The Second World War came to the doorsteps of millions of people around the world, and
they were plunged into the hearts of the deadliest conflict in History.
Many people were displaces and were forced out of their homes, and millions in Europe
found themselves imprisoned inside of concentration camps at the hands of the Nazis.
There were a number of women who served their countries and nations with distinction, and
put their lives on the line for the armed forces in the fight against evil.
For example many women joined Special Operations Executive and were recruited to become spies
risking their lives in the dangerous undercover work.
Many female spies were later executed for their involvement, but there was one Filipino
American woman who joined the resistance in the Philippines against the Japanese.
On the Philippines, other women such as Nieves Fernandez resisted, as she formed a group
of silent killers who took out over 200 Japanese soldiers.
But Florence Ebersole Finch was a woman who was an intelligence officer, however she took
part in the resistance to the Japanese occupation in the Philippines, and following this she
was subjected to a horrific torture ordeal.
Join us today as we look at the female spy who was tortured with electric shocks by the
Japanese, and remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Florence Finch was born Loring May Ebersole on the 11th October 1915 in the Philippines.
Her country at the time was under the control of the American insular government, and her
father was American and her mother was Filipino.
At some point, she changed her name to Florence Finch.
In the evenings she would read but she later attended the Union Church Hall School in Manila.
It’s believed that this could have been the origin of her name change, as the school
superintendent referred to her as a blooming flower.
From the age of 12, she was financially independent, and she lived at the school and worked part
time to pay for her food, clothes and life.
She was regarded as a brilliant student, and she skipped the first two grades when she
became a high school student, but she did experience some racial taunts as she was considered
not equal to full blood filipinos, and some students did pick on her.
Following high school, she took on secretarial classes and in 1935 she was able to get a
job as an assistant to a business manager.
But then before the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, she worked at the G-2 intelligence
headquarters of the US Army in Manila.
Whilst she was here, she met her husband an American sailor called Charles Smith.
He would later be killed in action fighting in the Philippines in 1942.
But on the 8th December 1941, 10 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour, the Japanese
invaded the Philippines.
Throughout this period of occupation as the Japanese forced the surrender, it’s believed
that around 500,000 Filipinos died at the hands of their enemy.
The Japanese would steal many young women from the streets and would force them into
horrific slavery and they were forced to serve as comfort women inside of comfort stations
for the Japanese soldiers.
This was a horrific war crime, but inside of the Philippines, many filipino people stayed
loyal to the Americans and the United States, and with this they turned their backs on the
Japanese and joined resistance groups against the occupiers.
But Florence Finch was working as a stenographer inside the Headquarters of the US Army in
Manilla, and at the start of the Japanese occupation, she managed to hide her American
heritage and links, and then secured a job at the Philippine Liquid Fuel Distributing
Union which was controlled by the Japanese Forces.
Whilst working here between June 1942 and October 1944, she managed to link up with
the resistance.
She would divert fuel supplies meant for the Japanese to the resistance, and she falsified
documents for the resistance, and also took part in acts of sabotage at the fuel site.
She had managed to keep fuel supplies from the Japanese and they helped some American
prisoners of war too.
She stole fuel vouchers and gave them to someone to sell and they then gave her the money.
But whilst working here she constantly feared for her life, and what she was doing was very
dangerous, and would have been considered treason if she was discovered.
She would have been killed, but she also sent medical and food supplies to a prison camp
nearby, and she smuggled food to starving American prisoners.
However she was caught doing this, and she was subjected to a horrific ordeal.
Florence Finch was interrogated and tortured by the Japanese soldiers, and she was beaten
badly.
She was forced to stay in a tiny two by four feet cell in her prison, and she was also
tortured in different ways.
One way in which she was tortured was that she was subjected to electric shocks and this
was incredibly painful.
However Florence refused to give over any information and she denied to name any people
that helped her.
But following her torture, she was then sentenced to a 3 years of hard labour for and she was
almost broken by her treatment.
When she was freed by Americans on the 10th February 1945, she weighed just under 80 pounds,
having been wired almost to death.
She managed to escape her execution, and had been sent to Bilibid Prison in November 1944
before being sent to a women’s prison where things were slightly better.
The US Army would drive the Japanese from Manila, and with this Florence was freed.
But throughout the war she had done a significant amount of work helping the resistance and
also helping people to defy the Japanese occupation.
After the conflict she moved to Buffalo, New York and joined the Us Coast guard, however
she remained in New York until the day she died and died on the 8th December 2016, and
she was given amazingly a military funeral with full honours, with the 101 year old’s
service being never forgotten.
After the war she was awarded the American Medal of freedom, and she also became the
first woman to be decorated with the asiatic pacific campaign ribbon.
But during World War 2 she was a woman who bravely risked her life to defy the Japanese
occupation, and by stealing fuel from the Japanese she did halt some of their advances.
She was crafty, but did what she believed she could do to help the Japanese lose the
conflict, and she was a woman who was loyal to the Americans.
She also saved a number of lives by smuggling food into concentration camps, and her actions
were brave and incredible, but today the story of Florence Finch is not the most well known,
and her story deserves to be told.
Thanks for watching
To support our channel please make sure to subscribe
Thanks again for watching