La Voz de Manila: "More than 200 Spaniards in Manila Assassinated by the Japanese." Consul Don José del Castaño cabled an account of the atrocities to his counterpart in Washington. On Feb. 12, the Japanese entered the Consulate where 50 people were taking refuge, machine gunned them, tossed grenades and torched the building. Among the dead were six members of the Pedro Albaladejo family, Placido Agenlella, his wife and two children, and Tirso Lizarraga and one of his daughters. The only survivor was a 15-year old Agenlella girl.

The Manila Post says that Buildings for Government Offices will be built soon, and in the meantime, the government will be housed in temporary buildings. Everything nowadays is temporary including street repairs and electric wires — for Army use only. Verily, the outlook is tough.

As we tooth-combed Paco, Piñol mentioned a story he heard about an atrocity at the Walter Price home. About forty people were taking refuge there, including the family of José Carcereny. The Japanese came and told them to leave, but started shooting when they crossed the rear patio. The only one not hit was Carcereny himself. A bullet grazed his wife's back as she fainted and fell. He also lost two sons, a daughter-in-law and her 2-year-old kid. The order to leave came in the form of the usual Japanese grunts so it may have been a fatal misunderstanding.

Another family got caught in a building opposite the Ateneo when some soldiers led by a Japanese officer came in. The officer was courteous, showed consideration for the wounded, and suggested that they put up a Red Cross flag. Two or three hours later, other soldiers and another officer went in and again acted polite and respectful, even leaving them some medicines. Another two or three hours later, a platoon of soldiers arrived and ordered them to go to the Ateneo. A few hours later the Ateneo was burned, "all at once and from all sides," said Piñol, suggesting that the order to move there was deliberate. I pointed out that the Ateneo was the logical place to move to and the account of the fire contradicted the story of others. Penny did add one detail though: Many were trampled to death trying to flee through the only open door.

I don't want to seem pro-Japanese (the guy that accuses me had better smile when he does), but let's examine the situation from their point of view. For instance, many stories say that so-and-so died while running across the street — in the open — yet many also include incidents of the Japanese getting pinged. Were guerrillas shooting at them? The point is, the Japanese were greatly outnumbered by civilians; they couldn't tell a civilian from a guerrillero; and they weren't about to wait for one to shoot first. They too were scared.