Not a single nurse in 1942-1945 who served in the Philippines died during the Japanese invasion or later in Japanese prison camps.
In contrast, the death rate among males in both situations, which included the Bataan Death March (in which the nurses did not participate), was absolutely horrific, and included slave labor in Japan by being transported there by unmarked Japanese hell ships routinely sunk by unknowing U.S. submarines where starved, sick, suffocating men locked in holds drowned by the thousands.
There were endless aspects of the movie that tried the viewer, even in 1943: maudlin speeches by the chaplain, nurses, and others (including a speech in a love letter at the end of the movie) every 15 minutes or so; front line soldiers and a Marine (who for some reason wanders around all alone in an Army unit, on the voyage over and in the Philippines when he should have been with his fellow Marines in the 4th Marine Regiment) who nonchalantly stroll back and forth at will from the front lines to the rear to schmooze with their girl friends; fraternization (absolutely forbidden) between a nurse and the (apparently) lost enlisted Marine (who is a PFC in his blouse and a Pvt. in his shirtsleeves); absolute confusion as whether these nurses were Red Cross (civilians) or U.S. Army and Navy; the usual tiresome 1940's litany of wisecracks; not a single, solitary mention of the U.S. Army medics and Navy Hospital Corpsmen who, unlike the nurses, indeed WERE in the front lines, decimated, and left behind with their patients (no Australia for them); Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard obviously too old for their roles; Veronica Lake with hair shoulder length; endless, childish cat fights; and a scene with Veronica Lake, Japanese soldiers (who don't fire but obligingly gather around), and a hand grenade which has no competition for the 20th Century's Prize for the Hands Down Stupidest Scene Ever Filmed in a War Movie. The production values were good, but that and its patriotism are the only positive things you can say about this movie.
In contrast, the death rate among males in both situations, which included the Bataan Death March (in which the nurses did not participate), was absolutely horrific, and included slave labor in Japan by being transported there by unmarked Japanese hell ships routinely sunk by unknowing U.S. submarines where starved, sick, suffocating men locked in holds drowned by the thousands.
There were endless aspects of the movie that tried the viewer, even in 1943: maudlin speeches by the chaplain, nurses, and others (including a speech in a love letter at the end of the movie) every 15 minutes or so; front line soldiers and a Marine (who for some reason wanders around all alone in an Army unit, on the voyage over and in the Philippines when he should have been with his fellow Marines in the 4th Marine Regiment) who nonchalantly stroll back and forth at will from the front lines to the rear to schmooze with their girl friends; fraternization (absolutely forbidden) between a nurse and the (apparently) lost enlisted Marine (who is a PFC in his blouse and a Pvt. in his shirtsleeves); absolute confusion as whether these nurses were Red Cross (civilians) or U.S. Army and Navy; the usual tiresome 1940's litany of wisecracks; not a single, solitary mention of the U.S. Army medics and Navy Hospital Corpsmen who, unlike the nurses, indeed WERE in the front lines, decimated, and left behind with their patients (no Australia for them); Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard obviously too old for their roles; Veronica Lake with hair shoulder length; endless, childish cat fights; and a scene with Veronica Lake, Japanese soldiers (who don't fire but obligingly gather around), and a hand grenade which has no competition for the 20th Century's Prize for the Hands Down Stupidest Scene Ever Filmed in a War Movie. The production values were good, but that and its patriotism are the only positive things you can say about this movie.