When Leprosy Made Her the Most Reliable Spy of World War II
By: Jhemmylrut Teng
Tags: History, Culture, World War II, Feminism, World

When Leprosy Made Her the Most Reliable Spy of World War II

Josefina Guerrero, the Leper Spy | Image credit: Ben Montgomery

Leprosy is a long-term infection caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Such an infection can lead to damage of nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. It can be spread between people via fluids, but it requires extensive exposure before contracting the disease. Therefore, people diagnosed with leprosy also suffer from a public stigma.

For Josefina Guerrero, a Filipino woman who was diagnosed with leprosy in the 1940s, having such an infection ruined her personal life. It was a curse. However, instead of giving up, she offered her life, using her illness to help others amidst the Second World War.

Based on the book, Leper Spy: The Story of an Unlikely Hero of World War II by Ben Montgomery, here is the story of a brave woman who shaped history in the most compelling way. Yet, you have probably never heard of her.

Josefina’s early life

Josefina Veluya, also known as Joey, was born in 1917 in Lucban, Quezon Province, Philippines. Upon her parents’ sudden and early deaths, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd took her in. At an early age, she contracted tuberculosis, the nuns could not care for her, and her grandparents looked after her. When she recovered, she was sent to Manila.

Josefina “Joey” Veluya-Guerrero | Image credit: Wikipedia

She was raised with a strong Catholic faith and idolized Joan of Arc. Josefina was educated in a convent, where she learned the English language properly. Joey enjoyed art, poetry, and music and actively participated in team sports. She was described by many as an attractive, lively, and jolly young lady.

At sixteen, Joey met Renato Maria Guerrero, a twenty-six-year-old medical student, and son of the renowned doctor, Manuel Severino Guerrero.

The Guerreros then were one of the most affluent families in Manila. Joey and Renato got married and had a daughter named Cynthia.

Joey’s curse

In 1941, before the Japanese occupied the Philippines, Joey started experiencing fatigue and loss of appetite. Additionally, small blemishes started to appear on her cheeks and other parts of her body.

Renato took her to an infectious disease specialist which diagnosed her with Hansen’s disease or leprosy. At that time, it was considered a curse. There were not enough studies and treatments for such an infection.

The Filipinos are mostly Catholics, and their strong faith was highly influenced by Spain as the nation was a Spanish colony for over 300 years. The Spanish friars enforced the Filipinos to convert, pray the rosary, and study the Bible. Furthermore, in the Bible, leprosy was described as a biblical disease, a “punishment for sin.”

“The term leprosy, as used in the Bible, designated a multitude of diseases with skin manifestations. Biblical leprosy carried huge stigma and was considered synonymous with impurity and divine punishment.” — Prof. Patricia Deps, MD.

Lepers in Manila were required to carry a bell and to announce themselves as “unclean.” When the pox became apparent, they were sent off to leprosariums in the country. So, it was no wonder that Joey was treated as an outcast.

To make things even worse, Joey’s husband took their daughter, moved out, and left Joey alone.

Japanese invasion and the birth of the Leper Spy

In December 1941, the Japanese occupied the Philippines. They inflicted years of brutality over the Filipino people and American troops living in the country. At this time, the Philippines was still a commonwealth of the United States.

Imperial Japan controlled the country’s capital, Manila. The rationing during the war limited Joey’s ability to get medication for her infection. Eventually, her leprosy developed.

Volunteering to be part of the resistance

During the war, Filipinos formed several guerilla groups across the country to fight the Japanese forces. They were pivotal in the war as they augmented the crippling forces of American troops in the country. It was also the time when U.S. General Douglas MacArthur escaped the Philippines and moved to Melbourne, Australia.

In the midst of the devastation, Joey decided that if she was to die, she would die with honor. She then reached out to a friend, expressing her desire to become a soldier, and tracked down a man who was a member of the underground guerilla fighters.

By then, Joey was only twenty-four years old, which lead to her rejection by the resistance. But she was determined to serve her country. Instead of backing down, Joey argued that they would be “surprised” with what could be accomplished by “children.”

The leper spy in action

Due to her persistence, Joey got accepted, and she started working as a spy. She was usually acted as a courier to deliver important information about the war. Her sharp memory made her memorize the Japanese soldiers’ appearances and reported them to Filipino fighters.

According to Filipino historian Prof. Emmanuel Jeric Albela, the spies who volunteered during the Japanese occupation experienced a tough life:

“It was very challenging for them (spies) because they really have to be vigilant. The more information they get, the better because Filipinos had to rely on their own. They had no Americans to depend on.”

As Joey’s condition worsened, her skin wounds became more apparent. But instead of hiding it, Joey intentionally showed it off, especially on checkpoints. The Japanese frequently conducted full-body searches, but they left Joey alone as they were scared to contract her disease. So, she usually wasn’t inspected on her passage through the checkpoints.

“The Japanese were horrified of getting the disease. So, this enabled her to go in the (Japanese) territories, and they wouldn’t touch her, they leave her alone.” — Ben Montgomery.

She would write all the information she had gathered on a piece of paper and hide it in her hair bun. However, one day she decided not to hide the paper containing the message in her hair, as she felt it wasn’t safe. Instead, she hid the message on another part of her body. Coincidently, it was also the day when a Japanese sentry tugged her hair bun and it came loose. It was a close call, good thing she had followed her instinct.

After that, she tucked messages between two pairs of socks. If she was asked to remove her socks, she always removed both at the same time, leaving the message protected inside.

For a while, she had to stop working because the underground leaders told her that there were Japanese guards searching for her.

Another tactic Joey employed to accomplish her spy mission was to hollow some fruits and carry her secret messages inside them. She also pretended to be a fruit peddler in Manila’s streets, and the Japanese just let her be.

Joey successfully transmitted secret messages, information, weapons, and vital supplies to the resistance and Filipino soldiers, albeit she commonly walked miles, back and forth, to fulfill her mission.

Because of her leprosy, Joey never got caught.

The Leper Spy’s most dangerous mission

In January 1945, the Americans returned to the Philippines, and they were trying to recapture Manila. However, the resistance found out that the Japanese had sown minefields at the path the American troops were most likely to take.

Therefore, the resistance created a new map, encoding all those mines’ locations. They had to deliver it as fast as possible to the American troops before they started their journey to Manila. If the map didn’t make it ahead of time, those American soldiers would die.

Joey was tapped to deliver the map, and with no hesitation, she accepted the assignment.

“Joey Guerrero was never scared of death” — Ben Montgomery

The savior of American forces

She was told that the troops were in Calumpit, Bulacan, about thirty-five miles from Manila. She hid the map between her shoulder blades.

However, there was no concrete information given to her on how to get to the Americans’ camp. Still, she started walking, even though her leprosy kept getting worse with each day that passed. On her journey to Calumpit, she experienced headaches and fatigue, but she never stopped.

Joey’s journey to deliver the critical map to American troops | Map credit: National WW2 Museum

The Japanese were everywhere, guarding the roads and inspecting everyone. But she was fortunate enough to reach the City of Malolos, Bulacan. She was already halfway to her destination. Here, she took a boat around an active combat zone through the town of Hagonoy, outrunning river pirates.

Back on land, she walked the remaining eight miles to her destination: Calumpit. Guerrero arrived only to discover that just three hours earlier, the American troops had already advanced towards Malolos. She began walking once again, back to Malolos and eventually placed the map in the hands of Captain Blair of the U.S. 37th Infantry Division.

When she arrived at the Americans’ camp, she was exhausted and had no appetite to digest any food. When she told the captain what she had gone through to deliver the new map safely, he said, “By God! I never dreamed the Filipino women had such courage!”

“She (Joey) saved hundreds American lives. She probably saved the lives of all the American internees at Santo Tomas. If you could imagine for a moment, if the Americans charged in into the city, right through to that new minefield, it would have been chaos. It would have been a disaster. Who knows what would have happened to those internees.” — Ben Montgomery

Heading back to Manila, she joined the American troops. The Allies smoothly navigated the minefields because of Joey’s map. The Americans recaptured the city, and the Japanese lost the battle.

During the encounter, Joey walked through the flying bullets and tended to the wounded soldiers and civilians. She was carrying children and placing them in safe zones. She never failed to pray for the casualties of war and ask God for the safety of the innocent children.

She served others until she suffered a lung hemorrhage.

The Battle of Manila between the Japanese and Allied forces | Image credit: National WW2 Museum

The post-war treatment

After the war, Joey was an outcast again, she went to a leprosarium in Quezon City, Philippines, and stayed there for three-years. The conditions were horrible, with no sanitation or running water. So, Joey rolled up her sleeves and started cleaning up.

She wrote to several groups in America to inform the plight of the leprosaria in the Philippines. She sought donations in order to change the level of care reserved for those who suffered from leprosy. Her letters landed on several media publications in the country, which led to the leprosaria’s renovations and developments.

Travelled to the United States of America

Due to her letters, she learned about leprosy medical breakthroughs in the United States, particularly at the Carville National Leprosarium in Louisiana.

Star article about Joey Guerrero’s arrival in Louisiana | Image credit: Carville National Leprosarium

For a very long time, Joey felt hopeful again about her condition. She fought to get an American visa, and in 1948, she became the first foreigner admitted to the Carville National Leprosarium.

Within the same year, Joey’s wartime sacrifices, feats, and struggles with leprosy were featured in Time magazine. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm by the U.S. government, citing her courage during World War II, being credited for having saved hundreds of American soldiers.

Threat of deportation

Joey’s advanced case of leprosy required a decade of treatment. She became an activist for the destigmatization of leprosy. At Carville, she met Vietnamese immigrant Alec Lau, who was also undergoing treatment for the same disease.

Joey Guerrero in Carville National Leprosarium | Image credit: Carville National Leprosarium

Joey divorced her husband in the Philippines and married Alec. However, Joey’s visa expired, and she was about to face deportation. Her supporters, mostly American military families, rallied behind her and some lawmakers pushed for Joey’s citizenship.

Therefore, in 1957, when she and Alec were discharged, they received double blessings. First, their U.S. citizenship, and second, a status of “no clinical evidence of active leprosy.”

Finally, after fifteen years Joey was free of leprosy. She and Alec moved to San Francisco to build their new life.

Unfortunately for Alec, his illness came back. So, he went back to Carville and Joey was on her own again.

The forgotten hero

Joey thought the best was yet to come once she recovered from leprosy. However, the public was not ready to embrace someone who just had a contagious disease.

“People knew her face. So, when she tried to get jobs, she had a hard time finding work because even though she had done so much for the United States and for the Filipinos during World War II. She was still stigmatized. She was still a leper. And a lot of people didn’t seem fit to work alongside with such things. So she wanted to distant herself from that. All that she can do then was to disappear. So, she changed her name from Joey Guerrero to Joey Laeumax” — Ben Montgomery

Josefina Guerrero, 1970. | Image credit: Stanford, California

In 1977, Joey moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a clerk for several years and became a volunteer usher at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

Joey concealed her identity, she cut her hair extremely short and disappeared into American society. She pawned her Medal of Freedom and buried her leper persona. She died in complete anonymity in 1996, with no acknowledgement in her obituary of her status as a war hero.

“I have tried very hard to efface the past. I simply want to forget it! It was too traumatic and has given me no end of heartbreak.” — Joey Guerrero

In Montgomery’s book, he narrated that Joey still got to meet Cynthia, her daughter. When Cynthia got older, she traveled to the United States and visited her mother.