December 26 in diaries
The past as it was written up as it happened
A diarist and his diary in focus: Teodoro M. Locsin
At the time he wrote his diary, Teodoro M. Locsin was a young reporter for the Philippines Free Press, a publication he would eventually both lead and own after its founders retired. Eventually he published part of his wartime diary in the Free Press. It is a remarkable, literary, reflection on the first weeks of World War II in the Philippines. He would later become a guerrilla.
December 26, 1941
We are now reconciled –there were six alarms today– to having an air raid announce breakfast, serve lunch and interrupt dinner. One wonders at the indefatigable newsboys, undismayed by the news they cry, innocent of the meaning of the stuff they sell. Since the war began, there has been wedding after wedding in the city. How many of these marriages, contracted in the heady air of war, will survive the calm, slightly enervating air of peace? Well might you ask the livelong day. Reports of tanks rolling to meet the enemy thousands of miles away, in the Philippines, must now bring comfort to the isolationists. They had done their best to keep those tanks from getting here at all. We must have no hate or bitterness toward anyone –even Lindbergh. Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season, as the poet says.
The story persists that Filipino soldiers, most of whom came from the farm, just before going over the top inquire of their officers if they may fight in any way they choose.
“Fight any way you like.”
And the Filipino soldiers do –without shoes.
Today, Manila was declared an open city. All military centers have been destroyed and all soldiers withdrawn from the city. It is now armless and harmless. It has earned the right not to be bombed. It is no longer in the war. It has made what Hemingway called a separate peace. It is a little ashamed of it.
Elsewhere the military situation was regarded as completely under control. A military spokesman declared that our forces were not only holding their own but doing better, even, than had been expected. On the northern front, the action consisted mainly of artillery duels between the two forces. The enemy continued to bring up artillery to increase pressure on our line. In the southeast, from Atimonan to Mauban, the enemy continued to effect landings. Our forces advanced to prevent the enemy from using these beach-heads as bases for a blitz drive on Manila, which is entirely open, the spokesman said.
Turning from my desk at the office to look out of the window, I saw a tall column of smoke rising from one part of the city. The thick black smoke billowed into the serene sky, obscuring the morning sun which at moments shot through a rift in the smoke a shaft, such as you see slanting down from the glass window of a cathedral during an early Mass –of light.
One man said it was the National Development Company, which was only a block or two from my home. I thought of my books, which I had acquired, through so many denials, over a period of so many years. As the smoke continued to rise, I told myself my books were gone. I suddenly felt empty but free. I no longer gave a damn.
When, much later, I learned that the fire was across the river and home and my books were safe, I felt I had, by renouncing my goods in my mind, somehow saved them. I felt I had personally outwitted the enemy.
Coming home in the afternoon, I saw the sun like a white-hot coin shining through the smoke.
I am living now very much alone.
Read more about Teodoro M. Locsin and his diary.
Locsin’s is a civilian voice living through, and reacting to, the events of December, 1941: See our page on December 1941 in Diaries, which includes maps, documents, and a timeline.
See also: The cavalry and their last charge, December 1941-January 1942
December 26 in diaries:
1944: Filipinos: Gen. Basilio Valdes, chief of staff, Philippine Army; Felipe Buencamino III, former USAFFE officer; ; American military: Wendell Fertig (guerrillas); Arthur Shreve (POWs) ; American civilians: Albert Holland; Raymond Leyerly (UST);
1941: Filipino soldiers: Gen. Basilio Valdes, chief of staff, Philippine Army; ; American military personnel: Gen. Lewis Beebe, chief of staff of USAFFE; John P. Horan IV, USAFFE commander in Baguio; Capt. Kenneth Ranson; Cpl. Leo Arhutick; John P. Burns, pilot; Filipino and Spanish civilians: Fr. Juan Labrador, OP, rector of Colegio de San Juan de Letran; ; American and Allied civilians: Herman Beaber; Denny Williams; Gladys Savary; Elizabeth Lautzenhiser; Lucy Hardee Olsen; Paul Esmérian (in Manila and environs), Natalie Crouter (Baguio).
1935: Francis Burton Harrison, former governor-general, adviser to Pres. Quezon.
1931: Marcial Lichauco, member of OsRox Mission.
1899: Simeon Villa, and Santiago Barcelona, with the staff of Pres. Aguinaldo; Karl White, Iowa Volunteers; Ernest Dieball, 47th U.S.V. in Makati;
1898: Alberto Masoliver, S.J., Spanish Jesuit in Surigao; John E.T. Milsaps, American Salvation Army missionary; Alfred Burton Welch, Washington Volunteers; John Henry Asendorf, Pennsylvania Volunteers;
1906: Levi Case, officer in the Philippine Constabulary tasked with establishing Constabulary authority in Ifugao.