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Memoirs of Ruth Hooper

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  • wcu_ww2-451.jp2
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  • who for one family (German Jews) would always know exactly the time the bombs would drop and where. This particular family was never interned but were permitted to live in Manila. Even then one had to be careful and keep mouth shut and thoughts tucked away. The days were about the same except the day when our office force failed to get away from the building, or the Japanese came to drop their bombs early. Our building was in the Port Area and the Japanese were trying to sink the ships that were tied up at the piers unloading cargo. We had two direct hits and had to flee from the burning building. There was a Filipina girl who did all my typing that had to be done in Spanish and who went into hysterics with fear. I grabbed her by the hand and started running. The doorways were filled with people who had been working in the area and had tried to find safety. We had to walk over them, many were dead and others very badly mangled. We ran and ran, not knowing where to go as the Japanese planes were still overhead and dropping bombs. We finally reached a trench dub by and full of American soldiers. They led us into the trench, one of them taking off his cartridge belt for me to sit on and by that time I certainly needed to sit. We stayed there until the all-clear siren was sounded and then they took us home. Carr was in the downtown area and had seen our building in flames. He tried to get a taxi to come see about me. Of course, there was none to be had so he walked. When he got there he walked in and around the smoking ruins, blistering his feet, but no one he found in the vicinity could tell him anything. He said the odor from the bombs was something else. When he was unable to find out anything he walked back to our quarters. That was some day! I can’t remember the dates, it has been so long ago, but Christmas came and Manila was still being bombed daily. I picked a time of day when
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).