December 14, 1941

I didn’t realize today was Sunday until I was fed hot cakes for breakfast today—our usual Sunday a.m. food. To cap the climax we had dinner at noon too. In the meantime I had again forgotten it was Sunday, and asked Juan [the family’s Filipino retainer from before the war] why we were having a noon dinner. In other respects, today was totally unlike Sunday. It was, perhaps, a little more quiet in the office today, but there was still enough to be done. Most of the QM, and other services, I find, have moved from the port area and are now scattered around the city. I don’t know where they all are located as yet, except that I find one now and then by phone. Telephones are a problem too. Since the war began, the telephone system has been totally inadequate. It is very difficult to get calls through, and sometimes it takes two or three hours to get a party— sometimes I don’t get them at all. Since much of my business is by phone it is, naturally, very hard to keep things moving. We had three air raid alerts today—two false alarms and one real. However, they flew over the city but dropped no bombs.