The fires pushed the now large crowd toward the haven of safety that the Singalong church was, but every time they surged forward, machine guns in a Japanese pillbox near the front pushed them back. Finally the crowd slipped through an opening in the fires and headed back into the ruins. The Perlmans returned to their own battered and partly burned house. At 1600 on Sunday the 11th, Oscar made contact with two or three Americans he spotted crouching 100 yards away. With shells still hitting the area, he took their advice and headed for the rear lines. And he went so quickly that he didn't check about bridges over the Pasig — he swam it, taking one child at a time.

His family survived, but like others, his losses were colossal. Apart from the valuables in the cart, Oscar had 3,200 pairs of the best shoes hidden in the attic of his store in Calle Nueva that would have been worth a cool $75,000 today. Nothing remains of the store — or the area around it.

Oscar had a last word to say about the American soldiers too. One GI told him:

Yeah, we're GIs all right, but we're only here because we've got a job to do. We don't like fighting — especially the Japs. The reason we can beat them is we have much better equipment — otherwise it would be hopeless. Them Japs are good fighters. They wanna fight; we don't.

. . . .

Coming home at 1915, Enrique Santamaria was so deeply absorbed in thought that he passed me at our second gate as he headed for our first gate to call me. He had been at ... ahem ... HEADQUARTERS for two hours (no doubt at the invitation of Col. Soriano) where he had seen a list of dead POWs from the sinking of the December 15 ship. Neither my brother Joe nor Jackie Hair was on the list! He acted as if it was a closed matter and Joe was OK. I had a number of questions: What about the sinking in Formosa? Was the list of December complete? Was it official? Did Tokyo give that list? "Don't ask me, don't ask me," he grinned, as if the very war depended on our keeping that information secret.

Enrique mentioned that he was starting work next week at the Soriano Building and he could get me a job with the Army at P250 a month. No doubt Col. Soriano could — especially if Enrique asked him.

I noticed MacArthur is going around in a bigger unmarked Cadillac. Rumor has it that the old one took two shots around the Walled City. From now on we are to have two MPs in our garden day and night!

...ooOoo...