Mothers, wives, sweethearts, and friends eagerly scanned the five-page typewritten list of captured American and Filipino soldiers compiled by the Red Cross. The names were listed under exhaustion, dysentery, wounded, and heart attacks.
With Bataan and Corregidor gone, there was a lessening of the exhausting and emotional strain such as we had experienced in the last five months. Gone were the heated discussions and arguments regarding the arrival of reinforcements. Gone, too, were the wishful and childish rumors that our forces were outside the city.
Many of these once die-hard optimists now refused to believe anything, and they were particularly skeptical of the news from BBC and KGEI.
As for me, I was certain of one thing that if I heard no news or rumor of any kind, I would become well again.