Manila Espionage by Claire Phillips (High Pockets)

This summer, my two sons (Ryan & Nathan) visited my parents in the Philippines for about 6 enjoyable weeks.

Upon their return home, Nathan was excited and intrigued about a story my Dad shared with them. This story was about my Dad working in the Tsubaki Club in Manila during World War II. The Tsubaki Club was a favorite night club for the top military officers of the Japanese invaders. It also happened to be owned and operated by an American woman, Claire Phillips who passed herself off as an Italian. She passed the intelligence information she gathered from the Japanese Army brass to the guerillas fighting against the Japanese. She also sent food and medical supplies to imprisoned Americans. She was eventually caught spying and imprisoned by the Japanese. She was freed when Manila was liberated and Claire returned home to Portland, Oregon where she wrote a book about her war experiences.

The book is "Manila Espionage" which was published in 1947. A movie titled "I Was an American Spy" was also made in 1951 based on Claire's war experiences. Ann Dvorak played Claire Phillips and the cast also included Gene Evans and Douglas Kennedy. An "E. Baucin" was "Memerto" in the movie. This character was based on my Dad (the correct spelling of his name and mine is "Mamerto.") A song by Tony Bennett (Because of You) featured in this movie was a big hit for the singer.

Nathan immediately scoured the Internet to find the book and/or the movie. He found an entry for the movie (I Was an American Spy) in the Internet Movie Database site. (If anyone has any advice on how I can obtain a copy of this movie, I would appreciate it.) There were also plenty of references to the book, but no clue as to how we could obtain a copy. Nathan tried almost every avenue including contacting the American Embassy in Manila.

My wife, Tammy helped with the search and she finally found a used copy for sale. She immediately paid for the book and hoped that we would actually receive the book and that it would be in reasonably good condition (the book is out of print). The book arrived several days later. The book was in good condition and we were pleasantly surprised that it was signed by Claire Phillips.

There are references to my Dad in the book including this reference in Page 133 of "Manila Espionage."

I wonder whether Claire is still alive today and where her daughter, Dian is today.

I don't remember my Dad telling me this story. Now I wonder what other stories he has told me when I was younger that I have forgotten.

One of our favorite late night activities when we're together is to share stories while sipping Cognac. My Dad has lived a very interesting life and he has lots of stories to share. I'm glad that my children are starting to show interest and learning more about their "Lolo."

If you're interested in more information about this period, here is a link to Bataan Rescue from the PBS site.

Previous version of my home page: How many Led Zeppelin song titles can you find in this piece I wrote?