4th March 1945
March 4, 1945
It started snowing in the middle of the afterward the air alarm was sounded. The combination seemed ominous after the heavy raid last month but
Leon Ma. Guerrero
(March 24, 1915 — June 24, 1982). Lawyer, journalist and diplomat. Served in USAFFE (later, USFIP) in the press relations staff, then assigned to Corregidor; upon surrender of USFIP and release from internment, served as a technical assistant to Jorge B. Vargas in the Philippine Executive Commission, then resumed broadcasting (station PIAM) under the same pseudonym he had used prior to the Japanese Occupation: Ignacio Javier. He then joined the diplomatic service of the Second Republic of the Philippines, assigned to the Philippine embassy in Tokyo under Jorge B. Vargas, ambassador.
5th March 1945
March 5, 1945
One of the Filipinos in Japan, in soliciting aid from the embassy as an air-raid victim, had a horror story to tell. Sometime ago he
6th March 1945
March 6, 1945
A Filipino who runs a restaurant in Tokyo gave me some estimates of current black market prices. In general, black market prices are 10 times
7th March 1945
March 7, 1945
The Manchu ambassador was a dinner guest at the embassy today. When dessert was served he waved it away. “I have been forbidden to eat
8th March 1945
March 8, 1945
On the 8th of every month, which is set aside all over Japan to commemorate the imperial rescript declaring war, Vargas pays his respects at
9th March 1945
March 9, 1945
This morning I saw the girls who work in the army offices and hotels on Kudan hill lined up in front of the Yasukuni gates.
10th March 1945
March 10, 1945
Shortly after midnight we were awakened by explosions nearby. We tried the lights but they would not go on so that we had apparently slept
11th March 1945
March 11, 1945
The diet was opened today as scheduled in spite of an air-raid signal that drove the members down to the basement. In the words of
12th March 1945
March 12, 1945
The situation in Indo-China was “clarified” by Koiso at the diet yesterday. It seems that “because the authorities of the government of French Indo-China came
13th March 1945
March 13, 1945
For once a foreign office circular has arrived on time. Yesterday all diplomatic missions were requested to warn their nationals to stay out of the
14th March 1945
March 14, 1945
The stories in this mountain village of Miyanoshita about the great raid on Tokyo are vastly exaggerated. Distance has multiplied all figures and one old
15th March 1945
March 15, 1945
Fixing up the transfer of our rations from the Nonomiya I finally got a concrete idea of what is done for those who have lost
16th March 1945
March 16, 1945
The roads out of Tokyo are crowded with refugees, each with his bundle strapped to his back. The last raid has done more to push
17th March 1945
March 17, 1945
Imperial headquarters has announced that the Americans have suffered 25,000 casualties on Yiojima and to those who can read between the lines it is plain
18th March 1945
March 18, 1945
We could scarcely believe our ears when we heard that we could order eggs from a Japanese acquaintance in the country for only 81 sen
19th March 1945
March 19, 1945
The emperor visited the bombed areas of Tokyo yesterday. The newspapers were reverentially brief and circumspect in announcing the event. No one asked him how
20th March 1945
March 20, 1945
The train to Odawara was crowded with refugees and so was the neat little tourist tram to Miyanoshita. One young evacuee girl was making friends
21st March 1945
March 21, 1945
The Times today carried two remarkable stories, both hand-outs of the military press corps. The first comes from Yiojima. “With the fighting on Yiojima reaching
22nd March 1945
March 22, 1945
In a communique dated noon yesterday imperial general headquarters announced the loss of Yiojima. The announcement quoted the last telegram from the garrison: “All the
23rd March 1945
March 23, 1945
Saipan led to Yiojima and Yiojima may lead to the mainland, warned the Mainichi today. Apparently in preparation for invasion the vice-minister officer, Shibayama, in
24th March 1945
March 24, 1945
Let no one say afterward that the Japanese did not know what was coming. After Saipan, Yiojima; after Yiojima, Okinawa; at least that is the
25th March 1945
March 25, 1945
Returning to Tokyo we passed household after household on the move, aboard trucks, ox-carts, bicycle trailers. One truck provided a typical Japanese note: on top
26th March 1945
March 26, 1945
While the Asahi revealed that an American fleet had bombarded the Ryukyu islands on the 23rd and launched heavy raids on Okinawa in particular on
27th March 1945
March 27, 1945
The forcible “spacing” of houses has now extended to the vicinity of my colleagues’ house in Yotsuya. Their place was saved from condemnation and destruction
28th March 1945
March 28, 1945
After treating the American operations in the so-called southwest islands as a passing raid, imperial headquarters has now announced an actual landing on the Okinawa
29th March 1945
March 29, 1945
The foreign office has asked for the return of all diplomatic travel permits. They are to be curtailed. Waiting for a train connection I sat
30th March 1945
March 30, 1945
“The fighting spirit of the people is not unlimited,” warns the Mainichi today. After enumerating Japan’s successive reverses in the recent past, the paper asks:
31st March 1945
March 31, 1945
A French countess, sitting beside me in the elegant foyer of the Fujiya, apologized for the paper package beside her. “It doesn’t smell so nice,”
1st April 1945
April 1, 1945
Shopping idly in the luxury curio shops in Miyanoshita I was surprised to see that all the silver and tortoise-shell cigarette cases were gone. I
2nd April 1945
April 2, 1945
The American landing on the main Okinawa island yesterday has been announced and all the vernaculars are howling for a decisive victory. The Yomiuri is