It is now Dec. 12 and we’ve all had hot baths—an event! We listen to the radio and reports seem organized, coordinated, so it is more reassuring. There was an announcement that Davao, Tarlac and Clark Field were bombed later in the morning after Baguio.
There are seven living in our garage quarters now. Nida’s cousin brought his pregnant wife the second morning. We are learning “Gung Ho” or “Work Together,” fast. In between cooking and dishwashing, the women sew on surgical coats, hospital gowns, and cut out material. The children make beds, sweep, run errands and get covered with mud. We feel better when busy. We took a walk at sunset—so peaceful and beautiful. We looked at another dugout and came home feeling better about ours. We go to bed early in blackout, rise early too, We are tired at night. No mail or papers all week. It is well we have stocked Up on rice, bouillon cubes and canned goods calculated to last four months.
Watching the Filipino reaction in general we see what must have happened in France. Many have streamed up from the lowlands to Baguio—and about the same number have streamed down. Some miners start walking to remote mountain homes, while lowlanders wanting jobs replace them. With most, it is the desire to get to the “home” province. All the servants in bombed sections here left immediately. For two days, families trekked past the house carrying white-wrapped bundles of belongings. Dozens of buses from the mines go by crammed with passengers, loaded on top with baggage until the truck almost rolls over. Ismael said the lowland barrios are like ghost towns. He did not even look up his own family, sure they had taken to the hills. There is high praise for Filipino defenders of Dagupan. If the Japanese think they will because they will side with Orientals, they are due for a shock.