Admirals Koga & Toyoda

Tribune: "Admiral Koga meets death, is decorated" — the second Admiral killed "while directing operations from aboard a plane." (Must be too dangerous at sea level.) "Admiral Toyoda assumes post of grand fleet chief."

"As a result of [an] investigation conducted on the spot," the number of [U.S.] planes lost over Truk has been revised upward from 30 to 100, including 25 "heavily damaged." Just how they investigated the damaged planes "on the spot" isn't explained.

Observer in Today's Topic says, "A thousand Kogas [are] ready to safeguard East Asia." Mineichi Koga must have been a regular guy.

A rumor that the Japanese Navy will take over responsibility for Manila from the Japanese Army has been confirmed. Some think it's good news because they don't expect the Navy to fight. There's no love lost between these two groups. The Army resents the fact that it has to evacuate its headquarters and fine homes for the beautiful but crowded Fort McKinley, even if the hospital there is now a gigantic affair protected by large Red Cross signs. So like locusts over a bountiful crop, the Army is cleaning up their homes before leaving. I'm talking about stoves, refrigerators, bathtubs, shower sprinklers, and even toilets and furnishings. Some of these items are even being sent to Japan. Those who thought they were clever in renting their homes to Japanese officers because they were not subject to the 1942 rent-reduction scheme (and willing to pay more) are gnashing their teeth, wondering what will they find in their vacated homes. Meanwhile, so much stuff is being moved that the fuel expense is equivalent to a major army offensive advancing ten miles.

More shootings: one in Trabajo Street, another in San Juan, and one yesterday near the Quiapo Church at exactly the time I was passing by [I heard nothing]. A guerilla band is a-stalking its prey: stool pigeons, jackals and collaborators are being hunted down and slowly exterminated. Considering the average I hear is about one a day, it may be true what one person who ought to know said: "Everyday, 15 persons are being killed by guerrillas in Manila and its environs."