World War II: Espionage

Throughout history, women have showed extreme patriotism for their countries through the acts of espionage. But no era of United States history has seen more excellent female spies than that of the Second World War. With America’s declaration of war on Japan and Germany, military men were not the only people needed for the war effort. Women who grew restless on the home front turned to espionage and smuggling to aid the Allies. Every woman who took part of this secret network knew that capture and conviction would mean inescapable torture and death. Some of the most infamous women spies included Claire Philips, Yolande Beekman, and Virginia Hall. Women such as Iva Toguri D’Aquino, Velvalee Dickinson, and Mildred Elizabeth Gillars, who helped the Axis powers by undermining American morale, were considered enemy spies, and guilty of execution. These women were cooks, nurses, actresses, mothers and wives, who came from normal backgrounds, with normal lives. These women were also spies.

When the Japanese suddenly attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt announced the next day that America was now involved in the Second World War. Japan, meanwhile, began their conquests of several Pacific islands, including Burma and the Philippines. It was on the Bataan peninsula where General Douglas MacArthur ordered a hasty retreat of America troops, who were attempting to hold the front lines from Japanese power. On April 9, 1942, the Allied forces, unable to defend the island, surrendered to the Japanese. What followed during their captivity as prisoners of war would become infamously known as the Bataan Death March. One woman who secretly operated a spy ring on Bataan was the American-born Oregon native Claire Philips, who opened up a restaurant overlooking Manila Bay. She opened up Club Tsubaki exclusively to high-ranking Japanese officials to gain top-secret information from the men. Claire defined herself to the officers as an Italian-Filipino woman, and she would coquettishly ask the most prominent officer questions such as, “What are you carrying in such a big boat?” or “Which one of those ships out there is yours?” To avoid obvious suspicion, Claire would flutter to another table, and ask some of the distinguished men different questions. At the end of the evening, Claire would lead the officers out of the restaurant, bow in courtesy, and affix the dead bolt. Running upstairs to her apartment, she would hurriedly jot down the information