Yay Panlilio meets guerrilla leader Marcos Villa Agustin, aka Marking

"The mountains, Yay , knew, were filled with bands of Filipino guerrilla fighters. She would have liked to join them but quickly dismissed the idea. They were constantly on the run from the Japanese, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up with them: the year before, while covering a story, she had broken her leg in a serious auto accident, and her bone had not been set properly. She also had a heart condition.

Plus she was a woman. How could she live among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men?

One night in July 1942, while recovering from malaria on the property of a kind farmer, Yay suddenly encountered a large group of fighters sleeping on the farmer’s property. They were so young, they filled her heart with compassion.

Yet, in the morning, she told them to leave for the safety of the farmer and his family. None of them moved. Yay didn’t yet realize they were hearing the same thing from everyone: leave for our safety. They told Yay they would make no decision without direct orders from someone they referred to as “the major.”

Marking, standing second from right

A short time later, Yay met him. He was Marcos Villa Agustin, known as Marking, a former boxer and bus driver who, when the Japanese first attacked, had worked for the Philippine army, convoying troops to Bataan. After his convoy was cut off, he became a scout for the army. When the Japanese captured him and found an American flag and eagle tattooed across his chest, they arrested him. But he managed to escape into the jungle, where other Filipinos eventually gathered to him, forming a guerrilla band.

Marking and Yay connected immediately. He asked her to join his unit. He understood her physical limitations but was determined to assist her with these as best he could, because he knew that her intelligence—and her typewriter—could be powerful weapons..."

Excerpt from "Yay Panlilio: Guerrilla Writer" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. 

Yay Panlilio and Marking

Letter from American Red Cross staff assistant stationed in Manila

Letter from Faye Anderson, Red Cross staff assistant, sent early July, 1945

Dearest Family:

I am going to try to relate properly the most exciting week of my life so far in the big Red Cross...

Manila, as it is now, is more than I have words to describe. The destruction, starvation, persecution, and ruin is incredible. to say the least. It's a down right crime to have happen to any place what happened here...To put it short, there is literally nothing left of what must have been the most beautiful spot in the world, some buildings dating back to the 1600s. The art, architecture, traditions, etc., that have been lost here will take two generations to regain.

Manila's legislative building, 1945

It is all in a state of complete confusion...[but] it's a great thrill to be an American and see how our boys have taken hold, working day and night to further this war...The Filipinos look to us like Gods and can't do enough for us as we are the Yanks that saved them from a fate worse than death.  As you pass along the streets, even the half starved [children] make the "V" for victory sign with their fingers, and yell out, "Victory Joe" as every Yank to them is a Joe. We should be very proud of our nation...

US troops, Manila, February 27, 1945

This city is filled with tragic stories and it makes you gasp to hear some of them. The Filipinos really suffered and I'm amazed at the way they are able to take it all. Their city in ruins, half starved, their families killed and tortured in front of their eyes. We all don't know how lucky we are to be Americans. I was talking to a charming Filipino woman who evidently came from a very good family and she said they wouldn't have cared if there hadn't been a pillar or post left in the city as long as the Americans arrived..

I will say that the Red Cross is doing one marvelous job here and I'm proud to be in their organization...

My love to You all, Faye

From: We're in This War Too: World War II Letters from American Women in Uniform

Endorsements for Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater

"So meticulously researched and jam-packed with engaging stories of extraordinary women, interwoven with the essential facts of the conflict in the Pacific. What an accomplishment! Kathryn Atwood’s finely detailed and fast-paced writing makes for fascinating reading, exquisite close-ups of little-known women and a much needed perspective on World War II. Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the long years of Japanese occupation, women bravely, day by day, stood with the victims of war and thwarted the enemy. Finally, their stories are told."
--Mary Cronk Farrell, author of Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific

"Anyone who thinks that women's only responsibility in World War II was keeping morale high on the home front will change this view after reading about spies, prisoners of war, guerilla fighters and other courageous women in Kathryn J. Atwood's Women Heroes of  World War II. By using their own voices from memoirs, diaries and other sources, Atwood clearly lets us know that valor is not, and never has been, only a men's trait."
--Elizabeth M. Norman author of We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Women Trapped on Bataan

"Atwood's vivid, accessible storytelling brings to life the oft' forgotten female spies, saboteurs, and survivors who were utterly crucial to American victory in World War II. This book rightly solidifies their place in human history."

--Ben Montgomery, author of Grandma Gatewood's Walk and The Leper Spy: The Story of an Unlikely Hero of World War II. 

"Kathryn Atwood presents refreshing perspective into the horrors of the Pacific War through the forgotten stories of heroines, who have mostly been lost in the vast historiography of WWII.
--Jenny Chan, Director at Pacific Atrocities Education.

"Kathryn Atwood’s “Women Heroes of WWII-the Pacific Theater tells the stories of fifteen gutsy ladies—writers, agents, activists, nurses, survivors, and others—whose bravery, resilience, and determination to take risks, confront adversity, and even face death are revealed from a perspective too often ignored. A modern day Profiles in Courage."

 --David Rensin, co-author with Louis Zamperini of his autobiography, Devil at My Heels, and his collection of life lessons, Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In.