This Is Really War

Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi's "This Is Really War: The Incredible True Story of a Navy Nurse POW in the Occupied Philippines" tells the story of Dorothy Still Danner, one of the small group of American military nurses who endured Japanese captivity in the Philippines during World War II. The book follows Danner from her early life and decision to join the Navy Nurse Corps through the harrowing years she spent as a prisoner of war after the fall of Manila and Bataan, offering readers a close look at a chapter of the war that has received far less attention than the more widely known battles and campaigns of the Pacific theater.

Lucchesi draws heavily on Danner's own written accounts, interviews, and archival research to reconstruct the day-to-day realities of internment at Santo Tomas and later Los Baños. The author does not shy away from the physical hardships the nurses faced: chronic hunger, disease, overcrowding, and the psychological toll of years spent uncertain of when or if liberation would come. At the same time, the book emphasizes the professionalism and resourcefulness of the nurses, who continued to care for patients and maintain makeshift medical facilities under extraordinarily difficult conditions. This dual focus on suffering and duty gives the narrative a grounded, human quality rather than reducing the story to a simple tale of victimhood or heroism.

One of the strengths of the book is its attention to the broader context surrounding Danner's experience. Lucchesi situates the nurses' captivity within the larger collapse of American and Filipino forces in the early months of the Pacific war, providing enough historical background for readers unfamiliar with the campaign to understand how these women ended up as prisoners in the first place. The book also touches on the complicated relationships between internees and their captors, the shifting conditions inside the camps as the war progressed, and the eventual liberation efforts that brought the ordeal to an end. These sections are handled with care, avoiding melodrama while still conveying the gravity of what the internees endured.

The author's prose is clear and accessible, favoring straightforward narrative over dense academic analysis. This makes the book approachable for general readers interested in World War II history, even those without a background in military or Pacific theater studies. Lucchesi's decision to center the story on a single individual, rather than attempting a sweeping account of all the interned nurses, allows for a more intimate and detailed portrait. Readers come away with a strong sense of Danner as a person, not just a historical figure, which helps sustain engagement across the book's length.

At the same time, the tight focus on one nurse's perspective means that readers seeking a comprehensive overview of the entire internment experience, or detailed comparisons among the different nurses who shared similar fates, may find the scope somewhat narrower than expected. The book is clearly framed as biography rather than broad military history, and it succeeds within that framing rather than attempting to be something it is not.

The research underpinning the narrative appears thorough, drawing on primary source material that lends authenticity to the depiction of camp life and the nurses' daily routines. This attention to documented detail helps the book avoid the pitfalls of sensationalism that can sometimes affect popular histories of wartime captivity. Instead, the tone remains measured, even as the events described are often distressing.

Overall, "This Is Really War" offers a valuable and well-researched account of a lesser-known aspect of World War II history. It highlights the endurance and professionalism of military nurses who served under conditions rarely discussed in mainstream accounts of the Pacific war. For readers interested in women's contributions to the war effort, POW narratives, or the Philippine campaign specifically, this book provides a focused and informative addition to the literature. Its readability and human-centered approach make it suitable for both casual readers and those with a more serious interest in military history, offering a reminder of the sacrifices made by medical personnel far from the front lines of combat yet still deeply affected by the war's brutality.