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Home > English > ESL > Module A: Experience Through Language > Elective 2: Australian Visions > The Shoe Horn Sonata

Historical context

John Misto’s play, The Shoe-Horn Sonata, was inspired by the real-life experiences of Australian nurses taken prisoner by the Japanese Army after the fall of Singapore in l942, during World War 2.

From l942 to the end of the war in August 1945, they lived in primitive, at times desperate conditions. Only 24 out of an original 65 were eventually brought back to Australia in October, l945. Many had drowned or been shot dead as they were being evacuated from Singapore when the Japanese forces captured it. Others died of malnutrition and illness in the prison camps. Supplies sent to them by the Red Cross, including food and necessary medicines, were almost always withheld by their captors.

The writer, John Misto, wanted to make Australians aware of the heroism of these nurses. He believed that it was disgraceful that, fifty years after that war had ended, Australia had still not set up any memorial to its army nurses, even though many of the Australian troops owed their lives to their care. Misto handed over all the prize money he won with this play in l995 to the fund to build such a memorial.

Sources of information

His play is itself a touching memorial to them. It was inspired by the most famous account of their experiences, the diary of Betty Jeffrey of the Australian Army Nursing Service, published as White Coolies in 1954 (reprinted l999, Angus and Robertson). Misto read this book when he was a teenager, and has said he could not forget it. Many years later, he interviewed many of the surviving women as he researched the background for his play. In his Author’s Note (p.16) he tells us:

“Although the characters of Bridie and Sheila are fictional, every incident they describe is true and occurred between l942 and l995.
There was even a Shoe-Horn...”

The same book, White Coolies, formed the basis for the movie Paradise Road, written and directed by Australian Bruce Beresford, and released in l997. He too did further research into these events and experiences, and found hours of tapes prepared by Norah Chambers for the BBC before her death. An English woman with a ‘glorious voice’, she organised a voice orchestra; the parts for the ‘instruments’ in the orchestra were written out by an interned missionary teacher, Margaret Dryburgh. Betty Jeffrey was a member of this group.

To learn more about the background to this drama, a good start would be to read White Coolies or view and read about Paradise Road

Warning: be very careful not to confuse the storylines. Each of these three writers bases the text on the similar historical facts and personal experiences, but presents the stories of the characters from different angles. Misto’s main characters (the protagonists, Sheila and Bridie) are fictional, but the play refers also to real people.

A very easy-to-read account of Australian soldiers living as prisoners of the Japanese - including working on the infamous Thai-Burma railroad - is given in the diary of Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, found in many school and public libraries. (now out of print). A young man from Sydney, he was only 21 when he began to keep it. Other accounts are listed on page 15 of the play text.

The Australian War Memorial Web Site holds records of Sister Mavis (E.M.) Hannah, (Accession Number: 3DRL/7474) whose photograph appears in the play text.

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