Evening star., 1943-06-03
They Call Ii Pacific
by CLARK LEE:

sage of Serenity and confidence" to
the people of the Philippines. His
forces were on the alert and pre-
pared to fight off attack.
The spokesman arranged to meet
the press at II am, so I went over
to headquarters at Fort Santiago
IN the Walled City. MacArthur's
spokesman met us in a small room.
He was Maj. lie Grande A. Diller.
Diller arranged for two daily press
conferences, and for the issuance of
credentials. There was not much
news as yet. He told us to come
back at pm.
War came home to most Ma
nllans that morning when the air
raid siren blew for the first time.
Until the first bombs dropped the
following night everybody was more
curious than scared when the air
raid alarm sounded. The police and
street patrols had difficulty in keep
Ing people from poking their noses
out of doorways and windows.
Throughout that first day Of the
war. press kilograms kept pouring
in to the Manila Bulletin office. The
first Japs set foot on Philippine soil
IN the Bataan Islands north of
Luzon. They first landed at Aparri
on Luzon two days later and quickly
overcame units of the Philippine
constabulary, which withdrew to the
south. Even when the Japs landed |
at Aparri, which was $50 miles from
Manila over rough country, nobody
worried very much.
There was not much fear because
everybody thought the Jap planes
would come over Manila and our
boys would knock them out and it
would be pretty as hell to watch.
We said to each other: The minute
that first bomb fell on Pearl Harbor
the United States got moving. From
all over the United States those big
bombers are flying to San Fran
cisco. They'll hop to Hawaii and
then on down to Australia and up
here. They'll be here within a week.
The aircraft carries will ferry pur-
suit planes out from Hawaii"
At pm. that first day I went
back to USAFFT headquarters. Mai. |
Dlller looked serious. He said, Jap
anese planes which bombed Aparri |
this morning and later bombed Tu- |
guegarao continued on the way to
Manila. They were met and turned
back at II this morning by fighters
from Clark Field.
However. at about l this after
noon Clark Field was badly bombed.
Many planes were destroyed and it
appears that casualties were heavy"
We asked for further details.
L don't have any" he said. There
is only one telephone line to Clark
Field and that has been cut |
That disturbed me. I said to Mel |
Jacoby of Time, Haven't these
people ever heard of the radio or
the automobile? Can't they send
up there and find out what hap
pened?" OF course, the fact was
that Macarthur and Diller and the
others at headquarters knew the |
truth, but it was too grim for public |.
dissemination at that time
At 6 in the evening a very scared
Manila physician came into our
Office at the Bulletin. He had been
driving past Clark Field. Il saw
planes diving through the sky and
heard explosions. I thought it was
practice. Then I saw planes blazing
on the ground and a wounded man
ran past me and crawled into
ditch and plane came down and
sprayed the road with machine gun
bullets. Santa Maria, I was terri
fed"
X X X
His story precipitated our first
skirmish in what was to be three
weeks battle with the Navy censor
ship. The censorship had been set
up early in the morning, after news
Of Pearl Harbor. and was operated
by naval reservists who had no ex-
perience in their jobs.
We wanted, especially, to report
that our soldiers were clamoring for
~ *'.'....... Y. ...'''''''