News of the landing in the Marshalls has stimulated people beyond belief. Gossip and rumors are at fever pitch — interspersed with a liberal sprinkling of hellish predictions for the Philippines:

The Japanese painted eight of their planes in American colors.

They'll bomb Manila to force Laurel into declaring war.

Nichols Field has been turned into a decoy.

The moment the Americans land here, guerrillas will see to it that not a single railroad will be operational.

No one is scared to talk anymore; after two years, everyone knows where everyone else stands. The Japanese are responsible for the above by their actions and propaganda — one belies the other. They've been rushing around building airfields and pillboxes, transferring supplies here and there, and buzzing around in trucks (mostly empty). On the Bay today are 33 ships; Japanese troops have been arriving with monotonous regularity.

Another pet subject is about the guerrillas. Of the 35,000 that surrendered, 25,000 are repeaters, 5,000 are fakes, and the rest, pseudo-guerrillas or just plain bandits. Real guerrillas have hounded the bandits into surrendering — and isn't that proof that they are well organized?

Talk of guerrillas soon shifts to talk of the southern provinces, where everyone says their island has suffered the most. Stories of Panay are hair-raising: outside of Iloilo and its environs, the whole island has been practically destroyed — every house in every town. Japanese punitive expeditions have been particularly severe. The seaside town of Sara, a suspected guerilla headquarters, got eight days of bombing before the Japanese entered and killed every living creature. The speaker looked deadly serious when he estimated that Panay alone cost the Japanese 4,000 casualties.

Tribune: "Food in Provinces Abundant, Exodus from Manila Urged" — 120,000 have already left. It's no secret that "unnecessary civilians" have evacuated Japan's major industrial cities too. No prizes for guessing why.

Commentator is back: "Japanese Empire flatly refuses victory without honor." He means they won't bomb the innocent citizens of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Melbourne and Sydney. Well, they can't even bomb Guadalcanal anymore.

"City outlaws jewelry trade" — now that the two-year boom is over and the trade is all but finished. "Fish prices to be fixed." The Japanese take all the catch anyway.

Tomorrow, the Military Police take over "Military Camp No. 3" — Santo Tomas. Camps 1 and 2 are at Cabanatuan. It's a mess: the truly sick are mixed up with the no-longer feigning.