During the World War II on December 1941, the Japanese went to the Philippines and have launched an attack. At this time the Philippines was under the commonwealth of the United States, thus the Japanese controlled the country’s capital Manila. During the war the Filipinos formed groups of fighters in the country to fight the Japanese forces, and in the midst of era, there entered Josefina Guerrero.
Josefina Guerrero is a Filipina who was diagnosed with Hansen’s disease or what we called leprosy. Leprosy is a skin disease caused by bacteria and this infection can lead to damage of nerves, respiratory tract, skin and the eyes. Josefina is also known as Joey, she was born in 1917 at Lucban Quezon Province, and got married to Renato Guerrero with one child named Cynthia. Upon diagnosed with leprosy, her husband Renato left Josefina and took their daughter away due to the fear of being infected. At this time during the invasion of the Japanese, Josefina decided to offer her life with the used of her disease in order to help others amidst the conflict. She immediately go to a friend to tell what she wanted but due to her young age at twenty-four, Joey got rejected but her persistence and determination to serve the country was seen by the officials and by this, she was then accepted and started working as a spy. Her work is to deliver important messages and information from the opponent Japanese to the Filipino fighters in Manila, she walked miles in order to transmit the important details, and hid the notes she wrote in a piece of paper on her hair bun, in her socks and in the bandages in her skin. Her illness may be a curse, but it became an asset to her because due to her illness, the Japanese soldiers won’t touch her and won’t conduct body searches through her body during check points, she just intentionally showed her skin disease and the Japanese soldiers got scared and they just leave her alone and it made her easily to transmit the information she gathered from the enemy. She also pretended to be a fruit peddler in Manila’s street and she hollow some fruits and carry her secret messages inside them. Joey’s final mission were very dangerous, it was in January 1945 where the Americans returned to the Philippines to recapture Manila, but suddenly they discover that the Japanese had sown minefields at the path where American troops were likely to take. The resistance created a new map, encoding all mines’ location so that the troops won’t pass in there, and the map should be delivered as soon as possible. Joey was assigned to deliver the map, and with no hesitation she took the assignment and directly walked miles away and in her journey, she experienced a lot of pain from her disease, a headaches and fatigue but it didn’t stop her in fulfilling her duty and after a very long and exhausted journey she was able to deliver the map to the American troops and this heroic act saved a lot of American soldiers’ life. Going home to Manila, Josefina joined the American troops. The americans have navigated the minefields because of Joey’s map. The Americans enable to save the city, and the Japanese have lost to the war.
After the war, Joey got a permission to come to the United States to have leprosy treatment in Carville Louisiana where she got the best medical care for leprosy and this enable her to live more years, after her treatment for ten years when she finally got out, she became a celebrity, she was featured on television, radio, newspaper, and magazines. But despite of what she has done for the United States, and for the Filipinos during the World War II, she was still labeled as a leper, and a lot of people did not fit to work with her. Because to this, Josefina decided to disappear so she changed her name from Josefina Guerrero to Joey Lomax, she cut her hair and totally disappear and the end of her life is when she dies in 1996, she was completely forgotten and died in complete anonymity without any acknowledgement that she is a war hero who saved a hundred of soldiers’ lives.
However, the name Josefina “Joey” Guerrero was not in the list of Philippine Veterans Affairs Office as one of the fighters during World War II. Indeed, that Joey is an underrated spy in Philippine history that even her identity is unknown, but despite of it she is still a bizarre individual who give a big contribution to the country and needs to be acknowledge as a hero whoever she is.
SOURCES:
Unknown., (N.D). World War II. Retrieved from http://countrystudies.us/philippines/21.htm Teng, J., (2020, November 09). When Leprosy Made Her the Most Reliable Spy of World War II. The forgotten heroism of the sole leper spy. Retrieved from https://historyofyesterday.com/when-leprosy-made-her-the-most-reliable-spy-of-world-war-ii-4b3043b95199 GMA Public Affairs. (2019, September 03). Brigada: ‘Leper Spy’ na si Josefina Guerrero, kilalanin. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/90-3wTWiIiY
NOTE: PHOTOS NOT MINE
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