Many had been saying that the dead in the Campos house ran from 120 to 200. I asked Father Cosgrave if more than a hundred could have been there. "Oh, I hardly think that many," he answered promptly, "less than that." He did say that some of the La Salle Brothers thought they saw Tony being marched across to the Nippon Club (La Salle is between both locations) — they had been warned not to look out the windows.

Little by little it all comes out in the wash. This doesn't excuse the Japanese, of course, but indicates that atrocities were not a general policy. Nevertheless, the La Salle case and the Walled City case, where the Japanese put 600 men to death, are inexplicable beastly acts that I'd like to check further.

. . . .

There were two big explosions today. The first was near the City Hall while I was having lunch at Santo Tomas — probably the biggest explosion I've heard so far — shot up a dirty column of smoke into the air. A GI told me it covered the ground around with two feet of dust and debris. At 1700 another large explosion came from the direction of Camp Murphy.

At Tondo I saw many hundreds of ration boxes ready for distribution. When Maurice returned from San Fabian recently, he said he saw thousands of such boxes there. A couple of days ago, the boys at the White House Game Room complained about a shortage of rations. "There just ain't any second helpings," said one to two nodding GIs. I wasn't surprised because the tall blond fellow with glasses and crusted hair was still sneaking whole boxes of rations out of the White House via our yard.

There is, of course, a great shortage of liquor, and some of the men would barter their souls for a bottle — and do. One officer lamented: "From factory to ship, ship to amphibian, amphibian to shore, shore to truck, truck to depot, depot to soldiers — at each step some of the stuff goes the way of all flesh. And it's all charged to SHIPPING LOSSES."

People in Manila are having trouble getting work. Army depots usually have a sign saying, "No civilian aid needed." Those having some success at getting placed are those who "give" or "entertain" — that is, they made some money during the occupation. "No doubt," sighed one today, "the US Army will eventually get around to tracking these collaborators, but if they don't hurry up they'll find 'em all holding important military or civilian posts."

...ooOoo...