Giving bunch of speeches and ran are across former Washington Post writer peter eisner and did traveling through, and while we were were will, i was there on speaking to peter and let me know that he was working on a new book about spies and manila one claire thrip and number working on archives i knew of other people tharm working on books about Claire Phillips like okay, all right. But then pete let me know ive got Claire Phillips diary. So that feeds into a lot and over the past two years because we have all of the papers of parsons one of the main characters of the story as well as the papers of john boon who was a big gorilla on baton and daughter is with us tonight. Gene can you just raise your hand . [applause] im so glad she came down and donated papers quite a long time ago. And its a really a thrilg for all of pus to have you here. But petes work is now finished two years in the making and here we are with a really great piece and let him tell the story that he has to tell so without think further waiting pete eisner macarthur spies. [applause] thank you very much for being here. I have to say that when youre introduced by jim zobal you have the feeling that he could do the presentation better than you could. So given the fact that hes not doing it ill do my best but not quite as good i think because jim is really has been to so many writers just a great help in making these things happen. And im deeply appreciative. Being here at macarthur memorial is a special thrill for me because part of my story comings from working here as jim said at the memorial looking through the archives and trying to put together the true story of these heros of fighting had in the philippines from 1942 to 1945 so its a great pleasure. At the same time im trying to reach two audiences by being here. And this sense because theres a sense in which theres a scholarly piece of this story which im not going to delve into, into too much. But with luck ive been able to develop some information that nobody seen before. And and that information will now be held here at the macarthur memorial so that any other researcher wants to see some of the material that i found, they have it. So its a great pleasure to be able to do that. At the same time, i wanted this story to be available to a general audience so that others beyond those who might be very interested in world war ii who might be thinking about General Macarthur just have an idea of who these people were and what the stories all about. Its a Remarkable Group of people. First, primarily in many ways the book is about Claire Phillips. Claire was a nightclub singer, 30 something night clb singer from port land, oregon. She came to manila and found herself in manila on december 8th, 1941. Which some of you may know was the day of infamy because of the International Date line hours after the japanese bombed prl harbor they bombed the philippines, and within three weeks japanese were marching into ma nil will and occupied manila and rest of the philippines for nyeon three years claire ran off to the hills and an as some percentage of the population manila did went to bahtan for the first time found herself in some ways and that story i developed in this book. But the other two people that i write about are also in manila on december 8th, 1941. One of them is john boone he was a corporal in the army. He retreated with General Macarthur to batan around Christmas Eve 1941 because General Macarthur realized it would be impossible to defend and declared open city is and about 35,000 somed odd american troops and about 60,000 some odd filipino troops all rolled intensive purposes at the u. S. Army retreated to batan and then fought ferociously for months with no supplies hoping that supplies would arrive reenforcements never came and they they surrendered in april of 1942 and surrendered months later. John boone unlike many people that surrendered ran off to the hills separated from his unit and tried to put together what he would do next. So thats the second person in my story. The third person in my story is a man named chic parson. Chic parsons was expatriot american from tennessee. Hed been living motion of his life in manila and what war broke out he was called in to military headquarters and the secret was out but only in the u. S. Military all the while he had been in u. S. Navy reserve and the commander said raise your right hand youre back in the navy. He then for the next months as a secret u. S. Spy operated in the philippines and right under the nose of the japanese thinking that he would be able to gather significant information and not knowing what to do next. His story ends with end up in manila running off on a accident change ship because he was able to con his way out of manila under nose of the japanese with his family as a supposedly consult to the to the philippines. So u. S. Navy officer speaking only spanish from january to june 1942, boards a ship as a consult and in it Diplomatic Exchange escapes to fight another day. So hes the third person that ill be youll be reading about in the book im not going to talk as much about each of these people. There are secreting to be told and read the book but chic parson is such a fascinating person that ive started to write a separate magazine piece about him in the smithsonian in the fall. And hes one of the great unsung heros of world war ii as far as im concerned. Id like to back up and say why did i write this book . Ive been fascinate bid world war ii for a long time. I think that its that its based on my feeling that its a story that we can identify with more than ever because its absolute good fighting the good fight against bad people that must be vanquished and you dont usually see that much of an obvious o story in which people have to come together and fight a bad force and win or else. My first two book were about fighting in europe. Was called freedom line. It was about an american pilot that shot down over belgium in 1943. Rescued by a bunch of young women morsed back to health. Hidden as hes runs across belgium through france and finally escapes to spine. To spain it is escape line with young people mostly still teenagers fighting overcover for freedom. The next one was about a jesuit who an american jesuit journalist who was brought in to help the 11th not the 12th. But the 11th before the start of world war ii to to challenge hitler and antisemitism and the pope last attempt to try to stop hitler before the start of world war ii. Theres a theme in everything that i do. I look for for people that are not central. Not the great figures and use lesser known figures to tell a larger story. That was the case in the story. After i finished the second book i said you know, its about time to face fact. One other reason that im interested in world war ii is because my dad fought in the pacific in world war ii, and like so many people weve heard of the greatest generation he was just like that. He didnt talk about it very much. When he talked about it he told about funny parts not about the tough parts. And i wanted to learn more about what that what that meant. What was really going on there. And i said what about turning to the pacific what about turning to the philippines all i knew was that my dad fought in the battle of late day gulf and i didnt know what that meant very much. That brought me to the philippines. A friend of mine gave me a book, a wonderful book called called goates soldiers a story of the rescue of the survives of the batan death march in that book hampton describes a group of women who are helping smuggle food and supplies and life saving medicine into the cabana, pow camp where surviving ten death march people were held. And in there i read a a description of a woman code named high pockets. Who was described as the most intriguing mysterious woman and the most important woman in supplying these life saving goods, foods and medicines to the prisoners. And i said, who is this woman and what can i find out about her . And i looked her up on the internght i found out that she written a memoir and there was a movie made about her. And all of what i read didnt seem to quite work for me very well. Around that time i said hum, i wonder if the macarthur memorial would have some information about her. I came down here and the first thing i did was find that there was not that much information about her. Most of it was contained in letters that john boone had written to her during the war. But i still wasnt satisfied. For a couple of years i searched and finally, i found a document it was not easy to find claire was a master of deception before, during, and after the war. She actually was married three times while she was still a teenager. I think she was divorced twice at most not of those three marriages. And you know, it makes me think of a line in casablanca where rain says i would like to think you killed a man. And, in fact, one of them husbands kind of disappears from the Historic Records after, after theyre married so we dont know. But she showed up in in the philippines and she then was married a couple more times claim she was married more time than chef and i finally found a document on one of the last names of one of her marriages and realized there had been a massive court case about her attempts to get restitution after the war. For fighting the japanese and providing supplies and in that court case it indicated that only that she had won with a small amount of money less than 2 thorks after she asked for 148,000. And nothing more and i searched and a i was basically operate oing in National Archive in park yanked i found an index card it indicated there should be more about her. They said no not here go the Main Office Downtown d. C. I went downtown d. C. They said no we dont think we have it. Maybe such an such a person will find it basically went on and on didnt seem that i was going to find anything. Finally archivist who didnt use a computer said wait a minute i think i know where to look and he had me sit down and he went back into the entrails of the archives and i kind of felt like we were operating in the last scene of indiana jones. You know, like there must have been this amazing ware with house of boxes dusty boxes i think it was because finally came back with a dusty box. They went here it is. A trove of ,000 pages of Court Testimony on the case of Claire Phillips against the United States wrapped up in a nice rib been there since 1977 untouched and when i opened it up suddenly a state book fell out of the folder. And opened it. I opened it and it was Claire Phillips diary. And i dont know if you can appreciate how i felt at that moment. It was it was something that had had never been seen. She didnt even know when it was presented in the court how it could be tracked down because she she had had been finally arrested by the japanese. But here it was and it told her entire story unadorned and really tells a major new episode in many ways in what happened in world war ii. So that end becomes the heart of my book. But then as i read the book i realize that there are other connections to the other two people john boone who she has been speaking to and also amazingly that shes in touch to some degree with chic parsons. So heres what happened. Claire phillips was back in the in batan in the first months of the war. For the first time she was actually worrying about other than people rather than herself frankly. She was taking care of the sick. She was taking care of the wounded. She was delivering babies. She was trying to survive herself. The disease and the and the conditions that people were surviving in the hills of be batan were terrible. People that were afraid that the japsz were going to come to arrest them. Much less the when claire was among filipinos anyone that might have been harboring her could have been immediately sentenced to death for doing that. Someone once said around may about april orb may theres an american thats trying to raise a gorilla army. Maybe you would like to meet him. She then is put in contact with john boone. John boone nursed back to health having suffered all of those months fighting the jappedz japanese is raising gorilla army. Starts out with ten, 20, 30, 40 people and then finally hundreds. He said one thing we need claire is intelligence if you can get back down to manila. We will support you getting back down there and then you can provide intelligence back up to us and create a career system. Claire heads back down to manila within months shes open to nightclub called club tubaki from october 1942 until her arrest in may 1944, shes entertaining and spying on japanese officers every night. And has raised a whole group of other women who are sweet talking this soldiers and gatt ring up information at end of the night. They collate what thaifer got , name a prisoner, name of officer where they came from an going next excellent intelligence john boone said sending it up into the hills. Finally, then picking the thread of chic parsons, who has been able to sneak out of manila as panned consul to country of panama takes a boat, a slow boat avoiding japanese well, avoiding japanese encounters even though it is exchange ship they have to stay out of battle zones, and the ship finally after four months gets him back to new york where hes immediately arrested by the fbi. Saying you must be a spy how did you get out . Finally thats settled e he shows up had in washington in september 1942, and then in short order, General Macarthur who knew him before the war finds out that parsons is arrive, safe, and in washington. Then comes rather typically tours telegram from from General Macarthur and who is by now retreated to australia reorganizeing u. S. Military effort against japan. That message is send parsons immediately. Parsons is back in australia and then on a submarine traveling to the philippines the first of many trips and running a gorilla operation in the philippines on behalf of macarthur throughout the war. Finally, chic parsons appears in claires diary saying parsons is in town wiive to put down Everything Else and get stuff to him. Its amazing that kex was finally made that three people were interconnected. So theres a lot more to tell you about in that book, and im going to let you read are and request questions about detail. Ill say one thing i mentioned that cad was in the navy and nlst in 1942 and 1943 on into 1944. And on october 20th,1944 it was sailing towards late day gulf on what became what might have been the Largest Naval battle, battle in world history. At the same time chic parsons had been sent by the u. S. Military command to do advance in late day to track where japanese and come placements to make gorillas that parsons was responsible for aware that something was about to happen. Many turn decrease japan ability to respond and also keep it secret what was going to happen at the same time. So as my dad is moving this in on lsd463 from the south up towards late day gulf with a bunch of other ships, chic parsons is making those people safe by locking things down as well as he could. I found in the National Archives my dads deck logs on morning of october 20th, and it describes the ship moving in towards shore dropping off tanks and men and then pulling off under heavy fire. I can imagine that at least some small thanks to chic parsons for having it made, made it better than it might have been hadnt the surprise been kept and hadnt the United States known where japanese gun and placements were so its my own little contact with this whole story. I think that thats about as much as i might tell you about it without telling you the entire story. Other than to say that theres an important part of this story that means something very much to me. These americans that i write about were among hundreds of americans fighting in the philippines during world war ii. But they were fighting with tens of thousands of filipinos who were surviving the occupation, fighting, dying, and and suffering. By the time of the leb liberation of manila in 1945 march 3rd, 1945, a month of battle 100,000 phil pee mows died hostly civilians. A story thats not known as broadly as it might be known and i dedicate this book and dedicate everything that i say about this story to the brave filipinos that fought that war and suffered more than most. Thats the basis of the story. I think i have a an interesting question to ask which you can win in a bar bet of all of the u. S. Military cemeteries overseas, where would be the u. S. Sanitary with the most people buried . Where are most of those people buried thats the same question you can ask some questions beyond that. Thanks very much for being here. Its my pleasure to be talking to you. [applause] we will now have a question and answer period and if you have a question please come to the microphone which is right here in the middle. [inaudible conversations] read this book, its outstand ising ought to buy it. [laughter] thank you very much. I appreciate i appreciate very much that. Thanks very much. Anybody have an answer for any question about where the military burial site is . Manila most people would think that that normandy would be where most americans are buried after world war ii, in fact, on my visit to manila after attending santa tomas70th anniversary of its lib Liberation University where up to 5,000 americans and other allied nationals were kept in detention from january 1942 to february 1945. I went fromsan toe up to u. S. Cemetery and amazed to find as many as 20,000 people are buried there. Clare was arrested in may of 1944 because of a Japanese Military police upsurge in activity and i called her and a bunch of allies in for questioning and torture and imprisonment. She was imprisoned for 10 months but they thought that she was smuggling and they didnt know that she was providing information to gorillas. Nevertheless her room after nightclub was occasionally searched just in routine searches and the diary was never found. The diary was the kind of a book that you might find. Internet like a new one x3 vote that an Insurance Company might give you at the start of the year and she scribbled and scrawled into this and they hidden someplace. The first six month she