The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American POWs (2020)
By Robert Mrazek
Florence Ebersol is the daughter of a successful ex-pat American farmer and his Philippine wife; age 7 Florence is sent to Manila to a church-run boarding school, where she is an outstanding student who goes on to work for the US servicemen's club and marries an American seaman, Lt "Bing" Smith. But Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and America, along with the Philippines, is drawn into the second world war. Only 6 months after their wedding, Bing is killed while rescuing another sailor. Florence determines to aid the war effort and is hired to work in military intelligence. When the Japanese take over Manila and Florence's boss Carl Engelhardt is captured, Florence finds work with the Japanese agency controlling oil supplies and transport. But while conscientiously doing her job by day, Florence conceives a way to steal and sell oil shipments using the funds to aid POWS who, for the most part, receive no or little food from their Japanese captors. Following the Bataan death march and fall of Corregidor, conditions worsen and Florence is arrested. She never confesses her role and survives the torture, weight loss, and horror of the Japanese occupation. For American POWs, the conditions worsen and few survive. Gen Douglas MacArthur has promised "I shall return" from Australia to his beloved Philippine islands, but his return with a conquering US army will take years and his victory will follow unimaginable destruction but the Japanese.
The author, a former NY congressman, also tells the parallel stories of Carl Engelhardt (with access to his diary entries) and Japanese businessman Ozawa, Florence's boss at the oil depot.
Florence is an inspiration. She died at age 101 in Ithaca, NY - where few neighbors ever knew of her important role in saving lives during WW2.
