After a late lunch, Francis McCarthy, a friend of many years before he left to take up a job with United Press in San Francisco, turned up in a jeep with Dowling of the Chicago Tribune and Benny Gaberman. They questioned me on the late Lerocque for a story making him out to be a hero for drawing the map. "It would go over big in France, see? Pro-Vichy, anti-American French Consul turns anti-Japanese and dies a heroic death." Could be, I said. The human element was Madame Lerocque, a widow at 24 with 4 children, seriously injured 24 hours after her husband's death. "Sure, it could be a story."

Francis still has a brother and sister in Los Baños — Floyd and Marion — a frightening thought. Floyd was my softball teammate before the war. I tried to cheer Francis up. I wouldn't have been able to do it had I known what I was to learn two hours later.

Dowling told me that it's well known that a Japanese ship escaped from San Fernando, La Union, probably on January 5, with 700 American prisoners on board including one Colonel and 11 or 15 Majors — all in a bad state as to food and clothing. I'm almost certain that Joe was on that ship.

Referring to the bitter fighting on the south side, Dowling said, "Since when does MacArthur's communiqué tell the truth? And don't forget, Manila was taken FIVE DAYS ago!"

McCarthy estimated the Japanese South Manila Force at between 3,000 and 4,000, "probably 4,000 originally."

"They left 5,000 Japs," said Mrs. Menzi, "but the most barbaric they had."

. . . .

None other than Bill Anderson is cottoning up to the Americans now. Wearing an American-style helmet and a camera strapped around his shoulders like a war correspondent, he's now a good amigo de los Americanos. He's probably the only guy in Manila with a generator-powered working refrigerator at home, which is more than any hospital can boast of. He's got much more too ... which reminds me that Figueras and his little army have disappeared from Buenos Aires. They weren't there yesterday or today.

. . . .

I met up with Maurice at Nagtahan. What scenes we saw! From the downtown end of Santa Mesa, Nagtahan winds 250 yards southward to the new pontoon bridge across the Pasig. What was once a rocky, dirty little road, one of Manila's least known and unimportant, is now the busiest road in the Far East. A never-ending stream of all sorts of vehicles roar through kicking up swirling eddies of grimy dust thick enough to choke on. On the sides, a dense human throng passes back and forth. Evacuees with weary looks, torn clothes, near hysteria, on the last dregs of patience, courage, stamina and nerve; moving towards the Rotonda and to a peace unknown after 120 hours of terror. Other endless throngs, looking for lost family members or friends, push forward toward the bridge to meet them. The questions were endless; the replies ... shocking:

continues...