factories, supporting their families, etc, were laid off, to make room for the men "who had families to support." Never mind that these women were supporting their families too. So props to the author for taking her story beyond the strict "war years" and shining light on what happens when soldiers of all types come home.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a bit mixed--probably 3.5 stars total. This was a Kindle Unlimited book that came with the Audible audio & Whispersnyc so it became my #audiosouping choice for the last few Sundays and I listen to more of the book than I read. I liked the WWII experience told from the perspective of a nurse in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines & her life after war, but it dragged a bit in parts and I felt like the foreshadowing of key plot points was too much. I knew every major event before it happened. But interesting & well-researched, and a glimpse of World War II that we don't often see.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book! The main character lived an incredible life. I wanted to cry so many times throughout the story. War is so heart-breaking. I loved the ending. I definitely recommend reading it if you are a fan of historical fiction.

[Cindy Kubley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous

This is another emotional work of art by Solomon. She delivers relatable characters in a gripping story that you are unable to put down!

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a lucky goodreads firstreads winner of the book "A Pledge of Silence" the main character is Margie.It starts out in the mid thirties in a small town in Michigan. Margie goes to college to study to be a nurse. After graduation, Margie joins the Army nurse corps in 1941 and is stationed in Manilla. this is just before war breaks out after Pearl Harbor. Soon the paradise she was working in becomes a prison taken over by the Japanese . she ends up interned for the next three years. she continues to be a nurse and witnesses the horrors of war. she loses friends and a fiance. by the time the war is over she is ready to come back home. she has gone through some horrible things of her own she must keep a secret. Margie moves back to Michigan to her childhood home. we see Margie adapt to life after the war over the next fifty years. she marries and children and has secrets she keeps from her family. this book is fiction but is based on what Nurses went through during world war 2 and the sacrifices they made. a very good read. If you are interested in historical fiction this is a good book. I liked that it is seen through a woman's perspective. Glad I got the chance to read this well done book.

[Amazin2843 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Must read! Historical Fiction!!

I like sugar-coated pills for my history lessons. The one is perfect. Margie becomes a nurse, joins the Red Cross, is sent to the Philippines where she lives a country club life -- until the Japanese invade. She tends the wounded and finally ends up in a POW camp with all its deprivations. The things that happen to her shouldn't happen to anyone. And it's all based on truth.

After being freed, life at home is not easy. She gives birth to the daughter of her rapist whom she had killed with morphine.

You have to read this one!

The author stated that "We Band of Angels"', non-fiction, was her most used reference for her novel. So I'm reading it. Marvelous!

[MARY GRACE · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sigh...lots of good details and factual information in a fictional story. However, the whole story was overall flat and mostly just bits and pieces of events. Also, some characters just didn’t develop well. I would not recommend this book to my friends. I had to plow through tediously just so I can finish it. The ending was also annoying.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on actual events in World War II. Nurses serving in Manilla, Corrigidor experienced incredible working and living conditions, were taken POW and then had to sign a Pledge of Silence when they were finished with their tour of duty.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend suggested this book and am so glad she did as I probably would not have read it otherwise. It was a fast and intriguing read. The characters were so well written and the story genuine. Would highly recommend.

[Glenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A five star book! This is one you DO NOT want to miss. Absolutely LOVED it! Beautifully written. Margie's story will stay with me a very long time.

KUDOS to Flora J. Solomon!

[Lb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really appreciated this book because my mother was an Army nurse in the Philippines during WWI.

[Kimmi Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful and interesting book. I have learned a great deal from reading it. I appreciate the subject and the experience of reading it...

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly riveting and incredibly sad. I finished it in one day and it was definitely worth depriving myself of sleep to finish.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the history lesson about WWII nurses in the Philipines, but the writing style was too much like a dime store romance. I won't look for more books by this author.