Masaki says Gen. Kwo is not interested in anything but gates and fences. It is al] he sees, not people at all. He says the Philippine camps are the worst of all, Shanghai the best with many advantages.
Miss McKim told of how hipped Yamato is on roll call etiquette and when Carl tried to get a permit for two men to go up to the spring to look into its condition, Yamato kept saying, “It all depends on roll call conditions tomorrow.” Carl exclaimed, “But what does roll call have to do with?” Eventually it was discovered that it was not roll call but the Japanese pronunciation of “local” which Is “rocal.” They have trouble with l’s, So goeth language, a great stumbling block between peoples, even between Oura and his countrymen. How pitifully difficult life is, even between those who try to “work together.”
The whole camp. especially the younger ones, are agog over the costume party tonight. Sheba and daughter tried to rule that those under 14 could not attend. It nearly precipitated a riot. June has dug up my green earrings, my turquoise chain and ring, my costume bracelets to wear with the cerise and Black Forest costume of country club days. She will wear the black apron
and black bridge square over her shoulders since the purple shawl with Cerise roses did not come in. I only hope Nida has it.
Someone said, “Don’t quote me but the news is a great naval battle between Formosa and the Marianas in the China Sea north of the Philippine Islands. The deciding battle, it is said.” Already the Japanese admit losing two battleships and a cruiser, say that they sank 11 carriers and much else of ours.
Mom says that what they have lost in possessions here is nothing compared to the clean sweep that the peacetime depression gave them. It wiped out the savings of years that they had put away for old age. They had to start all over again at the beginning. “But,” says Mom, “what are these losses—they are nothing compared to the mothers who have lost sons. We shouldn’t utter a word of complaint.”