Throughout the Second World War, many women took up arms to fight against the Germans
across Europe.
Women joined Special Operations Executive, and would be trained as spies and in espionage
with many being parachuted behind enemy lines to work and connect with the French Resistance.
A number of them were condemned to death after they were captured by the Germans and some
were transported to concentration camps.
Some experienced horrific executions including 4 SOE agents who were thrown into a furnace
alive inside of a concentration camp.
For the Germans they were disgusted that women were taking up arms against them, and they
saw this as the furthest away from where they believed women should be.
However in the Pacific there were many women who took the fight to the Japanese in the
Philippines and these became a feared opponent of the Japanese who were known for committing
terrible atrocities and war crimes.
But what is the story of the women warriors that slaughtered Japanese soldiers?
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The Japanese had been at war for years before the Second World War even broke out in Europe
as they had been committing scores of atrocities across China in cities such as Nanking.
But when they attacked Pearl Harbour, this was considered one of the first steps in their
attacks in Southeast Asia.
The day after the attacks, the Japanese began to target American and European bases and
lands in the region.
From the 8th December 1941 to the following May, the Japanese attacked and assaulted the
Philippines and it resulted in the Japanese occupation of the Philippines with the Filipino
and Allied forces surrendering after being overwhelmed.
Because of this 80,000 prisoners of war were forced to move and locate to prisoner of war
camps.
They were forced on death marches for example the Baatan Death March and this was a harrowing
experience.
The Japanese would mistreat the prisoners of war, and the philippine civilians saw this
barbarism first hand, and they also witnessed the evil and killings of prisoners of war
at the side of the road, where Japanese forces would leave them dead in their wake.
Those men and women who attempted to give the marchers and prisoners food and water
were often killed using bayonets for their actions.
But the Baatan Death March acted as the beginning of the Japanese military’s treatment of
the citizens of the islands.
There were aggressive policies which punished and persecuted as well as the torture of those
who were sympathetic to the allies.
Foreign relations would be ended, and because of this there was a sense of resistance that
emerged inside of the Philippines.
This was a grassroots resistance element and many different people joined from peasant
farmers, to warriors and men and women also joined to try and fight the occupation.
One specific part of the fighters were women who were guerrilla soldiers who made a significant
amount of impact towards the liberations of the Philippines.
Many women saw this as a chance to liberate their homeland from evil, and their efforts
showed that women were able to fight evil, and to bear arms against an enemy during war
time.
They were a key and vital element of recon missions as well as attacking groups of Japanese
forces in the jungle, where they had the upper hand over the enemy as they knew the landscape.
For every 10 male guerrilla fighters there was one woman who was in the underground.
They made up 10% of the fighting resistance force, and they were aware of the risks that
they faced.
They knew that they could be forced to work as comfort women for the Japanese, but despite
the risk of death and assault, the guerrillas fought valiantly to liberate their people
from the Japanese.
Many of them served as medical officers or nurses, for example Dorothy Dowden a woman
raised in Mindanao worked as an aide who helped Allied soldiers and Guerrilla fighters whilst
also aiding her family to escape the horror.
Many nurses provided key medical assistance for this who were suffering and some even
helped the prisoners of war in the region despite there being no hospital and also little
supplies.
They would risk their lives to smuggle medicine into POW camps, and they would also train
other guerrilla groups first aid.
Joseph Capistrano was a Chinese-Filipina woman who trained women as soldiers nurses and spies,
and she schooled them in reconaissance work, self defence and how to use a firearm.
Her women also established spy networks that would link up and exchange information.
Women could obtain information and spy on the Japanese and then inform the allies about
this.
Some women even became trained by the allies in the use of weapons and guns.
One Filipino Woman, Remedios Gomez Paraíso, or Commander Liwayway witnessed her own father
being killed by the Japanese when he refuse to co-operate.
He refused to surrender the town and because of this he was tortured and executed and his
body was displayed in the town for everyone to see.
Liwayway then joined the rebellion and she moved into mountain camps where guerrillas
were hiding.
The anger of seeing her father’s brutal slaying spurred her to fight on.
She would be involved in even leading men into battle and into victory against the Japanese.
Nieves Fernandez was also a Guerrilla leader.
She was a simple Filipina school teacher and she would defend her homeland against the
Japanese forces after she saw many of there students being threatened to be taken away
by the Japanese.
She tried to protect the girls as she knew they would be stolen into slavery as comfort
women, but Nievez was a skilled bolo fighter.
She was well respected and led men into battle and inside of the jungle she would attack
different Japanese settlements.
Her 110 manned guerrilla unit would use homemade grenades and knives as well as homemade guns
to slaughter many Japanese soldiers and it’s believed that she was responsible for the
deaths of hundreds of enemy fighters.
She was known as a silent killer, and it’s believed her forces were responsible for the
deaths of 1200 enemy fighters.
It got to the point where after two years of constant ambushes, the Japanese offered
a 10,000 peso bounty on her head.
But she would live and would survive the conflict.
Maria Rosa Henson was another woman who fought against the Japanese.
But she had a very tough experience.
She was a young girl when she was growing up during the war, and for her simple tasks
like fetching water and getting shopping were very dangerous.
There was a threat every day of abduction and execution that she faced.
Regardless of age, many Asian women were assaulted by the Japanese forces and she was at the
age of 15 subjected to a horrific assault at the hands of Japanese forces who invaded
her home.
She then took up arms, and she then carried reconnaissance for the Huks unit, she was
captured and arrested.
After her arrest she was forced into becoming a comfort woman, and she would still try to
help her people and she was able to relay information about raids in the local area.
She continued to serve her country after the war, and she was considered a national hero.
The Philippines would be liberated from the Japanese on the 15th August 1945 when the
Japanese were ordered to surrender by Tokyo following the dropping of the atomic bombs.
In the whole occupation thousands had been killed and many had been imprisoned by the
Japanese and there was a huge amount of death on the islands.
It’s believed that in the liberation 420,000 Japanese forces were dead and missing which
was significantly more than the allied losses.
But the Japanese had done their damage and they had caused terror across the nation.
But a number of women were incredibly brave and they rose up to resist and fight the Japanese
despite the fact they faced the threat of horror and assault on a daily basis.
These women had a lot to risk including their lives and they lived very dangerously.
But women such as Nieves Fernandez were a constant thorn in the Japanese forces and
their army.
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