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October 17, 1944

Still no bombs, I’m sore. We were having breakfast when the “air-raid” alarm sounded. You can’t hear it very well out here in Santa Mesa but the servants in the kitchen said the sentries have placed the red flag and that means there’s an air-raid. I opened the radio to verify and it was blacked off.

Outside the house, the Japanese soldiers were hiding behind the trees and bushes. It’s funny looking at those guys react. The Filipinos are taking it very calmly, in fact, joyously. And they’re so nervous and jittery. Our Swiss neighbor said that some ten or twenty Japs entered his garden and hid in the bushes with their gas-masks on.

There were many planes flying –about 80 of them– but they were all Japanese fighters. Some were flying very low and others could be hardly distinguished above the clouds. Then it started to rain and at about noon time, “All-Clear” was sounded.

Several people were getting disappointed. They are asking: Maybe there is some truth in the Japanese claims of 12 aircraft carriers sunk? Is that why they can’t bomb anymore? Others are angry. They say: “The Americans shouldn’t have bombed at all if they were going to stop like this. It only gave the Japs a chance to spread their dumps into private houses. They should have kept it up, bombed on and on”. Only consoling note is the fact that Formosa is being bombed and rebombed. People say that this is a prelude to the invasion of the Philippines. “They’re neutralizing whatever help Formosa can give to the Japanese here when invasion comes” according to Joe.

Tio Charlie is still here. He can’t go to Baguio because of the air-raid alarms. I wonder if Baguio is a safe place. A lot of people are going there. I think it’s a bottle-neck, a rathole. If something happens to the zigzag, you’re imprisoned there. Oh well…