by Peter Eisner
Banzai!
(The Philippine post office: Late in 1943, Claire and others collected mail from detainees at Santo Tomas and from POWs for transport through the guerrilla network onward to Australia and then home.
“My rendition did not: ME, 158.
“Had to drink to: Diary, November 20, 1942.
“employees think I’m crazy: Diary, March 24, 1943.
“If they were army: ME, 118. While Claire admitted that portions of her memoir were exaggerated, Boone confirmed in his prologue to the book and later that she described her intelligence contacts with him accurately.
Organized Resistance
“Detachments of Fil-American: Whitney, MacArthur: His Rendezvous with History, 128.
“Short as it was: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 202–3.
“Intelligence report reveals that: Ibid., 128.
“Primary mission,” he told: Ibid., 130.
The goal would be: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 205.
“This decisive victory restored: Ibid., 159.
General George Marshall, the: George Marshall to Douglas MacArthur, June 24, 1944, Papers of George Catlett Marshall, Volume 4: Aggressive and Determined Leadership, Document 4-279, http://marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/to-general-douglas-macarthur-9/.
“I felt that if I: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 197.
Willoughby, MacArthur’s intelligence chief: Whitney, MacArthur: His Rendezvous with History, 128.
Details about the Bataan: Lichauco, Dear Mother Putnam, 65–69. Marcial Lichauco, a friend of the Roxas family, traveled north of Manila within days of the death march in search of relatives who had been captured. He wrote in his entry for April 14, 1942, in part: “Many of those who collapsed on the roadway met death there, for the Japanese guards either bayoneted these unfortunate victims or shot them where they lay.”
“Quezon was thrilled to learn: Francis Burton Harrison, “Diary of Francis Burton Harrison,” August 28, 1942, Philippine Diary Project, philippinediaryproject.com /1942/08/28/august-28-1942/.
Parsons had one main: Ingham, Rendezvous by Submarine, 48.
The goal was: Ibid., 50.
“The trip, according to Chick’s: Ibid., 54.
“I don’t intend to run: Ibid., 52.
“When our beach patrol: Roberto de Jesus, interviewed in Secret War in the Pacific, produced by Peter Parsons and Moon River Productions, 2004.
“There are no generals: Jones and Nunan, U.S. Subs Down Under, 216.
With broad authority from: James, The Years of MacArthur, 506–9.
Steve the Greek
It was dangerous to talk: Lichauco, Dear Mother Putnam, 48–49.
“American prisoners who were: Stephen Handras, letter to Colonel Marcus, chief, Recovered Personnel Division, July 31, 1945, Record Group 58, Box VI, envelope 2–27, MacArthur Archives.
“There were several civilians: Ibid.
No one slapped Steve: Ibid.
“I saw a truck with: Ibid.
The guards warmed up: Transcript of the Testimony of Claire Phillips Clavier, Portland, Oregon, November 10, 1953, CC, 58.
That simple act established: Ibid., 57.
Yamada began to bring: Ibid., 61.
One new contact was: Irvine, Surviving the Rising Sun, 321.
“Unlike some of the other: Ibid., 331.
The list was also: Transcript of the Testimony of John Boone, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 699. Boone said he sent Claire’s intelligence dispatches immediately to his commander, Lieutenant Edwin Ramsey, in central Luzon. He did not provide details on how the information was passed on or used locally after that.
all the while working: Diary, November 5, 1942.
Peggy’s Orders
“Orders were orders”: Transcript of the Testimony of Margaret Utinsky, San Francisco, California, January 10, 1956, CC, 945.
Many top U.S. military: Wainwright was head of the Philippine Division until November 28, 1941, when General MacArthur reassigned him as head of the Central Luzon Command.
Peggy liked what she saw: Transcript of the Testimony of Margaret Utinsky, San Francisco, California, January 10, 1956, CC, 946. Other sources said that Peggy had come to the Philippines in 1927.
After vacationing for a few: Ibid., 946–48.
“Before you know it?”: Utinsky, Miss U, 5.
“was the last one: Transcript of the Testimony of Margaret Utinsky, San Francisco, California, January 10, 1956, CC, 947.
“The boat backed out: Ibid., 948.
“And then I went: Ibid., 949.
“I came back here: Utinsky, Miss U, 66.
“After this trip through: Ibid., 20.
“American! American!”: Ibid., 50.
“That stumped me: Ibid., 49–50.
The Prisoners of Japan
The Tokyo High Command: Glusman, Conduct Under Fire, 272.
About fifty thousand Filipinos: Office of the Provost Marshal General, “Report on American Prisoners of War Interned by the Japanese in the Philippines,” November 19, 1945, available at www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/philippines/odonnell/provost_rpt.html.
“It is regrettable that: Quoted in Sides, Ghost Soldiers, 106.
“little Hitler,” among other: Olson, O’Donnell, Andersonville of the Pacific, 45.
Nursed back to health: Lichauco, Dear Mother Putnam, 57.
At first the Cabanatuan: Sides, Ghost Soldiers, 133–34. This is in sync with the tally given by former POW Dwight Gard, quoted below.
The Japanese authorities did: Japan had not signed the 1929 Geneva convention on treatment of prisoners of war but had pledged at the start of World War II that it would respect it. Japan had signed the separate 1929 Geneva convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field.
Observing the conventions when: At the start of the war, the peso was worth fifty cents. With inflation Japanese occupation pesos were worth only pennies by the end of the war.
The Underground
“If you are working: Transcript of the Testimony of Naomi Jackson, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 788.
“they didn’t bother me: Transcript of the Testimony of Lorenza O’Malley, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 733.
Breaking Through to the POWs
That morning, guards were: Transcript of the Testimony of Naomi Jackson, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 794.
“After that, we got: Ibid., 797.
The other women at the stands: Ibid., 798.
Condolences
“I am deeply sorry: Utinsky, Miss U, 64.
“In one way, it was: Ibid., 65.
“Pray to God I can: Diary, January 30, 1943.
“There is no need: ME, 100.
“Phil Darling, Father Buttenbruck: Diary, April 24, 1943. The earlier diary note about Phillips’s death said July 7 rather than July 27, probably a mistake.
Claire suffered Phillips’s death: ME, 104.
“Wish I could join: Diary, March 25, 1943.
He asked her: ME, 104.
Peggy’s Collapse
“Ramón did his utmost: Lorenza Amusategui, document, undated, Philippine Archive Collection, POWS/Civilian Internees, Record Group 407/270/49/27/1, Box 143A-B, NARA.
“She did start and do: Claire Phillips to Evangeline Neibert, May 20, 1947, CC.
“Unfortunately,” Lorenza said: Amusategui document.
Ramón “without her knowledge: Ibid, 17.
“Their names were Tommy: Transcript of the Testimony of Naomi Jackson, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 786.
“In the meantime”: Utinsky, Miss U, 54.
“Go to them”: Ibid.
“I didn’t have anything: Transcript of the Testimony
of Naomi Jackson, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 825–26.
man in charge, Captain Tossino: Ibid. Naomi remembered his name and saw him once later, but the spelling is likely wrong.
Finally, in mock frustration: Ibid., 826.
“This is for Japan: Utinsky, Miss U, 55.
Messages at Dawn
Naomi pretended she had just: Transcript of the Testimony of Naomi Jackson, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 806–7.
Threatt, forty-seven, was: U.S. Select Military Registers, 1862–1985, Fred G. Threatt, available by searching at www.ancestry.com.
“I don’t know of any: Claire Phillips to Evangeline Neibert, June 17, 1947, CC.
“It was concealed by mongo: Transcript of the Testimony of Naomi Jackson, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 805.
“This work brought us: Amusategui document, 5.
Fan Dance
One night a Japanese: Transcript of the Testimony of Claire Phillips Clavier, Portland, Oregon, November 12, 1953, CC, 278.
“The commander and his forty guests: ME, 156.
“That was where I: Ronald D. Klein, “Markova: Wartime Comfort Gay in the Philippines,” Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, no. 13 (August 2006), available at http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue13/klein_interview.html.
Relief for the Greater Need
“Those poor men are dying: ME, 124.
at Nichols Field: Nichols Field is now part of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Claire returned to the club: Binkowski, Code Name: High Pockets, 110–11.
“The soldiers would be: Transcript of the Testimony of Claire Phillips Clavier, Portland, Oregon, November 10, 1953, CC, 57.
Before Claire had come: Transcript of the Testimony of Claire Phillips Clavier, Portland, Oregon, November 12, 1953, CC, 267.
“It made me think: ME, 115; and Diary, March 29, 1943.
Love Letters and Lives
“The additional food is having: Shreve, The Colonel’s Way, 103.
“The men were faint: Ibid., 131–32.
“Between you, me: Claire Phillips to Frederick Yeager, August 27, 1943, CC.
“It was all High: Transcript of the Testimony of Dwight E. Gard, Portland, Oregon, November 10, 1953, CC, 182.
“My code name is: Ibid.
When Claire learned that: CC, 175–76.
“The people who were receiving: Ibid., 176.
Gard said Tiffany: Ibid., 175.
Gard kept a diary: Diary and notebook of Major Dwight E. Gard, 1942–1945, Multnomah Bank records [manuscript], 1948–1969, Oregon Historical Society Research Library, Portland, Oregon.
Colonel Shreve, Gard’s fellow: Shreve, The Colonel’s Way, 132.
“Cheese Casserole, Layer: Ibid.
“I told her that: Transcript of the Testimony of Dwight E. Gard, Portland, Oregon, November 10, 1953, CC, 186.
Japan had a total: Tanaka, Hidden Horrors, 5.
Life and Death Foretold
“I’m a psychic”: Ramsey and Rivele, Lieutenant Ramsey’s War, 152–55.
“As I was preparing: Ibid., 152.
“He greeted me with: Ibid., 141.
“Mellie gathered considerable information: ME, 106. This information from Claire is endorsed by Boone, who wrote in the preface of Manila Espionage that “all the facts in it of which I have any personal knowledge are, to the best of my belief, true and properly expressed.”
“I’m the senior officer: Ramsey and Rivele, Lieutenant Ramsey’s War, 142–43.
There in the jungle: Ramsey’s book says it was in November (Ramsey and Rivele, Lieutenant Ramsey’s War, 154), but Boone says it was February 19 (CC, 691).
Williams, going on with: Ramsey and Rivele, Lieutenant Ramsey’s War, 153.
“It wound up that I: Transcript of the Testimony of John Boone, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 649.
Boone and the other: Schaefer, Bataan Diary, 142; Ramsey and Boone probably would not have heard MacArthur’s edict on fighting until at least July 1943.
“They were guys who: Transcript of the Testimony of John Boone, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 652.
Things were quiet for a few: Ramsey and Rivele, Lieutenant Ramsey’s War, 151.
Sometime after midnight they: Ibid., 153.
“There was a sudden: Ibid., 154.
Boone said he: Transcript of the Testimony of John Boone, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 687.
After that initial trip: Schaefer, Bataan Diary, 243.
Claire was able to send: Transcript of the Testimony of John Boone, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 700–702.
When Claire came out: Based on Diary, November 15, 1943. Before the war, four pesos were the equivalent of two U.S. dollars, but under Japanese occupation the currency was devaluing steadily. The average price of cigarettes in the United States at the time was fifteen cents per pack. Michael D. LaFaive, Patrick Fleenor, and Todd Nesbit, “A Key Supplier of Cigarettes to Other States During the 1940’s,” Mackinac Center for Public Policy, December 3, 2008, www.mackinac.org/10050.
“Pacio told me that: ME, 106.
Essentially, Boone said: Transcript of the Testimony of John Boone, Washington, DC, September 14, 1955, CC, 698.
“‘By the way George: Ramsey and Rivele, Lieutenant Ramsey’s War, 155.
Tojo’s Parade
“Police everywhere,” she wrote: Diary, May 5, 1943.
“Substantial progress is being made: Agoncillo, The Fateful Years, 368.
He presented a timetable: Esmeraldo De Leon, “General Says He Is Convinced of Propriety of Independence,” Manila Tribune, May 7, 1943, p. 2.
“won the hearts”: Jose P. Bautista, “Nippon Premier Is Very Human Person,” Manila Tribune, May 7, 1943, p. 8.
“The pro-American sentiment: Lichauco, Dear Mother Putnam, 92.
People “cheered him spontaneously”: Photo caption, Manila Tribune, May 7, 1943, p. 1.
The gathering, Tojo said: “Premier Tozyo’s Message,” Manila Tribune, May 7, 1943, p. 2.
On April 21, two: Irvine, Surviving the Rising Sun, 56.
She followed her father: Joan Bennett Chapman, interview with the author, February 10, 2015.
“I lived under bestial: Agoncillo, The Fateful Years, 577.
Japanese troops were: “Tojo Finds Trouble in the Philippines,” New York Times, May 9, 1943, p. 22.
“I think there is: Lichauco, Dear Mother Putnam, 90.
After Nagahama’s appeal: ADVATIS [Advanced Allied Translation and Interpreter Section, sometimes also coded ATIS], Translation no. 37, January 14, 1945, Manila Branch (ATIS files), Record Group 331/290/12/34, Entry 1340, Box 1908, NARA.
Parsons on the Move
Chick Parsons’s wanderings during: Parsons did not say explicitly when and if he had gone to Manila in 1943 or 1944, but multiple sources reported he had been there. While these sources indicated that they had seen Parsons in Manila in June 1943, Colonel Wendell Fertig, a guerrilla commander on the island of Mindanao, recorded in his war diary that Parsons was present in Jimenez on the northwestern coast of Mindanao at various times that month: June 1–3, then going to southern Mindanao; on June 15, back to Jimenez. (Diary of Wendell Fertig, MacArthur Archives, Record Group 52, Box VIII, folder 2). Parsons’s whereabouts were not certain during the rest of June, though he was known to have been in Mindanao in early July to catch a submarine ride back to Australia. While Jimenez is about 450 miles south of Manila, Peter Parsons said his father was resourceful and capable of moving quickly.
Claire’s bartender, Mamerto Geronimo: Peter Parsons, e-mail to the author, December 10, 2015.
John Rocha, a five-year-old: Rocha, who served decades later as the Philippine ambassador to Spain, gave this accou
nt to Peter Parsons. Peter Parsons, e-mail to the author, May 13, 2016.
“The visitor was attired: Parsons e-mail, December 10, 2015.
“We all know that Chick: Parsons e-mail, May 13, 2016.
After the war Peter Parsons: Parsons e-mail, December 10, 2015. Peter Parsons also said he overheard his father talking about the assassination attempt on José Laurel, with the implication that he had been involved or informed ahead of time. This could not be confirmed.
“He was likely in that: Peter Parsons, e-mail to the author, December 10, 2015, 13.
“We have no documents: Ibid., 17.
Now she had begun: Her annotation in the diary on July 4, 1943, for example, reads in part: “S. weiasil se ason and Cheasik Per son se a sons, a re a sived. Must get Ea sall to theasem.” Claire helped translate portions of her diary entries during testimony at the U.S. Court of Claims: “Sam Wilson and Chick Parsons arrived. Must get all to them.”
MacArthur had directed that: Ingham, MacArthur’s Emissary, 87.
“Filipinos employed to serve: Record Group 331/290/12/2, Entry 1276, Box 1390, NARA.
“As to whether high-ranking: Ibid.
“White men are common: Ibid.
Filipinos were “completely fed up: Ingham, MacArthur’s Emissary, 89.
Who Is She?
At his hideout: Decker, On a Mountainside, 135.
A man named Phillips: Decker, From Bataan to Safety, 63–67.
“If you read the paper: Decker, On a Mountainside, 135.
Climbing the Wall
“Have colonel where I: Diary, February 17, 1943.
“I was told when: ME, 120.
“Anyone could see that: Ibid.
Claire remembered him as: Ibid., 121.
“Fear for my sanity: Diary, March 6, 1943.
“I don’t know how long: Diary, January 23–30, 1944.
“The Japanese curfew was: ME, 106.
“Only bare necessities now: Diary, November 15, 1942.
Paranoia
“I was terribly worried: “War Time Spy Recalls Peril,” Portland Oregonian, October 17, 1947, p. 12.
“The girls think I’m: Diary, July 19, 1943.
“We were not allowed: Transcript of the Testimony of Claire Phillips Clavier, Portland, Oregon, November 12, 1953, CC, 272.