The GIs called her Joey. Hundreds owed their lives to the tiny Filipina woman who was one of the top spies for the Allies during World War II, stashing explosives, tracking Japanese troop movements, and smuggling maps of fortifications across enemy lines for Gen. Douglas MacArthur. As the Battle of Manila raged, young Josefina Guerrero walked through gunfire to bandage wounds and close the eyes of the dead. Her valor earned her the Medal of Freedom, but the thing that made her an effective spy was a disease that was destroying her.

Guerrero suffered from leprosy, which so horrified the Japanese they refused to search her. After the war, army chaplains found her in a nightmarish leper colony and campaigned for the US government to do something it had never done: welcome a foreigner with leprosy. The fight brought her celebrity, which she used on radio and television to speak for other sufferers. However, the notoriety haunted her after the disease was arrested, and she had to find a way to disappear.


About the Author

Ben Montgomeryis the author of the New York Times bestsellerGrandma Gatewood's Walk, which won the 2014 National Outdoor Book Award for History/Biography.An award-winning staff writer at the Tampa Bay Times, Montgomery was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2010.

Book Information
ISBN 9781613734308
Author Ben Montgomery
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Chicago Review Press
Publisher Chicago Review Press
Weight(grams) 521g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 152mm * 25mm