learning. other is the suspension fiction that takes me as far away from the reality ares of what's going on in washington as possible. escape for me also enjoyment i try to do it as often as i can. >> booktv wants to know what you're reading send us your summer reading list via twitter at booktv or instagram atbook underscore tv or post it to our facebook page facebook.com/booktv. booktv on c-span2. television for serious readers. welcome to memorial for this spcial night we thanks for c-span coming out as well for this -- macarthur spies one of the big events of the summer. perts couple of years ago i was

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 i've 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] i'm so glad she came down and

donated papers quite a long time ago. and it's a really a thrilg for all of pus to have you here. but pete's 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 you're introduced by jim zobal you have the feeling that he could do the presentation better than you could. so given the fact that he's not doing it i'll 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 i'm 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 it's a great pleasure. at the same time i'm trying to reach two audiences by being here. and this sense because there's a sense in which there's a scholarly piece of this story which i'm not going to delve into, into too much. but with luck i've 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 it's 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. it's 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 that's the second person in my story. the third person in my story is a man named chic parson. chic parsons was ex-patriot american from tennessee. he'd 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 you're 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 he's the third person that

i'll be -- you'll be reading about in the book i'm 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 i've started to write a separate magazine piece about him in the smithsonian in the fall. and -- he's one of the great unsung heros of world war ii as far as i'm concerned. i'd like to back up and say why did i write this book? i've been fascinate bid world war ii for a long time. i think that it's -- that it's based on my feeling that it's a story that we can identify with more than ever because it's absolute good fighting the good fight against bad people that must be vanquished and you don't 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 he's -- 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 anti-semitism and the pope last attempt to try to stop hitler before the start of world war ii. there's 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, it's about time to face fact. one other reason that i'm interested in world war ii is because my dad fought in the pacific in world war ii, and like so many people we've heard

of the greatest generation he was just like that. he didn't 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 didn't 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 didn't 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 wasn't 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 they're

married so we don't 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 don't think we have it. maybe such an such a person will find it basically went on and on -- didn't seem that i was going to find anything. finally archivist who didn't 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 don't know if you can appreciate how i felt at that moment. it was -- it was something that had had never been seen. she didn't 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 she's in touch to some degree with chic parsons. so here's 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 there's an american that's 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 she's open to nightclub called club tubaki from october 1942 until her arrest in may 1944, she's 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 he's immediately arrested by the fbi. saying you must be a spy how did you get out? finally that's 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 claire's diary saying parsons is in town wiive to put down everything else and get stuff to him. it's amazing that kex was finally made that three people were interconnected. so there's a lot more to tell

you about in that book, and i'm going to let you -- read are and request questions about detail. i'll 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 dad's 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 hadn't

the surprise been kept and hadn't the united states known where japanese gun and placements were so it's my own little contact with this whole story. i think that that's about as much as i might tell you about it without telling you the entire story. other than to say that there's 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 that's 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. that's 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 that's the same question you can ask some questions beyond that. thanks very much for being here. it's 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, it's 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 didn't know that she was providing information to gorilla's. 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 had it

with her and she brought it back with her and when she was in her nightclub she had a hiding place for it. interestingly enough she was arrested in may of 1944 and there's a final bittersweet entry and it which says waiting for my call to school which was hurt code for saying they are coming to get me. she had a chance to flee and she didn't buy the way. and it was hidden someplace and it was never found. my guess in the book and it's an interesting possibility about how that was found is there are only two people that might have known where it was and it suddenly reappeared in 1955 in

the court case that she was fighting against the united states in the restitution for the money that she spent and in the court testimony when the government produces it, she hasn't seen it in nine years and had no idea where it might have come from. a newspaper article said, somebody found it in a bar. not likely so the diary, the fact that it survived in the fact that nobody ever founded during the occupation is remarkable and she certainly would be dead as soon as it was found. >> can you talk a little bit about -- you are to mention about how you came here and went to the national archives. can you talk about other places you went to to try to piece the story together? can you tell us whether you are able to interview folks that knew the central figures and can

you also talk about, i think you went to the philippines. can you talk about how the story comes more to life as you were able to go back to the actual places where the events took place? >> as a resume question, what other places did i go in the course of developing the story besides the national archives, besides macarthur memorial and the philippines itself? these days one excellent thing that one can do is to use the internet and i certainly worked on the internet to look for information and as a journalist kind of developed the ability to look where others might not look it was never known before for instance that claire was married

when she was 16 years old and again when she was 18 years old and when she was 19 years old. i was able to find her marriage certificates and as i said no divorce certificates by the way interestingly enough. i actually found those public records on the internet to do that. i also went to ucla library, to a wonderful audio tape of her being interviewed by ralph edwards on this is your life, the last year that this is your life is only a radio show in our television show. one of the missing links is that ralph edwards in the audio mentions that he has produced a video or a film of this visit and he was presenting it to her at the end of the broadcast but i couldn't find that.

it would have been great to have seen her speak rather than listening to her speak. so i went to a number of places like that. i was in touch with the portland, oregon library and i was in touch with several other university libraries and was able to slowly pieced it together. i also spoke to the very few people that have direct knowledge of certain people i wrote about one of whom is one of the children of john who very kindly gave me everything she could that she knew about her dad's life. he was a wonderful photographer in his later life and i saw some wonderful photographs and that was great. when i was in the philippines i met a woman who was the daughter

of roy c. bennett who was the great newspaper editor of the manila daily news and wrote beautifully about the time before the war and the days leading up to the manila occupation. she gave me some information as well and was able to discuss what life was like from the perspective of a five or 6-year-old girl and de santos tomas detention center but basically other than a few very old guerilla fighters that i met and spoke with when i was in manila stories quickly going beyond first person. the other person i spoke to and continued to speak to his peter parsons, son of check parsons

who is a wonderful filmmaker in his own right who has done some documentaries about his dad and has been helping me a lot and jim and he and i have frequent triangulated chats about what happened when and peter of course remembers the day when he was five years old and the japanese came marching into manila and the japanese were yelling banzai, on side and reference to a 5-year-old boy yelling bonsai, on side back at them. this was an archival account. >> peter didn't claire philips

have a daughter and what happened to that daughter whether she was incarcerated or held for nine or 10 months? >> claire philips had a foster daughter named diane and there is a lot of confusion about who she was and when she came. she was about two years old when the japanese invaded and claire carried her with her to but in. over the course of the years if you are not getting the point claire was rather deceptive, perfect for a spy but also deceptive in her life. sometimes she said diane was her natural daughter another time she said she was the daughter of one of her husbands who she had married before the war in manila finally she indicates in the

court documents as she was never able to have children herself so diane was not her natural daughter. diane went back with her after the war to portland, oregon and got all sorts of accolades and after her memoir came out and after the movie came out. i should say the movie i was an american spy, was clearly a poor attempt to tell her story and then really in a strange old romantic 1950s way. it had very little to do with who she was and what was going on even to the point that little diane who was certainly a filipino girl transforms into kind of like a shirley temple like girl with flowing curly

blond locks in the movie and saying mommy, mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy, daddy which was not the case. i have not been able to track her down. she may still be with us or people that claim to be her daughter or her adopted daughter but there was no load line from players side as she was not able to have children. she did have sisters. basically i was focusing on the period of claire's life under occupation and none of them would have been able to help me very much but diane has not been tracked down. >> i was wondering if you could share the part of the story that

had the biggest impact on you or made the greatest impression. >> the greatest impact that i walked away with from the book, i would say really i had no idea other than people that might be familiar with the philippines that know this story here in this room, no idea that americans or the gorilla's in the hills in world war ii in the philippines fighting with a filipino nationals, you always think of the opposite. you always think of the americans fighting. i was impressed about their ability to survive and with their strong sense of patriotism to fight a battle that hadn't

been fought. i had no idea that any of this had taken place. there are chapters in the book in which american prisoners who are being treated as as slaves suddenly are given new clothing and fake guns and are forced to reenact the battle of bataan for a japanese film crew. the ability of these americans to survive and the suffering that the in there -- day in their filipino allies went through was probably what i take away from the story here. [inaudible]

>> the question is what makes a great spy and i think i learned something about it, that question. a great spy is not necessarily a boy scout or girl scout. somebody that has the wherewithal to not only deceive but to use all of their abilities at the moment to do what they know they have to do. claire philips was a natural spy the rest of her life she was a deceptive person, often not telling the truth but it's pretty much what we wanted and we are grateful for what she did but it doesn't come out of a hollywood movie script so neatly

as to say that a spy is a noble perfect person in all ways. although these people have their foibles and their fears, had every possible reason not to be doing what they were doing but they saw something more important and they connected themselves to a higher purpose. that's really what i like to write about. a person that reaches a moral moment in their lives just ask on it and that's really what the story is about, finding your moment, acting with it and trying to succeed even if you fear you may go down or your life may be lost as a result of still having to fight that fight

>> two questions. i was interested to know, i'm interested to know about the women that were bringing medicine and food and their nationality or connection if any to claire philips and the other question is in your research it surprise me that there were aircraft on the ground there were destroyed before they even got into the air hours after pearl harbor. that i don't understand. did any of your research turn anything on back? >> now will take it in reverse order. the first question is why were u.s. planes on the ground separated in 1941? there are lots of ways to answer the question and no one has a

satisfactory answer for the question. general macarthur was responsible for u.s. military operations in the philippines and confusingly he said that he was not informed well of the impending japanese attack on the philippines and others say that he was informed and the information should have gone off the line so he would have known. it's never clearly known why the planes from the ground ground. some planes did fly that day and some bombers went to formosa, now taiwan, came back for refueling and the planes were on the ground when the japanese attack attacked. the u.s. forces which were not very large and the dozens of

planes were cut in half on the ground that day and made it an almost impossible challenge to defend against the japanese, even more difficult after half of the planes were gone. no one has an answer as to why that happened. general macarthur and many other people have answers about why that might have been the case. as far as the women they that were fighting along with claire philips, there were many and i mentioned it in the book. one of course was another american margaret q-10 ski who has been written about quite a bit. they were friends and rivals an interesting relationship between the two of them and had new information about peggy u. 10 ski in the book based on her testimony and the court case in the u.s. court of claims. she certainly early on working

with the red cross was providing food, medicine and she herself was a nurse to the men of bataan and they worked together often. there were many filipino women also testifying in mentioned in the book and claire mentioned at one point doing much more difficult work because they were constantly bringing supplies right to japanese lines and smuggling material to gorilla territory and also into the p.o.w. camps when that happened. some were arrested, some died in some survived but it was a remarkable case of bravery by both of these women against daunting odds and a great possibility that they could have

been caught and killed at any moment. >> do you believe that the three utah about in this book to let some point were appropriately honored by the government and if so how and if they weren't in your estimation what would that look like? >> a good question is do i think that claire philips and check persons were appropriately honored? in many ways they were honored. claire philips won the presidential medal of freedom in 1948 and many of the women margaret utinsky and many of the filipino brought with them also won a presidential medal of freedom which is a great honor. john boone was highly decorated, was proud but back to fight in

the korean war and had a great career. no doubt honored and respected for what he did. check persons was honored by the united states with many high honors, the bronze star and other awards of fowler and was honored by the philippine government and was very proud that he was finally offered and received citizenship as a philippine national which he was very proud of. beyond those honors what i'm trying to do really is to say these people really deserve to be known and for me that would be the greatest honor to look at

what they did and how they worked together to impede the japanese juggernaut and made its stop in many ways in the philippines. my goal really is to just to raise consciousness and also to tell a great story about some really brave people. so yes honor and let's continue to honor them. >> in talking with jeanie she has told me stories about her father marrying a young filipino girl. she insisted with i call it despite triangle, did you find any information on her or their

relationship? and/or standefer's child they had was -- in the jungles and jeanie tells me that her mother used to tell her that she helped john boone put together the filipino folks in networking with her and helping her. i was curious if you found anything that she was also involved in the spying or transferring of messages? >> the question is about john boone's helper and eventual wife also known as nellie. they met in the hills of bataan in 1942, 1943 and she began to be one of the main couriers of

intelligence information and supplies between claire philips in manila and john boone in the hills of bataan. finally millie and john realized they were more than just boston courier and they fell in love. i tell the story of their wedding in the book and pretty soon nellie was pregnant and was not traveling anymore. it was not a wise thing to be doing but they had definitely an important relationship, the spree of them did and moving information back and forth and one wishes that millie would have lived longer so they could

have written a that the two of them intended to write which would have would have been wonderful for all of us. we would known a lot more of the details but it's a rich story in which people risked everything to be able to provide intelligence and food and supplies to fight the japanese. if there are no more questions and before we say goodbye i wanted to mention that i brought along a gift for john boone's daughter, jeanie and if she is willing to come up, i will tell you what it is. it has not been seen since 1957. the testimony of her father at the u.s. court of claims

describing his work as a guerrilla fighter and describing his work with claire philips, describing his engages meant with fighting the japanese once the americans returned and it really is material that has to be added to the history books because it has not been seen before. the entire file is now going to be part of the archives of the macarthur memorial but i wanted to bring this out as well and give it to jeanie so she could read it and see the words of her father that she has never seen. it's just wonderful to be able to do that. would you come up here janie? [applause]

>> i'm sorry, very emotional. i wasn't expecting this. thank you so much. >> we are working on it and thank you jeanie. [applause] thanks very much for coming everyone. i really appreciate it. >> how about a hand for peter eisner. >> congressman byrne what's on your summer reading list? >> guest: a i went on a congressional trip to vietnam, my first time there and i read a number of books about vietnam including some books from the vietnam war era was kind of reminded me of some things th