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February 19, 1942

Camp morale moved back and forth like a pendulum. We heard that Germany was about to collapse and that Russia planned to declare war on Japan. But the best news of all was that our fleet had won many victories in the Pacific.

No matter how fantastic the rumors were, we wanted to believe them. But oh, the terrific letdown when we learned that we had been fooled again!

The Catholics were told at roll call tonight that mass would be said by a Japanese priest.

After roll call Catesy and I dashed down to the west patio to find a vacant spot to spread our petate. We stretched out on the petate and tried not to think of the four stories of concrete walls surrounding us.

The morality-quad man stalked back and forth between the two patios.

Since it took the inspector ten minutes to make the rounds in one patio, couples learned to time their embraces when the snooper was in the other patio. These stealthy and torrid little love scenes should have tickled my funny-bone. Instead, it made me infinitely sad.