The Japanese are reinforcing their air arm in the Philippines. Thirty fighters blew in to Manila at 1745, and about five to ten bombers were about. No doubt they are being dispersed for night runs on Leyte.

New twist on the landings in the Tribune: Additional ships entered Leyte Gulf on Wednesday "by taking advantage of the low atmospheric pressure in the Pacific, which severed Leyte Gulf from the north and prevented heavy attacks from the intercepting Japanese forces from the north." It's a poor excuse; one American correspondent spoke of "almost miraculously smooth waters" during the landing.

Rear Admiral Masufumi Arima, "Commander of Nippon Air Unit crash-dives into foe carrier off P.I." After releasing his torpedo and being fatally damaged, "he gallantly self-blasted amidships of an enemy carrier, which in a few seconds, went down with a terrific explosion."

Editorial: "Enemy's attempt to re-enslave us" — certainly the strangest one I have ever read.

So ... we shout to [the U.S.] and to the whole world that we are no longer the Filipinos of the past decades; that we are already free and independent; and that we will defend this freedom with all available strength.... Let the battle rage in Leyte ... for us, the way is clear ... all we have to do ourselves for the present is to be free Filipinos ... the actual fighting is being done by our ally ... Japan.

This must be one of the queerest "re-invasions" of a "Republic" in all history because not one Filipino protested against it — not our President, not even Aquino, and nary a word from Foreign Minister Recto or General Francisco. The latter has no army anyway; the Japanese disarmed the P.C. in the provinces little by little some weeks ago, at least those that didn't take to the hills with their guns.

The Americans bombed Hondagua in Southern Luzon. The Santa Mesa stationmaster confirmed that many Japanese wounded arrived by train. The route now ends at Naga and doesn't go to Legaspi anymore because of too many "accidents" in the steep incline before Daraga.

Facing an eventual doom, the Japanese have begun to act even nicer these last few days. One of their civilians slapped a cochero recently. A Japanese Army officer who witnessed it invited the Filipino to slap the civilian back. The cochero was stunned — "He's a Jap," he said. "Yes, he Japanese, but NOT army, so go ahead." The cochero thought about it for a split second, then smacked the civilian with a blow that almost split him in two. By the time the civilian got up, the pleased cochero was shucking his horse and looking for more passengers. The horse, they say, was looking five years younger too.

Went out visiting this morning, and the Lady of the House invited me to step into her back garden to see some queer goings-on at the Burgos School: "I'll show you a place where you can see them and they can't see you." I spied trenches and foxholes — the latter seemed almost too small for a man. A gent we missed because he was too close saw us taking advantage of the unfair topography and let out a roar. Boy did we retreat fast! Anyway, that explained the digging noises I've been hearing lately. They are preparing to skirmish in our backyards!