MacArthur’s Spies: The Soldier, the Singer, and the Spymaster Who Defied the Japanese in World War II

How do ordinary citizens deal with enemy occupation after government protection evaporates? That question haunts readers of Eisner’s masterful assembly of the scraps of information about what happened after the surrender of American Armed forces to Japan on the Philippines and the underground resistance that immediately arose.

Aficionados of that conflict will appreciate the maps and solid data presented in this extraordinary account. Those familiar with the names MacArthur and Chick Parsons, Corregidor, the Bataan Death March, Intramuros, Fort Santiago, Santo Tomas, Camp O’Donnell, and Cabanatuan will find new connections in the backgrounds of ordinary people who found ways to smuggle food, medical supplies, and money and to reveal enemy-troop movements: “Three strokes of the hair meant three packs of medicine and supplies buried under the tree.”

A long-lost diary belonging to the elusive torch-singer spy Claire Phillips reveals details about the sacrifices of women trapped but not defeated and of broken men still defiant. Sadly, Eisner’s research shows the underbelly of our own government and the too-long buried injustices surrounding these events: “To this moment most of the Filipino guerrillas who fought for freedom in their own country have not received the recognition nor the compensation they deserved as soldiers in the U.S. Army.”