Agent High Pockets (Annotated)

Agent High Pockets is the autobiography of Claire “High Pockets” Phillips, an American entertainer living in Manila in 1941 who becomes an angel of the underground when her husband is killed by the invading Japanese. Using her popular Tsubuki Nightclub as a headquarters, High Pockets and her staff serve spiked drinks to Japanese officers and seduce military information out of them. During the day, Claire smuggles contraband in her bra (‘high pockets’) past bribed Japanese guards paid to look the other way, into imprisoned American POWs – money, food and clothes – saving countless lives.

Eventually, Claire is captured by the kenpei, the Japanese military police, who beat and torture her. She is sentenced to hard labor in a hell-hole prison where she endures further torture and nearly starves to death in a cell crammed with 22 women. Imbued with an intense determination to avenge her husband’s death and an indefatigable inner human will, Claire High Pockets survives against all odds and escapes Manila to write this, her incredible memoir.