Confirmation that Manila was never meant to be defended came from an old-timer, Fahnestock, an American dynamite specialist of Acoje Mining. He came to Manila on December 21 to join a group tasked by Casey (Mac’s Chief Engineer) with destroying Nichols, McKinley, Camp Murphy, Pandacan, Cavite, etc. He did so at leisure, and being too old to join the army, is now at Santo Tomas.

I heard that some Jap soldiers bathing in Naic (near Cavite) were machine-gunned by two of our mosquito boats^†. The radio claims three Japanese fighters were damaged in a running duel with two mosquito boats. We received five or six of these boats before the war; I personally saw five brand new ones. Last week, one sank a 5,000-ton Japanese vessel in Subic Bay. They’ve been hiding in coves throughout the archipelago since the invasion. The Japanese claim to have sunk a couple of them.

In Batangas one can get 24 chickens for under P5 — the owners are begging takers to buy them for next to nothing before the Japanese steal them. I thought MacArthur was exaggerating a bit when he said the Japanese were systematically stripping the P.I. of everything, but the stories I’m hearing of confiscations in the provinces confirm it. And now we have advertisements asking for “attractive hostesses” for even out of the way places.

A well-informed civilian rep’ of a large Japanese steel concern questioned an Acoje Mining Engineer on restarting the mine. The interview sort of went like this:

Q: “How much engine you got?”

A: “We don’t know conditions for certain. The power plant was supposed to be 80% complete however our switchboard units were in the pier when looting began...”

Q: “I know all about that...”

A: “And the looters began opening all cases with axes, including ours. They were looking for food, but in breaking open the cases, they damaged everything.”

Q: “Yes, yes, yes; I know all this, however, we get switchboard other mines. Now let me see, where your trucks?”

A: “We had 110 trucks but the U.S. Army took them all.”

Q: “Eh? Why you give?”

A: “Now look here, if we had 110 trucks and you were to ask for them, could we say no?”

Q: “Eh? Oh ... ah, yes, yes, I know. How you gasoline?”

A: “We had 100,000 liters but then the U.S. Army took that too....”

It seems they were ready with a timetable and cost estimates to get our mines up and running when suddenly everything was put on hold yesterday until further notice.

. . .

^†Apparently, as they approached the shore, the would-be bathers jeered and taunted them!