Workers

When the war broke out, establishments and schools closed, and majority of the people lost their jobs. Women, especially, were forced to find food and other resources outside the home. Many of them engaged in buying and selling various items like jewelry, cloth, or food such as dried fish, fruits, and vegetables. In its campaign for the creation of a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, Japan encouraged the civilian population, including women, to give what they could in building what they called a "New Philippines." Japanese-run magazines were filled with articles on how women can contribute to the economy by assuming both traditional tasks (cooking, sewing) and jobs that were not traditionally taken on by women (bus driving). With food getting scarce in the cities, many families went to the provinces where they survived on farming and fishing, producing food not only for themselves but also for the Japanese soldiers who sequestered the country's agricultural resources, and for the guerrillas who fought and sought refuge in the mountains. Women professionals served their country in many other ways. Filipina nurses and doctors continued to help civilians, soldiers, prisoners-of-war, and guerrillas despite the loss of their hospital and the scarcity of food and supplies, as in the case of Bruna Calvan, Carmen Lanot, and Guedelia Pablan in Bataan.