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November 14, 1944

Enemy aircraft awakened me more efficiently than my alarm would have done at 2:45 a.m. I looked out of my window and saw that the sky above the entire Manila Bay area was aglow with a dazzling light. Apparently, our bombers were on the job, for the heavy aircraft guns kept up a continual barking. I wanted to stay by my window and watch the show, but it was time to go on duty.

By seven-twenty-five, I was off duty and just barely made it to my room when the siren went into action. A few seconds later, we heard the smooth hum of more than a hundred of our bombers, and when a few of them flew low over our buildings, we danced with joy.

Our bombers returned on an average of every thirty-five minutes throughout the day, and they concentrated their bombs on the enemy ships in the harbor.

The deafening detonations of our bombs were music to our ears, and no vitamin B or blood plasma could have been as efficacious as the lift we received from watching our bombers in action.

By 7 P.M., most of us were in bed. We were utterly exhausted, happy, and hopeful that liberation was just around the corner.