The Navy Nurse Who Sewed Hope Inside a Japanese Prison Camp

The Navy Nurse Who Sewed Hope Inside a Japanese Prison Camp

Today I have been learning a little more about some of the nurses who served during the World Wars. Today I want to talk about Goldia O’Haver.

 

Goldia Aimee O’Haver was born on the 3rd of December 1902 in Rock Island County, Illinois. In 1929, she joined the United States Navy as a surgical nurse. Nursing was already demanding work, but the world was moving ever closer to war and many military nurses found themselves facing dangers far beyond what they had expected.

 

During the Second World War, Goldia was stationed at Cañacao Hospital near Cavite Naval Base in the Philippines. In January 1942, after Japanese forces advanced into Manila, she and eleven other Navy nurses were captured. These women later became known as the “Twelve Anchors.”

 

In 1943, the nurses were transferred to the prison camp at Los Baños. Conditions were extremely harsh. Supplies were scarce, food was limited, and illness spread really easily. She continued to help others. She used small scraps of fabric and managed to create uniforms, sheets, gowns, and clothing for the patients in the camp hospital. Even in captivity, she still found ways to bring comfort and dignity to the people around her.

 

After more than three years as a prisoner, Goldia was finally liberated in February 1945. She was weak from malnutrition and she ended up being hospitalised in San Francisco. She received both a Gold Star and a Bronze Star for her wartime service.

 

Soon after the war, she married fellow former prisoner Robert Heath Merrill. She retired from the Navy Nurse Corps in 1946 and settled in California, where she lived until her death in 1997 at the age of 94.