Stay pretty close to home, as we do not want to get caught on the street when the army comes in. The looting is terrible! When the American forces left, they gave much of their stores to citizens to keep it from falling in to the hands of the enemy. After they left, the Filipinos started to loot the Chinese stores. The police were powerless (?) to stop them and it continued till the Japanese came in. All stores were gutted, literally cleaned of anything of value. All fixtures, even, were broken and thrown into the streets. F.B. Harrison Street and Libertad here in Pasay were in shambles. Broken glass, furniture and papers and cloth were strewn around. It is a good thing that we have a few canned goods in the house, as there are no stores now, and nothing being sold in the markets. Rice is at a premium. In the evening we went down to the corner of Taft and Buendia to see the first Japanese soldiers enter the city. Impossible to describe our feelings of apprehension and fear!
Herman K. Beaber
(1907 -- 2001) American Protestant missionary; interned at Santo Tomas and Los Baños.
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