General Tanaka is eager to develop our natural resources to "build up the Philippines as an integral part of the East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere instead of the self-seeking Anglo-American exploitation." This reminds me of a story I recently heard about the highest-ranking Japanese officer in Iloilo. He invited a prominent local man to a tour of the region by car, and every time they approached a mansion of a sugar baron, the officer would look interested and ask, "American house?" The answer, to his apparent disappointment, was invariably, "No, Filipino". So much for self-seeking Anglo-American exploitation! As someone remarked to me today, "It seems that only a handful of Japanese plotted this war; the rest don't know much about it."

Signs of Co-prosperity: The paper says the Japanese had to rebuild the Rabaul telephone system almost from scratch despite a lack of materials. That explains why an electrician couldn't replace a blown fuse at Romiro's house the other night. "I'll just have to repair it," he said, "the Japs took away all our fuses."

Today, we received some notes from Joe: two to Ma in French dated August 16 and 17, and one to Shorty Hall dated the 10th. He asked for money and medicines. He hadn't received the P50 and medicines I sent him. He writes: "The Japs are treating us sufficiently and relatively well. In fact, I'm getting fat" — on mostly rice. He said life was not hard for the officers, just a bit monotonous. I'm sending another P50 to him via Father Theodore 'Theo' Buttenbruch.