All say the Japanese threw hand grenades at everybody, methodically set fire to houses, machine-gunned refugees and committed atrocities here and there. We wondered how could anyone survive this debacle. But after being given up as lost, the Singalong residents turned up, and ditto those of Pennsylvania. We drew the line at Taft because of its delayed liberation. We knew the Philippine General Hospital was cooked — doctors and all — and everything west of that was surely gone. With each passing day, our worst fears were confirmed and even reinforced by reports from survivors. While the battle progressed slowly, reports of murder and atrocities kept growing.

Well, Malate wasn't totally wiped out, but Ermita ... wow! No one doubted that Ermita was "it." And San Luis was 100% wiped out along with this and that avenue. And all the apartments had been mined and blown up — remember the Michel and Elena Apartments? The dead, we were told, reached 50%. Later we trimmed it down to 30%, but still, everyone was sure that casualties would reach 150,000 — mostly dead. We didn't talk about the Walled City — that was too painful.

Well, Malate mostly survived and the number of survivors keeps growing. A surprising number have also emerged from Ermita, and even a small number from the Walled City. The Japanese didn't kill anyone at the Elena Apartments or the Manila Hotel. Quite a few people were able to change shelter twenty times and emerge alive despite all the Japanese grenades, bullets and atrocities. Even today, people listed as dead in the information bureaus are walking by them — very much alive. In the end, incidents of actual atrocities may number 20 to 25 so one could say that this was not general Japanese policy but the result of a score of Japanese officers going berserk.

Now we can calmly discuss the deaths caused by American shells and the ensuing fires — all recognized as fact now but unthinkable and even unmentionable then. Two thousand Japanese in Malate and Ermita in the midst of 75,000 hostile, terror-stricken people, a few guerrilleros and reconnoitering Americans — and the Japanese did it all, eh? Well, I'm just seeking the facts for posterity. The truth will eventually emerge as the hysteria subsides. I wouldn't be surprised if the case of 120 people machine-gunned with only 4 survivors becomes 11 dead out of 23. The final list of casualties, if it's ever tallied, will tell the tale.

. . . .

continues...