Japanese air corps officers asked Schaer, Dr. Abad and a neighbor for their homes — the three best houses in that neighborhood. Schaer lives several kilometers from the Zablan airfield, in a beautiful house and lot with many papaya, banana and mango trees, a fine vegetable garden with cassava, camotes, carrots, corn and onions.

The Jesuits are being kicked around too. The Japanese exiled them to the provinces after taking most of their buildings in Manila. The Fathers packed-up and departed for their four abandoned houses in Polo, Bulacan, spending P22,000 on transportation alone. After installing new wiring and 11 toilets, the Japanese want to boot them out again.

Zuellig finally decided to move out — they live pretty close to Nichols airfield anyway. They weren't happy, but decided not to ask for rent. The Japanese got sore. OK, then a sack of rice a month. The Japanese got sorer. OK, a thousand Pesos a month then — very cheap considering rents these days. The Japanese got real mad. They settled on P450 a month. The Japanese and English contract read: "I ... Zuellig, do hereby offer...." Perturbed at the idea, Dr. Zuellig protested: "But I'm not offering, I'm being kicked out!" After some finagling, the wording was changed to "cede." Incidentally, while his tenant is away on an "inspection tour," he isn't getting any rent.

Then there's Sixto L. Sison and his Dakota Apartments. The Japanese Army placed a seal on it one day, but one of his 15 tenants — a Japanese naval officer — promptly put three seals on the building, one on top of the Army seal. The Navy agreed to pay him P90,000 for the furniture — the building cost him P75,000 a year ago. The exchange rate is 26:1 today.

It's no surprise that the reputation of the Japanese is at rock bottom. The fools even thought they could slip supplies from the Nichols-Nielson airfields into the Pasay Church at night without anyone noticing.

La Vanguardia says an American submarine torpedoed and sank a ship carrying about 1,750 American POWs. Any comment would be useless now.