Sister Bullwinkel was the sole survivor of a massacre of 21 Australian nursing sisters at the hands of Japanese soldiers on Radji Beach on Bangka Island, east of Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago on 16 February 1942. But that's not the whole story. For ANZAC Day, historical detective, author, and distinguished military historian Lynette R. Silver AM MBE delves into the evidence she has uncovered to piece together the untold, uncensored story of Australian nurse Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel. Lynette's latest book where she details the alleged war atrocities against 22 Australian nurses in World War Two is called, Sister Bullwinkel: The Untold Uncensored Story. It is also a fullsome biography of Bullwinkel's remarkable life and achievements.

Hear Sister Vivian Bullwinkel recount the official story of what happened in the Bangka Island massacre in her interview for the National Library of Australia's oral history archives. Lynette Silver writes that Sister Bullwinkel put on a brave face to the world, recounting this "official" but sanitised version of events ever since she was released from a Japanese POW camp in Sumatra at the end of World War II.

Vivian revealed the horrific truth of what happened on Radji Beach on Bangka Island to army investigators and was prepared to tell the Tokyo War Crimes Trial but, according to Lynette's research, "they censored her testimony and chose to obliterate it from the record. Despite her best efforts, Vivian was gagged from the outset by her own government and by the Australian army, who ordered her to keep quiet – an order that, as a serving member of the military, she was bound to keep. Vivian was desperate to speak out. She knew that the truth would set her free from the years of torment. Thwarted by higher authorities, by a succession of men who thought that they knew better, she was prevented from doing so." Through extensive research, Lynette Ramsay Silver has uncovered what she believes really happened on Bangka Island. Here's an example of eyewitness testimony published in 1946 (Trove).

This is the original interview that went to air. To hear the full extended interview, listen to the podcast here.