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Aboard ship on way to States by Carr Hooper

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  • On or about December 24 Manila was declared an open city by our forces and was most heavily bombed by the Japs. Observing our side of the declaration we began to burn oil and supplies and to secretly move all possible stores and personnel to Corrigidor and Bataan. Thousands of Japanese collaborators spread rumors of poisoned water, false air raids, and news, and sabotaged our efforts and the Japs kept on bombing the bay and river front, the piers, and airfields. Bombs were dropped in the business districts, new fires started, my wife escaped, direct hits on a building, the fire following, and the straffing and joined me for a Christmas Eve of blackness and gloom. On Christmas Day pamphlets were dropped showing the American flag draped about a death’s head. “Peace on Earth Good Will to Men” Was truly a mockery and we knew the Japs meant it when they said by radio and pamphlet that they’d be in Manila New Year’s Day. The next few days were repetitions of bombings, fires, and bad news. Our defending army had reached Bataan and had holed up and all military forces had left the city. So had Sayre, the High Commissioner, so had the ranking civil government officers, and people consumed with fear knew not where to turn for information or protection. A loose sectional grouping of Americans and British had been made with mass elected heads whose duty it was to seek advice and counsel from civil and military chiefs. The general advice was stay in our homes, destroy all personal firearms, pour out all liquors, and wait for occupation. This most of us did except some of the heads of these groups who remained either drunk or stupid and never did impart official advice as to what to do or expect.
Object
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).