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January 31, 1942

When I told Isobel she was like a heroine of drama, her baby the first American born in Igorot Barracks Concentration Camp, she could only say, “Oh my mother will have a fit!” I guess she is right, but what a story! Headlines—”Japanese Imperial Command tries to stop birth, Says wait till morning!” Everyone wants him called John Hay Scott which it doubtless will be even though he is named Richard Hawkins. We went in to see Isobel and celebrated with peppermint sticks while watching the baby learn to drink.

Notes jotted in late January, 1942

Igorot Scout quarters where we live are three long barracks on a dry sandy parade ground full of bomb holes from the first attack. The roofs are covered with shrapnel holes. Our building was made to house a maximum of one hundred and eighty. Before the men moved, there were four hundred and fifty. The women and children number about three hundred and fifty.

There are bare rafters, shelves around the windows, nails for hanging clothes, and lines down the middle for laundry drying. We all sleep on mattresses on the floor, surrounded by bags. We have pillows and blankets but no sheets. Washing the floors every morning helps to lay the dust.

It is absurd how many are trying to live as though they were still at home, with satin nightgowns, hair curlers, cold cream, lipstick, eyelash brushing every morning. There is no privacy of any sort and at least one baby crying all the time, usually a maelstrom of sound combining wails and tramping feet. Irritations crop up, expand or diminish according to the lack of sleep or hunger or ill health.

The bombed quarters across the street, with the kitchen chimney at an angle and the walls going three ways, are a symbol of the world at present.

Babies are being given baths in buckets painted bright red and marked “Fire.” It is most adorably effective. Ministers of the gospel are pulling a pushcart full of wood or mattresses or kettles. One of them wears an army hat always jaunty above a faded blue army coat.

The army thinks that candy or cakes given to the children can compensate for losses or our present status. Sugar is desired by both soldiers and internees.

At three we heard that all the missionaries were returning and on the heels of the rumor, in they drove! Poor hungry, exhausted people.