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Title details for MacArthur's Spies by Peter Eisner - Available

MacArthur's Spies

The Soldier, the Singer, and the Spymaster Who Defied the Japanese in World War II

by Peter Eisner
Peter Eisner
Audiobook
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"MacArthur's Spies reads like Casablanca set in the Pacific, filled with brave and daring characters caught up in the intrigue of war—and the best part is that it's all true!" —Tom Maier, author of Masters of Sex
A thrilling story of espionage, daring and deception set in the exotic landscape of occupied Manila during World War II. 
On January 2, 1942, Japanese troops marched into Manila unopposed by U.S. forces. Manila was a strategic port, a romantic American outpost and a jewel of a city. Tokyo saw its conquest of the Philippines as the key in its plan to control all of Asia, including Australia. Thousands of soldiers surrendered and were sent on the notorious eighty-mile Bataan Death March. But thousands of other Filipinos and Americans refused to surrender and hid in the Luzon hills above Bataan and Manila. MacArthur's Spies is the story of three of them, and how they successfully foiled the Japanese for more than two years, sabotaging Japanese efforts and preparing the way for MacArthur’s return.
From a jungle hideout, Colonel John Boone, an enlisted American soldier, led an insurgent force of Filipino fighters who infiltrated Manila as workers and servants to stage demolitions and attacks.
“Chick” Parsons, an American businessman, polo player, and expatriate in Manila, was also a U.S. Navy intelligence officer. He escaped in the guise of a Panamanian diplomat, and returned as MacArthur’s spymaster, coordinating the guerrilla efforts with the planned Allied invasion.
And, finally, there was Claire Phillips, an itinerant American torch singer with many names and almost as many husbands. Her nightclub in Manila served as a cover for supplying food to Americans in the hills and to thousands of prisoners of war. She and the men and women who worked with her gathered information from the collaborating Filipino businessmen; the homesick, English-speaking  Japanese officers; and the spies who mingled in the crowd.
Readers of Alan Furst and Ben Macintyre—and anyone who loves Casablanca—will relish this true tale of heroism when it counted the most.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 2, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781524751111
      • File size: 365094 KB
      • Duration: 12:40:36

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 27, 2017
      Veteran foreign correspondent Eisner (The Pope’s Last Crusade) describes how an American woman, Claire Phillips, supported U.S. prisoners of war and anti-Japanese guerrillas during the WWII occupation of the Philippines. In spite of its subtitle, this fast-moving history of the Manila resistance to the Japanese focuses on the role played by Phillips, a failed entertainer who was trapped in the occupied city for the duration of the war while her Filipino husband was in the U.S. Eisner highlights the very real contributions Phillips made to the resistance to Japanese occupation while revealing the numerous flaws in Phillips’s character (she romanced and married an American soldier in the Philippines without divorcing her husband). Phillips worked against the Japanese occupation in several different ways, including funneling money, medicine, and supplies to American prisoners of the Japanese and to American and Philippine guerrillas as she ran a high-end nightclub, the Tsubaki Club, for the Japanese elite. She used the club to make money for the guerrillas and to glean military information from inebriated Japanese officers. The guerrilla network then passed the information to Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters. Eisner’s history is a well-researched, entertaining, and informative look at the resistance to the Japanese occupation.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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