Margaret Utinsky
Encyclopedia
Margaret Elizabeth Doolin Utinsky (August 26, 1900–August 30, 1970) was an American
nurse who worked with the Filipino resistance movement to provide medicine, food, and other items to aid Allied prisoners of war
in the Philippines
during World War II
. She was recognized in 1946 with the Medal of Freedom for her actions.
and grew up on a wheat farm in Canada
. In 1919, she married John Rowley. He died the following year, leaving her with an infant son, Charles.
On a sojourn to the Philippines in the late 1920s, Margaret met and fell in love with John "Jack" Utinsky, a former Army captain who worked as a civil engineer
for the U.S. government. They married in 1934. Margaret and Jack settled into life in Manila
.
As the likelihood of a Japan
ese attack grew in the Far East
, the U.S. military ordered all American wives back to the United States. Unwilling to part from her husband, Margaret refused to obey the order and took an apartment in Manila while Jack went to work on Bataan
. In December 1941, the Japanese invaded the Philippines. When Japanese troops occupied Manila on January 2, 1942, she was forced aboard the Washington, the last ship leaving with Americans, she snuck off the ship at the last moment and returned to hide in her apartment rather than go into internment. She wrote in her book, "To go into an internment camp seemed like the sensible thing to do, but for the life of me I could not see what use I would be to myself or to anyone else cooped up there.... For from the moment the inconceivable thing happened and the Japanese arrived, there was just one thought in my mind—to find Jack."
Undiscovered after ten weeks in hiding, Margaret ventured out and sought help from the priests at Malate Convent. Through various contacts, she obtained false papers, creating the identity of Rena Utinsky, a Lithuania
n nurse—as Lithuania was a nonbelligerent
country under armed occupation by Nazi Germany
. She
secured a position with the Filipino Red Cross as a nurse, and went to Bataan to search for her husband.
She was shocked by the state of the survivors of the Bataan Death March
. She resolved to do all she could to help the POWs that survived. Beginning with small actions, she soon built a clandestine resistance network that provided food, money, and medicine such as quinine to the thousands of POWs at Camp O'Donnell
, and later at the Cabanatuan prison camp. After she learned that her husband had died in the prison camp, she redoubled her efforts to save as many men as possible. Her code name was "Miss U," which is also became the title of her 1948 book about her World War II exploits.
Suspected of helping prisoners, the Japanese arrested her, held her at Fort Santiago
prison, and tortured her for 32 days. When confronted with passenger log of the Washington listing her name, she insisted she had lied so she could work as a nurse.She was beaten daily, hung with her arms tied behind her back, and sexually assaulted. During one night five Filipinos were beheaded in front of her cell. On another night, an American soldier was tied to her cell gate and beaten to death. His flesh lodged in her hair. She was then confined to a dungeon for four days without food or water. She never revealed her true identity and was released after signing a statement attesting to her good treatment.
She spent six weeks recovering from injuries at a Manila hospital. The doctors wanted to amputate her gangrenous leg, but she refused. The hospital was full of Japanese spies, and she was afraid she would reveal secrets while under anesthesia. She directed the surgeons to remove the gangrenous flesh without anesthesia. She left the hospital before fully recovered and escaped to Bataan Peninsula
, where she served as a nurse with the Philippine Commonwealth troops and the Recognized Guerrilla forces, moving from camp to camp in the mountains until liberation in February 1945.
When the combined American and Philippine Commonwealth troops re-entered the Philippines, Margaret was taken through the Japanese lines by the local people to the American lines. She had lost 45 pounds, 35 percent of her pre-war weight, and an inch in height. Her auburn hair had turned white and she looked like she had aged 25 years. Yet, within a few days, she wrote from memory a 30 page report listing the names of soldiers she knew had been tortured, the names of their torturers, and the names of collaborators and spies. She was attached to the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps, and later was flown to meet the 511 survivors, out of 9000 original prisoners, who were rescued from the Cabanatuan POW camp.
She died in Lakewood, California on August 30, 1970, and was buried at Roosevelt Memorial Park, in Gardena, California.
Actress Connie Nielsen portrayed an idealized version of Margaret Utinsky in the 2005
film, The Great Raid
, which is based on the 1945 raid to free POWs at Cabanatuan prison camp.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
nurse who worked with the Filipino resistance movement to provide medicine, food, and other items to aid Allied prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She was recognized in 1946 with the Medal of Freedom for her actions.
Biography
Margaret was born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
and grew up on a wheat farm in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. In 1919, she married John Rowley. He died the following year, leaving her with an infant son, Charles.
On a sojourn to the Philippines in the late 1920s, Margaret met and fell in love with John "Jack" Utinsky, a former Army captain who worked as a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
for the U.S. government. They married in 1934. Margaret and Jack settled into life in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
.
As the likelihood of a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese attack grew in the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
, the U.S. military ordered all American wives back to the United States. Unwilling to part from her husband, Margaret refused to obey the order and took an apartment in Manila while Jack went to work on Bataan
Bataan
Bataan is a province of the Philippines occupying the whole of the Bataan Peninsula on Luzon. The province is part of the Central Luzon region. The capital of Bataan is Balanga City and it is bordered by the provinces of Zambales and Pampanga to the north...
. In December 1941, the Japanese invaded the Philippines. When Japanese troops occupied Manila on January 2, 1942, she was forced aboard the Washington, the last ship leaving with Americans, she snuck off the ship at the last moment and returned to hide in her apartment rather than go into internment. She wrote in her book, "To go into an internment camp seemed like the sensible thing to do, but for the life of me I could not see what use I would be to myself or to anyone else cooped up there.... For from the moment the inconceivable thing happened and the Japanese arrived, there was just one thought in my mind—to find Jack."
Undiscovered after ten weeks in hiding, Margaret ventured out and sought help from the priests at Malate Convent. Through various contacts, she obtained false papers, creating the identity of Rena Utinsky, a Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n nurse—as Lithuania was a nonbelligerent
Non-belligerent
A non-belligerent is a person, a state, or other organization that does not fight in a given conflict. The term is often used to describe a country that does not take part militarily in a war...
country under armed occupation by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. She
secured a position with the Filipino Red Cross as a nurse, and went to Bataan to search for her husband.
She was shocked by the state of the survivors of the Bataan Death March
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer, by the Imperial Japanese Army, of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of prisoners.The march was characterized by...
. She resolved to do all she could to help the POWs that survived. Beginning with small actions, she soon built a clandestine resistance network that provided food, money, and medicine such as quinine to the thousands of POWs at Camp O'Donnell
Camp O'Donnell
Camp O'Donnell was a facility of the United States Air Force in Capas, Tarlac, The Philippines. Before the facility was transferred to the Air Force, it was first a Philippine Constabulary post then a United States Army facility....
, and later at the Cabanatuan prison camp. After she learned that her husband had died in the prison camp, she redoubled her efforts to save as many men as possible. Her code name was "Miss U," which is also became the title of her 1948 book about her World War II exploits.
Suspected of helping prisoners, the Japanese arrested her, held her at Fort Santiago
Fort Santiago
Fort Santiago is a defense fortress built for Spanish conquistador, Miguel López de Legazpi. The fort is part of the structures of the walled city of Intramuros, in Manila, Philippines. José Rizal, the Philippines' national hero, was imprisoned in the fort before his execution in 1896...
prison, and tortured her for 32 days. When confronted with passenger log of the Washington listing her name, she insisted she had lied so she could work as a nurse.She was beaten daily, hung with her arms tied behind her back, and sexually assaulted. During one night five Filipinos were beheaded in front of her cell. On another night, an American soldier was tied to her cell gate and beaten to death. His flesh lodged in her hair. She was then confined to a dungeon for four days without food or water. She never revealed her true identity and was released after signing a statement attesting to her good treatment.
She spent six weeks recovering from injuries at a Manila hospital. The doctors wanted to amputate her gangrenous leg, but she refused. The hospital was full of Japanese spies, and she was afraid she would reveal secrets while under anesthesia. She directed the surgeons to remove the gangrenous flesh without anesthesia. She left the hospital before fully recovered and escaped to Bataan Peninsula
Bataan Peninsula
The Bataan Peninsula is a rocky extension of the Zambales Mountains, on Luzon in the Philippines. It separates the Manila Bay from the South China Sea...
, where she served as a nurse with the Philippine Commonwealth troops and the Recognized Guerrilla forces, moving from camp to camp in the mountains until liberation in February 1945.
When the combined American and Philippine Commonwealth troops re-entered the Philippines, Margaret was taken through the Japanese lines by the local people to the American lines. She had lost 45 pounds, 35 percent of her pre-war weight, and an inch in height. Her auburn hair had turned white and she looked like she had aged 25 years. Yet, within a few days, she wrote from memory a 30 page report listing the names of soldiers she knew had been tortured, the names of their torturers, and the names of collaborators and spies. She was attached to the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps, and later was flown to meet the 511 survivors, out of 9000 original prisoners, who were rescued from the Cabanatuan POW camp.
She died in Lakewood, California on August 30, 1970, and was buried at Roosevelt Memorial Park, in Gardena, California.
Legacy
In 1946 Margaret Utinsky was awarded the Medal of Freedom for her actions.Actress Connie Nielsen portrayed an idealized version of Margaret Utinsky in the 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
film, The Great Raid
The Great Raid
The Great Raid is a 2005 war film about the Raid at Cabanatuan, adapted from William Breuer's book of the same name. It tells the story of the January 1945 liberation of the Cabanatuan Prison Camp on the Philippine island of Luzon during World War II. It is directed by John Dahl and stars Benjamin...
, which is based on the 1945 raid to free POWs at Cabanatuan prison camp.