Truman's first picture is out in the MFP — shows him being sworn in. Second headline: "7,000 Freed at Baguio.... Roxas is among those liberated, four Cabinet aides [Yulo, Sison, Paredes and de las Alas] caught." Said MacArthur tersely: "The four named will be confined for the duration of the war ... and then turned over to the Government of the Philippines for trial and judgment." Liberty News reports it as "Roxas Rescued," while Victory News has Fred Hampson saying that Roxas was "one who withstood continuous Japanese efforts to win him over to collaboration." Indeed, lured into the government by the food crisis, the Japanese trumped him by making him Minister Without Portfolio. But Roxas had the final say. That is, he kept silent; thus denying the Japanese a propaganda coup.

Incidentally, Roxas was MacArthur's aide at Bataan. People here feel good about him though the present government isn't too happy at his popularity. General Willoughby recently raised a few eyebrows at the Menzis by saying: "We got General Roxas and four other crooks." Hans, of all people, should know about Roxas' resistance. I kept my ears open today but heard no derogatory remarks on the other four from Filipinos on the street.

The MFP atrocity column has a report on Kalaw, who just returned from Lipa. A ravine there, where he used to play as a child, was cluttered with male bodies bayoneted by the Japanese in groups of ten to fifteen. As soon as the Japanese found out he was in Osmeña's Cabinet, he said, they hunted his relatives and slew them.

A point aside: It's interesting that everyone is supposed to be a guerrillero but the Japanese only killed innocent males.

Four out of seven Japanese were killed in a gunfight in Manila last night. With three on the loose, our guards have been doubled. They seem a bit green, and dare I say it ... scared!

Father Van Gorp, just back from Lucena with the First Cavalry, was pessimistic about the situation in Manila. "Go to the States, Henry," he said no less than five times. Manila will become a military stopover point and not a pleasant place — at any rate, not good for business except in "red-lights and booze."