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February 16, 1942

Yesterday, Singapore fell. At 7:50 last night, Lt. General Percival, Commander of the British Forces, signed the unconditional surrender in the prosaic stage of a Ford Motor Shop. Singapore, which had hitherto remained impregnable, still has some 60,000 soldiers, half of whom are British and Australians, the other half, Indians. In the preceding days, the press described how the British army always fought behind the local contingents in furious battles for seventy days. Today, it described the Tommies and the Anzacs, weakened by fatigue, consumed and starving, always on the run in the face of the Japanese blitzkrieg. The propaganda is never consistent.

Back here, they did not have any celebration for the great victory. They only put up three long streamers that were seen floating on the air with the inscription “Singapore Falls,” which some ignoramuses thought was something like the Pagsanjan Falls. The Japanese seemed modest about this great victory.