Imagine you’re a civilian from
Portland, Oregon, living in Manila during the Japanese occupation in
World War II. You’re posing as a Filipina of Italian descent and
managing a classy nightclub where you also work as a singer/hostess.
Every night you entertain senior Japanese military officers who, if
they suspected you were American, would have you arrested, tortured
and executed. You greet them, get them liquored up, tease out their
military secrets with a bit of flattery, then send the intelligence to
General MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia. All goes well until an
accidental slip-up reveals your true identity….
That’s the true story of
Claire Phillips, an American stage actress and singer who became a
leader in the underground resistance movement in occupied Manila, told
by Filipina author/historian Edna Bautista Binkowski in her new book,
CODE NAME: HIGHPOCKETS. The book is the first to accurately
profile Phillips’ incredible story and those of the men and women of
the Manila underground she worked with.
The book reveals the
intricate, shadowy workings of that underground, which operated
throughout the war. Risking torture and beheading at the hands of the
dreaded Kempei Tai secret police, courageous Filipinos – and
many foreigners – together conducted a secret, determined war of
espionage against the Japanese military while they fought to save the
dying soldiers in Cabanatuan and other prison camps by smuggling in
food and medicine. These diverse and unsung heroes were known, for
security, by code names. Phillips, for her quirky habit of carrying
secret messages in her bra, was called Highpockets.
Phillips grew up in Portland,
Oregon and dropped out of Franklin High School to join a circus.
Later, the tall brunette beauty became a stage actress and singer. She
ended up in Manila just before the outbreak of World War II. While
singing in a nightclub, she fell in love with a handsome soldier, Sgt.
John Phillips. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they joined the
retreating Fil-Am forces in Bataan, where they were married in a
jungle wedding.
As the Japanese advanced into
Bataan, they were separated; he caught up in the infamous Death March,
she became a guerilla. Sgt. Phillips died soon afterwards in
Cabanatuan Camp while Claire returned to Manila, exacting revenge by
joining the underground resistance and opening the “Tsubaki Club” –
where she extracted money and secrets from her clueless enemy guests.
Eventually she was discovered, arrested by the Kempai Tai and
sent to Fort Santiago, where she was tortured, tried and sentenced to
death. How she escaped execution without betraying her comrades or her
country is just part of this incredible narrative.
Claire Phillips returned to
Portland after the war, wining the Medal of Freedom (America’s highest
civilian honor) and became briefly famous after her autobiography and
a Hollywood film about her life were released. A woman who lived
boldly and sometimes recklessly, she suffered secretly from
posttraumatic stress disorder. Phillips died young, aged just 52. Her
true story has only recently come to light through the author’s
careful research and interviews with surviving resistance members.
CODE NAME: HIGHPOCKETS
is the tale of an unlikely heroine who willingly risked everything
for the Philippine and American cause in history’s darkest hour. A
native of Bataan Province and an expert on World War II Philippine
history, Edna Binkowski has told Phillips’ story in the context of the
Japanese conquest and occupation of the Philippines and the dedicated
guerilla and resistance movements that contested that occupation. The
book deserves to be read by all who cherish freedom and appreciate
rare individuals like Phillips and her companions, willing, if
necessary, to forfeit their lives to preserve it.
(END)
