Tribune (Daihon-ei) yesterday: "Japanese units down 30 foe planes in Central Pacific" — Iwojima in the Volcano Islands and Chichijima in the Bonins. (An American communiqué said 75 Japanese planes were downed or destroyed.)

Candidate for one of the best stories of the war: "Two Nippon flyers blast 80 foe planes in Wakde Island" — on the afternoon of June 5. Two planes took off "after dusk" for a surprise attack on the Wakde airfield. The weather was "extremely bad" so they circled "for 40 minutes" trying to spot the target through the "dense clouds." When their fuel was "only enough to return to their base," they took a chance: "power-diving" until they spotted the "white line of the airfield bathed in moonlight, which pierced the clouds." Both planes, "from an extremely low altitude dropped bombs — one after the other." Fires broke out "which rapidly spread in all directions like the tentacles of an octopus ... the whole runway was converted into a sea of flames." They circled and after ascertaining the damage, "leisurely started on their journey home. As the clouds had cleared somewhat," the damage could be seen for "300 kilometers."

If the clouds hadn't cleared somewhat, you see, the fires might have been visible for a thousand kilometers, eh? Naturally, they destroyed all the planes on the ground. Don't laugh, it took Domei's man fully thirty days to write the story, and if Daihon-ei didn't mention it at all it's because Daihon-ei is too "conservative," at least according to Commentator.

"P.I. Ready to extend all-out cooperation to Japan — Vargas." Upon returning, he was pleased to find "every restaurant and theater packed to capacity by happy Filipino citizens." Unlike Japan, eh?

Santo Tomas: Fitzsimmons died recently, being too weak to fight-off a common cold. The Japanese sell food inside for fantastic prices, but sometimes not enough. Internees lodged a formal complaint about the lack of food. The Japanese retaliated by cutting out even the small privileges of being able to receive cigarettes and cash.