Since the early days of the Japanese occupation, Guerrero had been walking, carrying messages for the Filipino resistance fighters. She ferried news tucked into her chignon—at least until the day a Japanese sentry pulled at her hair, threatening to dislodge her secrets—or tucked between two pairs of socks or secreted away in hollowed-out fruit that she carried in a street vendor’s basket. Guerrero, known to most as Joey, moved around the city and into the surrounding mountains more easily than most. As a woman, she was dismissed as frivolous and flighty. Japanese soldiers answered her seemingly idle questions about their fortifications—never suspecting she was meticulously mapping their garrisons.

Guerrero also had another unexpected advantage: she was sick. Before the occupation, Guerrero had been diagnosed with Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy. The symptoms included headaches, fatigue, and tell-tale skin lesions. Before the invasion, Guerrero had been able to manage the disease, but medication was scarce in a country at war, and as she developed more noticeable lesions, she found herself shunned. Leprosy was misunderstood as a disease of the unclean and impure, and sufferers were cast out of society and expected to live in isolation; Guerrero had already been separated from her husband and daughter. The affliction kept most Japanese soldiers at bay, too. No one wanted to search her. “I’m a leper,” she’d cry if a sentry approached her.
Source: The Invisible, Afflicted Spy Who Led the U.S. Army Into Occupied Manila – Atlas Obscura

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