White Coolies Author:Betty Jeffrey In the dark, chaotic days of early 1942, a group of 65 Australian nurses were evacuated from Singapore. Two days later, their ship, the Vyner Brooke, was bombed and sunk by the Japanese. Twenty-two of the survivors were murdered on the spot by the Japanese; the remainder were taken prisoner. — Betty Jeffrey, one of the nurses taken prisoner, deta... more »ils nearly three years of capitivity living in various interment camps.« less