As many as 277 Filipino guerrilla forces, composed of more than 260,000 freedom fighters in total,
contested the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War.
Some worked with the United States Army Forces in the Far East or USAFFE,
while others worked alone or, in some cases, even against the Americans. Either way,
without their bravery and sacrifice, it's likely Operation Musketeer,
in which the Allies returned to the Philippines to end Japanese occupation, would have failed.
While we've already discussed Filipino guerrillas in a previous video, one daring assassin managed
to evade all our spotlights. But we've seen her now, and her story is one that needs to be told.
In this video, we honour the brave female Filipino guerrilla leader Nieves Fernandez.
Before we delve into Nieves' story, it's worth establishing the
stakes — just what drove her to set aside her blackboard ruler and take up a knife.
On the 8th of December 1941, less than half a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese
begun their invasion of the Philippine Islands. Over the next six months, the Filipino and
American forces defending the Philippines put up a solid fight, sustaining up to 146,000 casualties,
but most were ultimately forced to withdraw or surrender. It should come as no surprise to you
that the Allied soldiers who fell into Japanese hands were treated horrendously — made to endure
the infamous Bataan Death March, to name just one atrocity. But the Japanese did not reserve
their cruelty for Allied soldiers alone. In many cases, Filipino civilians had it worse.
Putting aside the infamous February 1945 Manila Massacre, in which 100,000 to 500,000 Filipinos
were brutally murdered by the Japanese, hundreds of thousands of civilians suffered
and perished throughout the three year Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
Many were wounded or killed, sometimes just for offering food or water to marching Allied POWs,
while others fell victim to famine, forced labour, and torture. An unfortunate 30-ish Filipino
civilians, mostly Moro Muslims, also fell into the hands of Japanese medical officer Akira Makino,
who conducted experiments on then, amputating their limbs and dissecting their abdomens.
Many women were victims of sexual assault, and more than 1,000 Filipino women were
taken as so-called "comfort women" and held in so-called "comfort stations," like Bahay na Pula
or "The Red House," where they were raped on a daily basis. As per a New York Times editorial
from the 6th of March 2007, "These were not commercial brothels. Force, explicit and implicit,
was used in recruiting these women. What went on [inside] was serial rape, not prostitution."
Knowing that a similar fate might have awaited them if they were captured,
this makes the heroic exploits of female Filipino resistance fighters, in particular,
all the more inspiring. Despite the risks, some 26,000 female Filipino guerrillas contested the
Japanese occupation of the Philippines. But only one woman commanded a guerrilla force of her own.
When the Japanese first invaded the Philippines, it's unlikely that Tacloban-City-based Filipino
schoolteacher Nieves Fernandez knew how the war would shape her life. When they started
practicing untold cruelty on innocent civilians, however, her path became clear. In Nieves' own
words, "[...] When the Japanese came, no one could keep anything. They took everything they
wanted. [...] They had ways of persuading like giving you scalding hot baths and freezing cold
baths alternatively, with never a rest, never any food, and never any [drinking] water except the
soapy water in the baths." But she wasn't going to let the Japanese take anything from her nor
torture her without a fight. Nor was she going to let her students get captured by the enemy,
who would scarcely differentiate between young girls and adults in their "comfort stations."
Miss Fernandes set aside her ruler and went out into the Philippine province of Leyte,
where she rallied as many as 110 Filipinos under one common goal — to kill as many Japanese troops
as possible, while also freeing as many women from their inhuman assailants as possible. To
those brave Filipino guerrillas, she was not Miss Nieves Fernandez but Captain Nieves Fernandez.
Guns, however, don't grow on trees, so Captain Nieves' guerrillas were forced to use improvised
weapons, including machete-like bolo knives; paltiks or latongs or homemade gas pipe guns,
primarily shotguns loaded with gunpowder and nails; and homemade grenades. They also made
good use of captured Japanese weapons, and the few American firearms they otherwise acquired.
Nieves was a born marksman, but her favourite way to dispatch Japanese soldiers was with stealth and
sharpened steel. Barefoot in a black dress, she would sneak up on an unsuspecting target
and thrust her knife into the soft spot behind their ear lobe, opening their carotid artery
and internal jugular. She would then drive her blade deeper, piercing their brain,
through which she would twist her blade upwards, making them — somehow — involuntarily suck in air.
Of course, while you're sucking in air, you're unable to scream.
Her victims scarcely made a peep as she spilt their blood on the jungle floor.
Nieves taught this technique to all of her guerrillas, and even demonstrated a similar
technique — at least, it doesn't look to be the exact same technique — on US Army
Private Lupiba in this epic photo, taken on Leyte Island on the 7th of November 1944.
After two and half years of conducting unconventional warfare behind enemy lines, Nieves
had earned a reputation among both Filipinos and Japanese, so much so that the Japanese placed a
10,000 pesos bounty on her head. Despite this, Nieves survived the occupation and the war,
a single bullet scar on her right forearm to show for it. The Japanese, however, lost more than
200 troops to this schoolteacher-gone-rogue and her deadly guerrillas. It's unclear how
many rape and would-be rape victims they was able to save, but it was likely many.
Much of what we know of Nieves Fernandez comes from a single column published in The
Lewiston Daily Sun on the 3rd of November 1944, yet her story is one of the most
incredible stories from the Second World War. Her bravery is a testament to the
resilience of the Philippines and, to an even greater extent, Filipino women.
Other Filipino women fought against the Japanese occupation, albeit not always so directly. Some
served in medical roles, tending to wounded guerrillas and escaped Allied POWs,
while others established underground intelligence networks and counteracted Japanese propaganda.
Back to Nieves Fernandez, however, do you know anything about her life which we haven't covered
in this video? Perhaps, if you're Filipino, you've heard stories about her exploits which
wouldn't turn up in online research. Also, do you know of any other brave female Filipino
resistance fighters from the Second World War? Please share your thoughts in the comments.