 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (August 2024) |
| Bangka Island massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of Pacific War | |
_Vivian_Bullwinkel_(left)_sitting.jpg) Captain Vivian Bullwinkel giving evidence at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in 1947 | |
 Bangka Island, Indonesia | |
| Location | Radji beach, Bangka Island |
| Coordinates | 2°01′34″S 105°06′39″E / 2.026168°S 105.110795°E |
| Date | 16 February 1942 |
| Weapons | bayonet and machine gun |
| Victims | 22 Australian Army nurses 60 Australian and British soldiers (some wounded) sailors from Vyner Brooke |
| Perpetrators | Imperial Japanese Army |
The Bangka Island massacre (also spelled Banka Island massacre) was the killing of unarmed Australian nurses and wounded Allied soldiers on Bangka Island, east of Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago on 16 February 1942. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific troops of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered 22 Australian Army nurses, 60 Australian and British soldiers, and crew members from the Vyner Brooke. The group were the only survivors from their steamship which had been sunk by Japanese bombers just after the defeat of Singapore. After surrendering to local Japanese forces on Bangka Island, which was then part of the Dutch East Indies, the group and its wounded were taken to a beach where they were killed by being bayonetted and machine gunned in the surf. Only South Australian nurse Sister Lieutenant Vivian Bullwinkel, American Eric Germann and Royal Navy Stoker Ernest Lloyd survived.
For almost 80 years, details that the Japanese troops raped the Australian nurses before they were murdered were suppressed. It was never reported at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in 1947 or included in subsequent post-war re-tellings of the massacre. Evidence that the Australian women had suffered violent sexual assault before their deaths was only reported in 2019 after being uncovered by research. Lt Bullwinkel said she was told by the Australian government to never to speak about what happened on Bangka.