From Machado comes the story of the Perez-Rubio boy, aged about 20 and now worth millions as a sole heir. He went to Baguio to be with an Ysmael girl he loved, and thus survived. As to the Rubio case, Machado said one or two of the boys went up to the roof of their house and shouted: "Americans! We see the Americans!" The Japanese promptly climbed over the fence and demanded to know where the Americans were. One thing led to another and the Japanese locked everyone in Carlos' room and set fire to the house, shooting anyone who tried to escape.

As to the houseboy who fingered the Camposes, he had been caught stealing some meat from the family and given a severe scolding — even tied to a tree by Mrs. Campos and Pilar! Though I find that hard to believe, I'm told that they were capable of doing just that.

Many are still undecided as to who "burned" Manila. Machado says it was the Americans for the most part. When I mentioned Pasay and Malate, he tacitly agreed about Pasay but asked me to list specific houses in Malate. The Zobel house for one, I said, thinking of Montinola's story. "Not so ... because Oteyza was there and it was an American shell that set his house, and later Zobel's, on fire." The contradiction didn't surprise me; very few people who were there can give a clear-cut and unbiased opinion as to what actually happened in the south side. Relatively speaking, the north was a walkover.

The Japanese concentrated on fortifying the south, leaving a few in the north to delay and ambush the Americans. Hearing the Americans approach, civilians did the reverse of what they were told to do: They promptly lined the street their liberators were expected to come through (Oroquieta — parallel to Rizal Avenue). Some even dusted-off long-saved American paper flags for the occasion. Hors Borromeo was astonished to see a carload of Japanese driving through the melee! An angry officer, standing and brandishing his gun at the crowd, scattered them with a few shots. Moments later, a group of guerrillas ambushed the same car on a corner, killing all but one who escaped by some speedy machinations of the lower limbs.

Guerrillas, you see, infiltrated ahead of the Americans to collect information on Japanese defenses from the eager-to-help crowd. The Japanese weren't firing on civilians at that time, so the guerrillas, dressed as civilians, were able to walk past them then turn around and ambush their weaker positions. No wonder the Japanese in the South fired on anything that moved. Perhaps some of the atrocities there were in retaliation for these incidents.

. . . .