Sybil Kathigasu and the Guerrilla Fighters

Photo credit: Media Masters Publishing, Malaya

"The occupying Japanese administration forced the Malayans to abandon Western culture and replace it with Japanese. Malayans had their homes searched regularly to ensure no one still owned pictures of the British royal family, the flags of any Allied nations, or even American record albums.

The Japanese were also obsessed with persecuting Papan’s large Chinese population. They would randomly round them up and make them stand for hours—sometimes days—in the hot sun without food or water. Many collapsed, and some died.

A guerrilla movement was born out of this persecution. The Chinese guerrillas near Papan fought the Japanese occupation by assassinating Malayan collaborators who were betraying their fellow Malayans to the Japanese. Large Japanese offensives would then be launched against the guerrillas. But when collaborators continued to meet their doom from hidden assassins, everyone knew the guerrillas were, in the main, alive and well.

One day, they asked Sybil for help.

“It’s the guerillas, Mrs. K,” said Moru, a young Chinese man acquainted with her. “Some of them are sick and wounded, and need medicines. They knew you don’t like the Japs. Will you help?”

Sybil knew the Japanese penalty for helping a guerrilla was severe..."


Excerpt from "Sybil Kathigasu: 'This Was War'" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. 

Minnie Vautrin

Minnie Vautrin as a young woman

(www.discipleshistory.org)

"IN DECEMBER 1937, Nanking was a city in flight. Its streets were jammed with the last major flood of civilians who had the means to leave the war-torn city. Half the original population was now gone. Most of the remaining 500,000 civilians were there only because they couldn’t afford transportation or had nowhere else to go.

But there was one small group of foreigners in Nanking—Americans and Europeans—who had stayed deliberately. They were the members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, which referred to an approximate three-mile area in the city designed to be a wartime refuge for civilians. Women and children were to be housed within the safety zone at Ginling Women’s College. Its president was an American woman named Minnie Vautrin."


Opening paragraphs of Minnie Vautrin: American Hero at the Nanking Massacre from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater

Margaret Utinsky: Hiding From the Japanese

Margaret Utinsky

"MARGARET UTINSKY PEERED out the window of her second-floor apartment. On the street below, Japanese officers questioned everyone who passed by. They were rounding up “enemy aliens”: British and American citizens. Margaret had no intention of being among them. She could afford to wait a long time; her apartment was stocked with food and medical supplies provided by personnel working at the US military bases in Manila...

Margaret, a Red Cross nurse by day and the operator of a servicemen’s canteen by night, had taken taxi-loads of those supplies, hoping to open her canteen again when the fighting was over. She wanted to be of help, especially to her husband, Jack, a civil engineer with the US military in Manila who had urged Margaret to evacuate with the other military wives when the Japanese first attacked. Margaret had refused. Later, when Manila was declared an open city and Jack was ordered to pull back to the Bataan Peninsula with the rest of the military, Margaret refused his urgent suggestion to stay at the local hotel with the other American and British civilians; she assumed—correctly—that the Japanese would round them up and force them into an internment camp. And Margaret didn’t see how she could be of any use to Jack in an internment camp.

After the Japanese searched through the first floor of the apartment building and found all the apartments vacated, they didn’t bother checking the second floor..."

Opening paragraphs of "Margaret Utinsky: The Miss U Network" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater 

Claire Phillips and the Tsubaki Club's Opening Night

Claire Phillips, aka Dorothy Fuentes

"A GLITTERING PARADE of Japanese elite crowded into the Tsubaki Club on its opening night: film stars, famous musicians, military officers, and civilian officials. None of them wanted to miss the first night of Manila’s new, most exclusive nightclub.

The guests were treated to one dazzling dance production after another. For the finale, the elegant owner appeared alone on the dance floor. Dressed in a long, glittering white evening gown, Dorothy Fuentes sang beautifully for her guests. When she was finished, the crowd jumped to their feet in a thunderous standing ovation.

When the last guests had left, Dorothy checked the overflowing cash box. She knew that the Tsubaki Club was now the most popular spot for the Japanese in Manila. Her plan would work. She wrote the following note: 'Our new show was a sell out. You can count on regular backing. Standing by for orders and assignments.'

She was about to sign it, then stopped. She couldn’t use her name; it was too risky. But what could she use as an alias? She thought for a moment about how she always stashed money in her bra. She signed the note, 'High Pockets.'"


Opening paragraphs of "Claire Phillips: Manila Agent" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. 

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.