Four or five large explosions at 2130 last night followed by several more around midnight may be the Japanese blowing up munitions in their airfields here.

Fort Santiago is gone; the Japanese moved some important prisoners to Baguio on December 16, and others recently to a couple of houses occupied by the MPs on the city's outskirts. Arrested in December for a dollar transaction payable after the war, Samuel Awad is still being held. His brother Victor told me today that the Japanese haven't opened Sam's safe, which is a relief as my name would be on at least seven or eight documents though not on dollar or exchange notes.

The Japanese took the entire McMicking family away last Saturday, including Mrs. Hall and the elderly Mrs. McMicking. The arrests had something to do with a radio transmitter or gadget, though I suspect the Japanese are just getting even for all the help this family provided to prisoners and internees. No one knows where they were sent. The Mencarinis too are still "missing."

Pepito Matti is back in town after walking all the way from San Mateo with his mother. He brings news of almost constant American plane activity and otherwise unendurable conditions.

I went to the Escolta and met a few friends from Ermita and Malate — the first time they had crossed the Jones Bridge since the Japanese began "recruiting" forced labor there. Fortification of their district continues, but most expected the Japanese to run when the time comes. Asked about the danger, one said, "Pues chico, it all depends on how lucky one is."