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boys objected, begging to be allowed to go to the front and fight as a united battalion. But the officer insisted, and slowly, grudgingly, the boys dispersed. Their day was to come, fighting as guerrillas in the hills and city streets, but many cried in that somber moment.
    On the morning of Christmas Eve, Moore learned that MacArthur and his family, USAFFE headquarters staff, and Philippine president Manuel Quezon and his family would all be on Corregidor by nightfall. The newspapers and radio stations were declaring Manila an “open city,” suggesting US and Filipino troops would not try to defend it against attack. The Filipinos wondered what had happened to their great American military leader.
    If this wasn’t retreat, what was it?
    The commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Expeditionary Forces to the Philippines would issue the first of several draconian warnings, sending fear pulsing through Filipino society.
    Notice
    1. The Japanese Armed Forces wishes to share the well-beings with the officials and people of the native land.
    Wait the arrivals of the Japanese troops with confidence and ease. Regardless of the nationality, no one is necessary to flee.
    2. Making resistance or taking the hostile actions against the Japanese Armed Forces, in any manner, leads the whole native land into the ashes. Therefore everyone should come under the protection of the Japanese Armed Forces without seeing even one drop of blood, and should continue daily business as usual.
    3. Anyone who falls under the any of the followings will be considered as the interfering of the well-beings of the native peoples, and therefore be subject to the death penalty. Be aware of not commiting any of said crime.
    (1) Those who show hostility against the Japanese Armed Forces.
    (2) Those who jeopardize or break any existing means in politics, economics, industry, transportation, communication, financials, and etc.
    (3) Those who disturb the thoughts of the officials and peoples.
    (4) Any actions disturbing the economic and financial status.
    Those who report to the Japanese Forces any flagrant offence or preventing of any said crime will be rewarded by the Japanese Armed Forces.
    C OMMANDER - IN -C HIEF
    T HE J APANESE A RMED F ORCE

 7 
ENVELOPE
    T he woman in the black dress called out to the young priest as he strolled around the Ateneo de Manila compound. He turned to see a diminished human being, her head and arms covered by a veil. She waved. He waved back and kept walking.
    She called out once more, and he spun around. He’d given his last peso to a beggar at the Ateneo gates the day before, and there was little hope of getting any more. He hesitated. She beckoned him to come closer. When he did, he could see that the veil covered open sores on her arms, face, and legs.
    â€œAre you Padre Hulian?” she asked.
    â€œI’m Father Fred Julien,” he replied. “Possibly you are looking for a Jesuit priest of the same or a similar name.”
    Father Julien hadn’t been in Manila long, certainly not long enough to be recognized on the street. He wasn’t supposed to be in the Philippines. Newly ordained, he had taken a train from his hometown of Albany, New York, across the country to San Francisco, and then boarded the SS
President Grant,
bound for Burma, where his band of La Salette fathers were starting a mission. They’d brought along six packing crates full of provisions—enough, they hoped, to last ten years in Burma. But the fathers noticed something strange after a short stop in Hawaii. The
Grant
was suddenly part of a five-ship convoy that was entirely blacked out at night,and a spotter plane came and went from a cruiser escort each day. Close to Guam, the entire convoy made a sharp turn for Manila, where it arrived on December 7, which was December 6 in Hawaii. The next day, after Father Julien said Mass, the captain of the
Grant
announced that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He told