High Pockets
Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:47 pm
Claire Phillips was working as an exotic dancer in Manila, Philippines, as the Japanese were invading in 1941. She was approached by U.S. military intelligence and talked into staying on as a spy for the Allies. She arranged to get herself a new identity, dyed her hair and began posing as a Filipino named Clara Fuentes. It helped that she spoke fluent Tagalog, a main Filipino dialect.
She and a fellow dancer opened up a cabaret that soon became popular for Japanese officers. Fuentes would ply the Japanese with liquor and sex to learn information. She'd hide her notes in her bra (hence the nick of High Pockets). Until mid 1944, she passed information to connections which got the info to U.S. Intelligence. She also worked with Filipino resistance fighters to smuggle food, medicine and news to American prisoners of war.
In 1944, she was arrested by Japanese military police and beaten and tortured for weeks. She never broke under torture. The Japanese sentenced her to be executed. Days later the order was changed to 12 years hard labor.
When she was finally rescued by American soldiers, she had nearly starved to death. She survived the war and lived till 1960.
One gutsy broad
She and a fellow dancer opened up a cabaret that soon became popular for Japanese officers. Fuentes would ply the Japanese with liquor and sex to learn information. She'd hide her notes in her bra (hence the nick of High Pockets). Until mid 1944, she passed information to connections which got the info to U.S. Intelligence. She also worked with Filipino resistance fighters to smuggle food, medicine and news to American prisoners of war.
In 1944, she was arrested by Japanese military police and beaten and tortured for weeks. She never broke under torture. The Japanese sentenced her to be executed. Days later the order was changed to 12 years hard labor.
When she was finally rescued by American soldiers, she had nearly starved to death. She survived the war and lived till 1960.
One gutsy broad