Evening star., 1943-06-03
CHAPTER, 4.

S1AF ELY z.
Rus Brines was already in the
Office with Cronin,' and we discussed
plans for covering the war. We
denated whether we should enlist
but decided we would be more USE
full in our own jobs
When Manila bestirred itself and
awakened, shortly after sunrise, the
people of the city could not believe
their eyes when they read the news
paper extras nor their ears when
their radios repeated over and over
Japan attacks America"
They had known how intolerably
tense the situation had become, they
had known that the United States
and Japan were deadlocked with no
solution in sight, but it was in
credible that the lightning had
struck so soon.
From our Office we telephoned the
cable companies. Up to $50 in the
morning they still had contact with
Guam. The Guam manager re-
ported: Many Japanese planes are
attacking us. We have been in and
out of our shelter since 6 o'clock.
Our small forces are still fighting
but the japanese have landed and
are advancing. This can't last long"
I knew that the Japanese we're
very we'll acquainted with Gaum.
Two years before, at a press con-
ference in the navy Office in Toxic
smiling Rear Admiral Kanazawa
had contested the statement by
American correspondents thatsGuam
was of no military value. That was
during the controversy in the Amer
lean Congress over whether Guam
should be fortified or not. Congress
was afraid of offending Japan, so
the project was dropped. Kanazawa
had taken his pencil and rapidly
sketched the principal harbor of
Guam. 1T is an ideal harbor," he
said. The depth here is Is fathoms,
there 30 fathoms. BY simply blast
ing the coral heads here" he
pointed to a place on his map
there will be ample room for ships
of all sizes"
The cable companies got a few
tlief messages from Hong Kong.
The japanese were attacking over
land from Kowloon and bombing
the Hong Kong waterfront.
A message sent by Jimmy White
came in from Shanghai 1t ended
abruptly in the middle of SEN
tence. 1t said Japanese seized In
ternational Settlement U. S. S. Wake
captured in Whangpoo stop heavy
machine-gun firing audible from
Buna British gunboat went down
with guns blazing under"
An urgent press message came
from Davao. japanese planes we're
bombing the city, the most impor-
tant on the southern Philippine
island Of Mindanao. One Japanese
plane had been shot down. An
American Navy ply had gone down
In flames. The ancient aircraft ten
der Langley had been attacked.
The attack on Davao had been
long planned by the Japanese and
carefully prepared. No less than
$4,000 Japanese had settled there,
prior to the prewar immigration re-
strictions, and some 1000 of them
were said to be of military age and
japanese army reservists. They were
rumored to have been armed.
When we learned that the Japs
had also bombed Singapore we real
lied for the first time the magnitude
of the attack.
Then, in midmorning, the war
suddenly came closer. Our CORE
spondent telephoned from the
mountain resort and summer capital
Of Baguio, only 125 miles to the
north of Manila. japanese planes
had bombed Camp John Hay, which
they evidently thought vas a big
barracks, but was actually recup-
GRAFTON camp. An American wom-
an and her baby were among the
nine victims
MacArthur's headquarters tele-
phoned. The general issued a mes