When We Had Wings (2022) by Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner tells the intertwined stories of three women during World War II—two US military nurses and a civilian Filipino nurse—who navigate love and loss against the backdrop of a world at war. In August 1941, Manila seems like a tropical paradise, the perfect place for each of them to forget the pasts they set out to escape as they befriend one another. However, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s declaration of war, their bonds and courage are tested as US and Filipino forces battle the Imperial Japanese Army for control of the Philippines. As their paths cross and diverge, forcing them to confront the challenges and sacrifices of being nurses and prisoners of war (POWs), their stories illustrate women’s underrepresented roles in history while exploring hope and connection, love and grief, and how extraordinary circumstances can change ordinary lives.

This Study Guide uses the 2022 Harper Muse edition.

Content Warning: The source material includes occasional use of offensive World War II-era terms for Japanese people. In addition, this study guide describes the source material’s depictions of trauma and loss (starvation, child death, and loss of pregnancy) as well as wartime violence, sexual coercion and attempted assault, torture, and surgery.

Plot Summary

Three women meet in the Philippines in August 1941: Eleanor Lindstrom is a US Navy nurse who enlisted to escape the heartbreak of unrequited love, Penny Franklin is a US Army nurse attempting to heal from the recent loss of her husband and unborn child, and Lita Capel is a civilian Filipina nurse mourning the death of her mother. The three quickly bond, but four months later, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and the paradise of Manila becomes a war zone. Fate and necessity separate and reunite the friends as they’re assigned to care for wounded soldiers while Japanese forces advance on the Philippines. When MacArthur’s forces abandon Bataan and Corregidor, the nurses are left behind and become the first female prisoners of World War II.

Penny forms a bond with a quartermaster named Charley Russell, who asks her to keep his battle flag safe and promises to come and find her—and get a promised kiss—when the war is over. She’s imprisoned at Santo Tomas Internment Camp, where she’s guided by head nurse Maude Davison and becomes a surrogate mother for Newt, a young girl separated from her parents. Increasing deprivation at the hands of the Japanese commandant puts the prisoners at growing risk of disease and starvation, and a Japanese officer suggests that Penny become his mistress in exchange for food and supplies. She refuses, and his presence looms threateningly throughout her years at the camp; nevertheless, Penny courageously works with the Resistance, passing messages and contraband between the prisoners and the outside world.

While caring for the wounded, Lita develops a romance with Corporal Lon McGibbons. She and the other Filipino nurses are captured and sent to Bilibid Prison; they’re released after signing an oath of allegiance to the Imperial Empire of Japan. Lon, also imprisoned at Bilibid, tells Lita to do what she must to survive so that they can reunite when the war ends. As a civilian, she begins working at Philippine General Hospital, befriends her nursing school rival Reyna, and visits a convent to care for orphans of the war. However, Japanese military police arrest and torture her for smuggling medical supplies to prisoners. Tried for treason, she escapes execution and is sentenced to hard labor. At the labor camp, she discovers that Reyna gave her name to police after being tortured herself.

Head Navy nurse Laura Cobb volunteers Eleanor and her fellow nurses to care for prisoners at Los Baños Prison Camp. The camp is in the middle of the jungle, and the prisoners are treated poorly, forced to sleep outside and denied proper rations even though food is plentiful. Eleanor meets Lieutenant David Mathis, and their friendship sustains her while camp conditions worsen, as David proves selfless and optimistic. Both flirt with the idea that they could fall in love, but Eleanor still thinks about John Olson, the pastor she loved who was engaged to someone else. Just days before the prisoners are liberated, Japanese guards shoot David while he’s sneaking into the camp with food. Eleanor mourns his death deeply.

American forces return to the Philippines, freeing the nurses and POWs; Eleanor and Penny are sent home to the US, and Lita decides to stay in the Philippines, helping rebuild the country and caring for the orphans she has come to love at the convent. Lita and Lon say a tearful goodbye and live separate lives, though they continue to write. Eleanor receives a letter from John Olson (dated 1941 and undelivered throughout the war), in which he promised to wait for her; they eventually marry and have a son, whom they name David. In Texas, Penny reunites with Charley Russell; Newt, whose father found her at the end of the war, comes to visit her every summer. In 1951, Penny, Eleanor, and their families return to Manila to visit Lita, celebrating their strong bonds of friendship.