Nieves Fernandez

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Captain Nieves Fernandez was a Filipina schoolteacher and guerrilla commander who fought the Japanese in Tacloban during World War II.^[2] Fernandez extensively trained her men in combat skills and making of improvised weaponry, as well as leading her men in the front. With only 110 men, she managed to eliminate over 200 Japanese soldiers during the course of the Japanese Occupation. The Imperial Japanese Army posted a reward of 10,000 Philippine pesos on her head in the hopes of capturing her, but to no avail.^[3]

Prior to Revolution[]

Fernandez owned a wholesale business of her own until the Japanese invaded the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1941. People were held prisoners of war and thus tortured by means of being staked out to routine beatings and surgery without anesthetic. Some recounted being forced to imbibe pints of water, tied to the ground, while Japanese guards cheerfully jump on their stomachs.^[4] Fernandez, who was a teacher, worried for her students could be taken away by Japanese troops.^[5] Many women also became vulnerable targets of sexual assault. One of their biggest fears was to be forcibly used as comfort women by the Imperial Japanese Army.^[6] Eventually, Fernandez had enough and decided to revolt against the government.^[7]

World War II Guerrilla[]

Fernandez gathered native men and plotted how to fight against the occupying Japanese forces. She trained these men in combat skills, how to use knives, how to make shotguns from gas pipes that were loaded with gunpowder and old nails, and how to make grenades. Sometimes, they were able to obtain Japanese weapons. She became the first and only female guerrilla commander in the Philippines.^[2]

Fernandez would wear a black dress and fight barefoot as she committed silent killings with a bolo knife. Under her command, her troop of 110 men carried out an attack south of Tacloban, killing more than 200 Japanese soldiers. It took two and a half years of ambushes until the Japanese offered a bounty of ₱10,000 for her head.^[3] She was never captured, but she was wounded once and had a bullet scar on her right forearm.^[8]

Saving the Comfort Women[]

Remedio Fallas, a former comfort woman, revealed in her book The Hidden Battle of Leyte: The Picture Diary of a Girl taken by the Japanese Military how the guerrillas saved many young women that were being raped and about to be raped by the Japanese. She vividly recounted how the guerrillas wiped out Japanese troops stationed in various villages.^[9]

Silent Killer[]

Fernandez was reportedly a skilled markswoman and bolo fighter. She utilized the bolo knife as it was an easily accessible tool primarily used for trailblazing and agricultural purposes such as clearing vegetation. Fernandez was a famous silent killer, and her technique was to stab her targets behind and below the earlobe, severing the carotid artery and internal jugular that leads to the brain and causing immediate unconsciousness. Once the blade is stabbed to a depth of two inches, she would thrust it and twist it upwards at 90° angle. If correctly performed, the victim might try to scream and gasp for air but it will not be possible. The only sound will be the victim's physical struggle, which was already taken care of if the assailant attacked from behind.^[5]

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