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Manila Espionage Hardcover – January 1, 1947
byClaire "High Pockets" Phillips(Author),Myron B. Goldsmith(Author)
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Manila Espionage is the incredible true account of Claire "High Pockets" Phillips, an American entertainer living in Manila in 1941 who becomes an angel of the underground after her US Army officer husband dies in a Japanese POW prison. Using her popular Tsubuki Club as the resistance's headquarters, High Pockets and her staff charm information from Japanese officers downing spiked drinks and relay the intelligence via guerilla fighters to General MacArthur's staff. During the day, Claire and her girls smuggle contraband in their bras ('high pockets') past bribed Japanese guards paid to look the other way, into imprisoned American POWs - money, food, and clothes - saving countless lives. This new edition of Manila Espionage includes footnotes. *Includes original footnotes.
- Print length226 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBinfords
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1947
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Product details
- ASIN : B0007EQFT4
- Publisher : Binfords
- Publication date : January 1, 1947
- Edition : First Edition
- Language : English
- Print length : 226 pages
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Customer Reviews:
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Customer reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
24 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2018A well written account of an amazing woman's account of herself and the other brave people caught up in the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2016Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseInteresting but slow
- Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2021Format: PaperbackThe action doesn't stop. Very well written account
of an unpopular war that cost so many young men their lives.
I was disappointed in the binding. Many loose pages, but i didn't want to wait for a replacement. - Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2011Format: HardcoverClaire Phillips was an American entertainer who went to the Philippine Islands just a few weeks before war erupted in the Pacific between the United States and Japan in December 1941. She had a tornadic courtship with an American soldier, marrying him after the war started and the Japanese invaded the Philippines. U.S. and Philippine forces abandoned the capital city, Manila, and set up defensive positions on the Bataan peninsula a few miles away. Claire Phillips (her married name) hid out near Bataan, trying to stay in touch with her husband, but after the American forces on Bataan surrendered in April 1942, Phillips was determined to return to Manila and do what she could to help U.S. and Philippine solders in the Japanese POW camps. She became even more determined after learning that her husband died in one of the camps in August 1942.
With considerable help from Filipino friends, Phillips acquired a new identity as an Italian national and opened an exclusive cabaret in Manila that catered to Japanese officers and civilian officials. Using the code name, "High Pockets," she was able to develop all kinds of intelligence that was passed along to the Allies outside the Philippines, and with the considerable earnings from her club she was able to smuggle food, clothing, medicines, and cash into the POW camps for use of the Americans and Filipinos imprisoned there, helping to save dozens, perhaps hundreds of lives.
Phillips's spy ring fell apart in the early summer of 1944, as Allied forces were preparing to return to the Philippines and liberate them from the Japanese occupiers. Phillips was imprisoned, tortured, and threatened with execution. She suffered considerably but survived until American troops freed her from Japanese custody in Feburary 1945.
Phillips and her collaborator, Myron Goldsmith, published MANILA ESPIONAGE in 1947. It also appeared in "The Reader's Digest" and was the basis of a Hollywood movie, I WAS AN AMERICAN SPY, released in 1951, with Ann Dvorak as Phillips. In 1951, Phillips was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the highest award for valor that the U.S. government can bestow on a civilian.
MANILA ESPIONAGE will be of interest mainly to Pacific War buffs and espionage afficianados. It isn't an especially well-written book, but it's not incompetent. Phillips was a bit of a drama queen, I fear, and the book is essentially all about her rather than a broader view of the Philippines resistance movement, 1942-44. The compression of events makes it difficult to match her experiences to a factual timeline of the the war. Modern sensibilities should be aware that the Japanese in the book are presented mainly in racial stereotypes and in language that some will find offensive.
Claire Phillips (who died in 1960) was a gutsy lady and did much to relieve the suffering of American POWs in the Philippines. Those interested in the Philippines campaigns, and the Pacific War generally, will find MANILA ESPIONAGE a good, fast read, worth a few hours.
Top reviews from other countries
- Kay BroomeReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2017
5.0 out of 5 starsManila Espionage by Myron B Goldsmith,Claire High Pockets Phillips
Fabulous read...well recommended...brilliant storyline bought together by war...which we all should not forget...all characters amazing...heart felt book...well done...keep up the good works.
