MacArthur’s Spies: Photo Gallery

Roy C, Bennett, an American and the editor of the Manila Daily Bulletin, wrote anti-Japanese editorials durin the buildup to World War II. He was arrested and tortured at Fort Santiago, then finally transferred in 11943 to spend the rest of the war with his family at the University of Santo Tomas internment camp.

In January 1942, the 400-year-old University of Santo Tomas in Manila was converted into a detention camp for more than three thousand Americans and nationals of countries at war with Japan. It was liberated in February 1945.

Some internees at Santo Tomas lived in university buildings and others built grass-hut shanties in courtyards and open spaces.

Internees in Manila used communal bathing facilities during the Japanese occupation.

Claire Phillips and her adopted five-year-old daughter, Dian, in March 1945, reunited after the U.S. liberation of the Philippines. Peggy Utinksy, her freind in teh Manila underground, had cared for the child while Claire was imprisoned by the Japanese for more than eight months.

Peggy Utinsky, a registered nurse, had defied her husband's insistence that she leave the Philippines before the war and stayed in Manila to treat wounded and ill American prisoners. She joined forces with Claire Phillips and others to smuggle food, medicine and supplies to POWs. Her husband, Jack, died at Cabanatuan POW camp in 19423.

Lieutenant Charles "Chick" Parsons, A U.S. Naval Reserve officer and spy, traveled secretly throughout occupied Philippines, bringing supplies and organizing guerrilla operations.

Parsons, who spoke Tagalog and Spanish, masqueraded as Panamanian consul-general in Manila in the first months of the Japanese invasion. He and his family left the Philippines on a detainee exchange ship in June 1942.

General MacArthur summoned Parsons to Australia in 1943. Parsons returned to Japanese-occupied Philippines on a series of submarine supply and espionage missions.

Chick Parsons, second from right, was a popular polo player in Manila before World War Two. Parsons ran a Japanese transport company and had detailed knowledge of the country, helpful in his war-time espionage role. Courtesy of The MacArthur Memorial Library and Archives.

John Boone, an American soldier, ran to the hills above Manila after U.S. forces surrender to the Japanese. Boone mounted a guerrilla force and enlisted Claire Phillips to help him.

Major John P. Boone and Filomena (Mellie) Guerrero Boone, circa 1945. They were married in the hills of Bataan in 19843. Mellie carried messages and supplies between Claire Phillips and the Bataan guerrillas.

Claire's Tsubaki Club opened on October 17, 1942, catering to Japanese officers and boasting the best floor show in town.

Colonel Akira Nagahama was the head of the Japanese military police, the Kempeitai, in the Philippines from 1942 to 1945. Whle he publicly advocated gentle persuasion with prisoners, the Kempeitai were feared for their torture and interrogation techniques.

Filipino children outside a government building in Manila during the Japanese occupation. The notice lists occupation regulations, including a requirement that residents salute Japanese soldiers and obey their orders.

A POW and his victory garden at Cabanatuan. Thousands of American prisoners of war were held at the camp north of Manila. Many died of disease and malnutrition; others survived with food and medicines sent in by the Manila underground.

Fely Corcuera, the most popular performer at Claire's Tsubaki Club, was often wooed by Japanese officers. An officer known only as Arita, the captain of an aircraft carrier, had fallen hard for Fely and often gave her gifts. Claire said, "Anyone could see that he was mad about Fely."

Brigadier General Manuel Acuna Roxas had been a liaison to General Douglas MacArthur before the war. Released from Japanese custody, he served in the Philippines occupation government but secretly worked with U.S. and Filipino guerrillas. He was president of the Philippines from 1946 until his death in 1948.

American POWs hiked to safety with the help of U.S. Rangers and Filipino guerrillas on January 31, 1945, in Luzon. A day earlier, the Rangers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci, rescued the 513 POWs remaining at the Cabanatuan prison camp.

Claire Phillips wrote diary entries in a small agenda book from the day the war began in 1941 until her arrest in May 1944. The diary was unseen for almost sixty years until it was discovered in a file at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore at Leyte Gulf on October 20, 1944, as US forces returned with him to retake the Philippines from Japanese invasion.

Lt.jg Bernard Eisner was officer of the watch on LST 463 at Leyte on the morning of the landing, October 20, 1944. His ship brought in invading soldiers and supplies for the invasion.

A U.S. tank blasted through the front gate of Fort Santiago in February 1945. Japanese Imperial Army soldiers tortured thousands of U.S., Allied, and Filipino prisoners at the fort, and hundreds died.

U.S. forces battled fiercely with Japanese troops once they reached the Pasig River when the month-long Battle of Mainla began on Feburary 2, 1945. More than 100,000 civilians, 15,000 Japanese soldiers, and 1,000 GIs died, and the city was devastated.

Group portrait of malnourished former internees at Santo Thomas University, which had been used as a civilian internment camp during the city's occupation by the Japanese military, Manila, Philippines, February 1945. From left, they are Hugo Winkler, Arthur Williamson, Fred Wetmore, Peter Porrello, Harold Leney, David Norvell, and Soriano Brothers, and all lost more than 40 lbs while interned, with Wetmore losing 100 lbs. American and Filipino civilians (as well as those of many other nationalities) were held at the university for three years prior to their liberation at the hands of US troops in 1945. (Photo by Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Lieutenant Commander Chick Parsons greets released American prisoners at Manila in 1945. Parsons was a longtime U.S. expatriate and remained in the Philippines after the war.

General MacArthur greets liberated U.S. prisoners of war in February 1945. After the U.S. troops landed, MacArthur ordered them to race quickly to the city to rescue U.S. prisoners and detainees.

Former detained as the University of Santo Tomas. Among them are Roy C. Bennett, his wife Margaret, far right, background, and Joan Bennett, one of their daughters, foreground, right, wearing a dark skirt and striped shirt. (Photo by Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Victorious U.S. guerrilla commanders with Brigadier General Manuel Roxas on June 13, 1945.

Peggy Utinsky, Claire Phillips's colleague in the underground, poses at the gates of the Tsubaki Club in downtown Manila. The building was destroyed in February 1945 during the Battle of Manila.

Claire Phillips had no picture of her own at Tsubaki Club; she said that the publisher of her memoir, Mainla Espionage, decided to superimpose her face on the portrait Peggy posed for after the war (see previous). Claire admitted the deception during testimony at the U.S. Court of Claims.

Claire Phillips and Ann Dvorak pose in a publicity photo for the release in 1951 of "I was an American Spy." Dvorak portrayed Claire in the film based on her memoir, written for Claire by a ghostwriter. Claire later acknowledged that the memoir, "Manila Espionage," often misrepresented events.

The U.S. embassy in Manila named a meeting room for Claire Phillips, displaying a portrait of Claire as a young woman.