Skip to content

April 30, 1944 (Sunday)

Mass, confession and communion at St. Sofia’s.

New Friends. At Akasaka-ku, in the vicinity of the former American embassy, we dropped in (Quiambao and I) to visit Miss Yuriko Go and her brother, Mr. Yasuhiro Go, whom we met at a party some time ago. We were kindly received and till 6:00 p.m. we enjoyed talking to them. They speak very fluent English, and they are very widely traveled and belong to one of the richest and most prominent families in Tokyo. Miss Yuriko has been in America a very long time and represented Japan on several foreign goodwill missions. She showed us a few pictures, including one taken with Shirley Temple.

Talking with them on different topics, we heard very interesting news which otherwise we would not know. They are very understanding and very practical, and we did not hesitate to tell them of Philippine problems. Their father was a prominent businessman who perished on the ill-fated “Taiyo Maru” which was torpedoed on its way to Manila and the southern regions shortly after the surrender of Corregidor last May, 1942. According to them, the boat carried on board the best of Japan’s men of experiences in various lines, men who spoke foreign languages and knew how to deal with people. According to them, had the “Taiyo Maru” not been torpedoed, better people would be administering the affairs in the Philippines.

Our talk was very frank, and they did not hesitate to tell us of the bad record of the Filipinos in Japan before the war, especially the athletes who visited Japan a few years ago. We also told them things about the Japanese we do not like.

I hope to meet these people again.