A Look Back.

Dr Rothstein will resume his Editor's Notes in the September issue. This month: As we approach the 60th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War II, we consider the impact of the war on the profession of physical therapy as reflected in the Journal.

During World War II, physical therapists made important contributions to the war effort, providing rehabilitation to wounded soldiers, often in less than ideal conditions. At the same time, they fought for, and gained, increased recognition as a profession. As "A Look Back" shows, the war effort encompassed every part of American life--even inflammation could be a victory for the Axis.

Physical Therapy as a Vocation

"At the present time perhaps no field in physical therapy is more interesting and timely than that of government service.... [P]hysical therapy received its initial impetus during the last war; in this war it is expected that the work will play a far more important part because now physical therapy is considered an integral part of medicine.... How many technicians will be needed during this war we do not know, but an estimate has been made in an article about to be published, entitled The Need for Physical Therapy Technicians, by John S. Coulter, M.D. and Howard A. Carter. We add here three other items from the same source:

U.S. Army Hospitals     2100
Civilian Hospitals      1478
Crippled Children's
  Schools               1682
Children's Bureau,
  U.S. Dept. of Labor    710

[N]ow that war is here, it is believed that many who are eligible will enter the six month courses prepared in several institutions for the purpose of training army aides.... [I]t is likewise believed that as physical therapy continues to grow in importance, many more teachers of physical education and nurses and students with science majors will avail themselves of the privilege of joining the ranks of a highly specialized profession."

Ida May Hazenhyer, MA
"Physical Therapy as a Vocation"
The Physiotherapy Review
1942;22(2):78-79.

Wanted: Physical Therapy Technicians

"There is a great need for more physical therapy technicians to serve with the armed forces, and we realize also that many technicians are necessary for civilian care. In order to meet this demand more students must be enrolled and trained. Our schools are `geared up' to do the job and we must keep the enrollment at its maximum.

Help our profession by encouraging and urging graduates from schools of physical education and students with two years of college, including twenty-six hours of science (courses in chemistry, physics and biology), to enroll in physical therapy courses.... Make it your individual responsibility to procure one or more new students, and we cannot fail to provide our armed forces with the necessary technicians of physical therapy who are needed as a vital part of the rehabilitation of our wounded. We must all do our part."

Mildred Elson
Editor-in-Chief
The Physiotherapy Review
1942;22(2):100.

Physical Therapy Aides "Over There"

General information from the War Department on physical therapy aides on foreign duty:

"The appointment of Physical Therapy Aides to Theater Hospital Units outside the continental limits of the United States is limited to women, citizens of the United States, and is made by the Office of the Surgeon General from the following groups:

(a) Physical Therapy Aides already employed in Army Hospitals;

(b) Qualified Physical Therapy Aides in other Government agencies;

(c) Qualified Physical Therapy Aides who are enrolled with the American Red Cross;

(d) Qualified individuals who have been associated with the personnel of the unit or with the organization sponsoring the unit and have been requested by the Director of the Unit.

The salaries of assigned Physical Therapy Aides are as follows:

(a) Head Physical Therapy Aides--$2,000 per annum, less deductions for subsistence and quarters, when furnished;

(b) Physical Therapy Aides--$1,800 per annum, less deductions for subsistence and quarters, when furnished....

This duty is entirely on a voluntary basis. At the present time Physical Therapy Aides are not entitled to the provisions of war risk insurance."

The Physiotherapy Review 1942;22(3):149, 151.

You're in the Army Now

"As we enter our second year of the war we are increasingly aware of our responsibility to our country and to our profession. We as an Association have tried to do our utmost to meet the demands of the army by training technicians. New schools have been organized and others have doubled and trebled their enrollment. Final plans for volunteer physical therapy assistants are being completed, and we have cooperated with the Red Cross in recruiting aides for the army.

In the closing days of the 76th Congress the bill giving military status to physical therapy technicians was passed, culminating the work and hopes of `aides' for the last twenty years."

Mildred Elson Editor-in-Chief The Physiotherapy Review 1943;23(1):24.

Prisoner of War

"A clipping from the `Re-Aides Post,' Summer 1943, gives us some news of Mary (Mollie) McMillan. She has started home and had reached Manila when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and she became a Japanese prisoner, interned for several months at Sant[a] Tomas University. The Red Cross then stated that in September she was taken back to China, reaching there in October. We heard that she was living at the home of Dr. Dunlap, but now read in the papers that all Americans in Shanghai have been interned. Last summer we heard that letters could be sent to her through the Red Cross, as `Prisoner of War,' but all letters came back. Her sister wrote to the China Medical Board and hopes that messages get through, but she does not know. The only address available is:

Civilian Internee Mail Postage Free
Miss Mary McMillan--American
  Internee
Interned by Japan
Formerly of Shanghai
Care of Japanese Red Cross
Tokyo, Japan."

The Physiotherapy Review 1943;23(5):214.

War and Postwar Rehabilitation

"The Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1943, approved by the President on July 6, 1943, provide the necessary framework within which a peace-time as well as a war-time program of rehabilitation will be administered. The scope of services available to disabled persons now and after the war has been broadened to include any services necessary to render them capable of engaging in remunerative employment or to render them more advantageously employable.... Two objectives stand out in the implementation of this program. First, we must, in the present emergency, salvage disabled manpower to relieve the growing labor shortage. Second, with thousands of disabled individuals seeking employment in the postwar period, we must assure them proper facilities with which to secure employment. We must also prepare for the readjustment of handicapped workers who may be displaced by industry at the end of the war."

Michael J Shortley "War and Post-War Rehabilitation of Handicapped Persons" The Physiotherapy Review 1944;24(2):61, 63.

Mary McMillan Returns

After her repatriation from a Japanese internment camp in October 1943, Mary McMillan spoke about her wartime experiences at the 1944 Annual Conference:

"Upon her return to Manila [shortly after Pearl Harbor], she immediately reported to the Army Hospital and volunteered her services, was accepted and duly registered.... Then followed what we have all read about--three weeks of horror--three weeks under constant bombardment .... On New Year's Eve [1941], via radio, they heard the tragic news that the Japanese were entering Manila. Her first thought was of the supplies of drugs, instruments, beds, and bedding in the Army hospital which would fall into the enemy's hands.... Miss McMillan--never daunted--`borrowed' a truck and with three women drove to the hospital and filled it with supplies and turned them over to the local Red Cross chapter. These supplies helped to keep the camp hospital going [for] many months.... The [internment] camp hospital [at Santa Tomas University] was set up in one of the university laboratories. The Red Cross provided 80 beds. Miss McMillan was the only physical therapist. There was no equipment, of course, except her own two hands and what she could devise.... When they arrived in Shanghai, Miss McMillan had beri-beri, complicated by Herpes Zoster and multiple neuritis. For many months she was in constant pain night and day. This all was aggravated by the extreme dampness of their quarters and the inadequate diet.... When word arrived that she was among those selected to be repatriated, it was like a reprieve.... [A]s they steamed into New York Harbor and saw the Statue of Liberty, [their] hearts were full of gratitude for their safe deliverance as they beheld the symbol of our country."

The Physiotherapy Review 1944;24(4)149-150.

Japan Surrenders!

"It was with grateful hearts that we learned the war was over. Physical therapists in the armed forces represent a large percentage of the membership of the American Physiotherapy Association. We are sincerely appreciative of their splendid service to our country and of the sacrifices many have made. You who are in the military service have been missed, and we are eager for your return. The rapid growth of our profession has brought many challenging developments which require competent leadership. We are anxious to welcome you home, and it is our earnest desire that before long you will again be active in the American Physiotherapy Association--your professional organization."

Louise Reinecke Editor-in-Chief The Physiotherapy Review 1945;25(5):216.

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