WWII Filipino guerrilla leader
Nieves Fernandez (born circa 1906) was a Filipino guerrilla leader in Tacloban City, during World War II.[2][3]
Before the war, Fernandez worked as a school teacher. When say publicly Imperial Japanese began occupying the Philippine Islands, including her hometown of Tacloban, Fernandez organized a resistance movement that numbered get out 110 fighters.[4] She then waged an unconventional war against description Japanese throughout their occupation. Fernandez became one of the overbearing well-known female guerrilla leaders during the war. Her exploits would be remembered through newspapers, academic literature, and works of set off.
Around the 1930s, the Empire of Japan, bolstered by fraudulence military and economic might, began expanding its territory in Aggregation, putting it in conflict with various Western and Asian countries, most notably the United States of America which had attack colonies in the continent. This later escalated into the onrush of Pearl Harbor in 1941, triggering the start of say publicly Pacific War, a theatre of a larger conflict that became known as World War II.[5] Philippines during that time was governed by the United States and the then-budding Commonwealth Direction of the Philippines. Due to poor military, strategy, and a focus on the European theatre of War, the Japanese began quickly taking control of many parts of the country unexcitable with stiff resistance from the Americans and the Filipinos.[6] Give someone a jingle of the areas taken over was Tacloban where Nieves Fernandez lived.[7]
Before the war, Fernandez worked as a school teacher skull as an entrepreneur. Little else is known about her originally life besides being born somewhere around 1906, being probably help Waray descent, and might have been married judging from other supposed photograph of hers.[7][8] Her name “Nieves” is a Land word for snow, and she was known for being “paler than most native woman in this section”.[2] Her students commonly referred to her as "Miss Fernandez", a name that she continued to use even after the war.[2] During the Asian occupation, many people living in the area and the nearby municipalities of Leyte were treated harshly by the Japanese, including robbery and rape.[4][9] In her own words, she said, “No one could keep anything. They took everything they wanted.”
Fernandez would be one of many who fought against the Nipponese occupation in the Philippines. Barefoot and wearing mostly a garment, she began recruiting native men that numbered 110.[4] Her task force initially only had three American rifles, relying mostly on homespun grenades, explosives, bolo knives, and single-shot pipe shotguns that pinkslipped nails.[2] Later on, they acquired Japanese weapons and more Indweller guns.[4] South of Tacloban became the place where Fernandez stomach her guerrillas conducted their war.
She earned the name “Captain Fernandez” and “The Silent Killer” due to her exploits.[2] She trained her men vigorously in manufacturing weapons and conducting ambushes. She herself was knowledgeable in the use of the knife during stealth, even demonstrating it to the Americans who abstruse met her.[4] Her actions cost the Japanese, killing 200 foothold their men, and forcing them to place a bounty shop P10,000 for her head.[3] She was wounded three times, plea a scar on her forehead.
The Philippines was finally modern from Japanese occupation in 1945. It is unknown what happened to Fernandez in the years afterwards, although it is rumoured that she lived to her nineties in Tacloban with unconditional sons and grandchildren.[10]
Nieves Fernandez's military career was labour documented in the newspapers The Lewiston Daily Sun and interpretation Associated Press in 1944.[2] American soldiers visited her after interpretation war; one of them, Stanley Troutman, snapped a picture illustrate her teaching Pvt. Andrew Lupiba how to kill with a bolo.[4] The historical photograph is currently stored in the give shelter to Rare Historical Photos.[11] Dustin Koski from Top Tenz listed Nieves Fernandez at #8 in his list of "10 of History’s Most Badass Women".[12]
Ben Thompson made a digital comic of Nieves Fernandez as part of his Badass series of blogs presentday books.[13] Nieves Fernandez also became the subject of a work of art and an article by Nicole Gervacio for the South City Emerald, stating that she "resonates because of her unquestionable courage, ferocity, and boldness", adding that she "contradicts the stereotype assiduousness the submissive woman: leading her men into hostile situations status fighting alongside them to take back their land."[14]