By 1940, Tootie was a Sister nursing at Temora Hospital and enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) Home Service on November 14, 1940.

Soon after, Tootie was chosen, along with four other Sisters (all Lieutenants) to serve at an ‘undisclosed destination’. 

That destination became clear on April 18,1941, when the nurses embarked on the ‘Zealandia’ as part of ‘Lark Forc’, bound for Rabaul on New Britain, amid fears of Japanese expansionism.

The nurses set to work in the Camp Hospital, which was in tents. All was well until Japanese aircraft appeared over Rabaul on Christmas Day, 1941.

Bombing of Rabaul commenced with Japanese forces invading Rabaul Harbour at dawn on 22nd January, 1942. With only a few RAAF aircraft to provide air protection, the hopelessly outnumbered defenders were pushed back.

While many escaped, Tootie Keast was captured along with the other nurses.

The six nurses were interned at the Vunapope Catholic Mission under appallingly brutal conditions.

On July 5, 1942, they were transferred to Japan on the ‘Naruto Maru’ where they remained until the war ended.

They were deprived of food, medicines and suitable clothing. 

They swept streets, emptied lavatories and did other hard and dirty work.

Despite continued inhumane treatment, the women survived, saved by the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Tootie’s family, after three years of not knowing, eventually learned that she had survived. 

There was much rejoicing, particularly when she and three of her fellow nurses stepped out of a Liberator – a former bomber – at Mascot.

After an official welcome and medical checks, Tootie arrived in Junee with her mother and sister Ida and returned to the family home in Dalley Street.

She was discharged from the AANS on 10th April, 1946.

Tootie lived at Allawah – now Briarleigh – in Old Junee, before retiring to Manly.

She died on November 14, 1989.