I thought Tito Preysler was exaggerating about Baguio, but Anton Cacho had even more to add though I had to draw it out of him. The bombing started at 0730 on March 15, and continued for some five hours, killing about a thousand. "There were not more than 100 Japs in the city proper then ... perhaps even 50." And they were in dire straits too — hungry and tired. "Occasionally, one of the Japs would steal food from a civilian and get beaten-up for it by the civilians themselves with the approval of the Japanese Military Police!" The Japanese were short of everything, including guns. The civilians remained because the city wasn't being fortified and they didn't expect the Americans to bomb it. Looting, of course, was terrific and "led by the authorities themselves." The Igorots guided hundreds of people through the mountains, skirting Japanese positions, and into safety.

This afternoon, I had an interesting chat with a close friend. I treasure it because he is 100-percent pro-American, and because it's the fifth or sixth time we discussed the Battle of Manila and this is the first time he unburdened himself. His family was in Pasay, and for hours, he said, they kept "still as a mouse," hardly daring to breathe, listening to "scuffling noises" the Japanese were making on the other side of their wall. Then the sounds changed; the party on the other side started scaling the wall.

We sure thought we were cooked ... but who do you think they were? Americans! They had been there all morning without once looking over the wall. There wasn't a Jap in the place, yet do you know how much they advanced in the next five hours? About 100 yards ... and I swear they didn't see a Jap in all that time although they sometimes fired like wild. All the time, American artillery kept blasting and blasting ahead of them ... and that is what killed many people. The Americans sometimes fired for minutes on end and when there were no Japs around.... Had the Americans come in strength a day sooner, they'd have saved half of Pasay from burning.