"What the hell?" Weston asked.
"Turn it over, Mr. Weston," Everly said. Weston did so.
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL
UNITED STATES FORCES IN THE PHILIPPINES
MINDANAO-VISAYAN FORCE IN THE FIELD
1 OCTOBER 1942
PROCLAMATION
1. By virtue of the power invested in me, the undersigned, as senior representative of the United States Government and the Philippine Commonwealth, herewith assumes command.
2. A state of martial law is declared for the duration of the war.
BY ORDER OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL
Wendell W. Fertig
Brigadier General, USA
Commanding
DISTRIBUTION:
To all commanding officers, USFTP
To all Provincial Governors
To all Provincial Officials
To all Justice of the Peace Courts
File
"What the hell is this?" "I found it nailed to a telephone pole." "You think it's for real?" Everly pointed to the Mexican bandit. "He says he can take us there."
"And you believe him? This thing isn't even printed, mimeographed. It's typed. On the back of a tax-due bill."
"Our luck has got to turn sometime," Everly said. "What have we got to lose?"
[TWO]
Cagayan de Oro
Misamis-Oriental Province
Mindanao, Commonwealth of the Philippines
1225 Hours 10 October 1942
The headquarters of the Military Governor of Mindanao had been established in the prewar combined City Hall of Cagayan de Oro and the Provincial Capi-tol of Oriental Province.
It was a three-story redbrick building of a vaguely Colonial style, and it was relatively new, built from plans first drawn for the Works Progress Ad-ministration in the United States. (The WPA was instituted during the early years of F. D. Roosevelt's presidency, in the belief that government building projects-roads, post office buildings, etc.-would provide employment for the unemployed and "prime the pump" of the depressed American economy.)
A Japanese flag-a red ball on a white background-flew from a flagpole mounted on top of the building. And the flags of the Imperial Japanese Army and the personal flag of a brigadier general, in stands, stood at either side of the main double-door entrance to the building.
A slate-gray 1940 Lincoln V-12 sedan came down what was still MacArthur (after the first General MacArthur) Boulevard and pulled into one of the four reserved parking places in front of the building.
Captain Matsuo Saikaku stepped out of the Lincoln and walked briskly up the shallow flight of stairs to the doors, returned the salute of the somewhat rumpled guard, and entered the building.
Captain Saikaku was twenty-four; and, at nearly six feet and 180 pounds, he was somewhat larger than the average Japanese officer. He was wearing neatly starched and pressed khakis, a tieless blouse and trousers, and well-shined shoes (rather than boots and puttees). A Sam Browne belt held a cap-tured U.S. Army Model 1911 Al Colt.45 ACP pistol in a U.S. Army holster. A large, highly polished chrysanthemum, symbol of Imperial Japan, was attached to the flap of the holster, almost entirely concealing the letters "U.S."
Captain Saikaku was less than pleased with the performance of the Lin-coln. It ran roughly at slow speeds and often stalled, but he blamed such things more on the low-quality gasoline he had to use than any design failure of the car. Though Saikaku detested Americans, and most things American, he was willing to acknowledge they produced some fine products-in his view the Colt was a much better weapon than the Japanese Nambu pistol. And they made the finest automobiles in the world. He considered the slate-gray V-12 Lincoln to be one of the best of the best.
He clearly remembered his first encounter with a Lincoln V-12 sedan. It was a 1939 model, but essentially identical to the one he had impressed for his official use from an official-now a detainee-of the First National City Bank of New York office in Cagayan de Oro. It was parked in front of the Foster Waikiki Beach Hotel in Honolulu, where Saikaku was employed as a gardener.
His opinion then and now was that it was both pleasing aesthetically and a mechanical masterpiece. And, he believed, it was a car in keeping with his status. He would have to do something about the way it ran-he had been won-dering if aviation gasoline, or a mixture of regular and aviation gasolines, would improve performance-but he was determined to keep the car.
He was aware that Lieutenant Colonel Tange Kisho, who had impressed a Buick Super for his official use, was somewhat annoyed to learn that a Lincoln was a more prestigious car than a Buick Super. Lieutenant Colonel Tange was the senior of the seven Kempeitai officers attached to the Office of the Military Governor of Mindanao, and Captain Saikaku's superior officer. (The Kem-peitai-Secret Police-was roughly the Japanese equivalent of the German Gestapo. Although members of the Kempeitai were, in a sense, soldiers, as they came under the jurisdiction of the War Ministry and bore military ranks, they were essentially autonomous and were not directly subordinate to the local military commander.)
Brigadier General Kurokawa Kenzo, the Military Governor, was chauffeured about in a 1940 Cadillac sedan Saikaku had impressed for him from an official of the Dole Pineapple Corporation.
General Kenzo was pleased not only with his Cadillac but with Captain Saikaku's thoughtfulness in finding it for him. It was not the sort of behavior General Kenzo expected from any Kempeitai officer, and especially not from one he knew to be the son of the first cousin of General Tojo Hideki.
Lieutenant Colonel Tange had come into the Kempeitai from the Nagasaki Police Prefecture, and was a reserve officer. Captain Saikaku believed that it didn't hurt at all to remind Lieutenant Colonel Tange that he himself was a regular officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, seconded to the Kempeitai, and a first cousin, once removed, of General Tojo, who was second in power in Japan only to his Imperial Majesty Emperor Hirohito.
Captain Saikaku thought it not unlikely that when his assignment to the Kempeitai Detachment to the Military Governor of Mindanao was over, Lieu-tenant Colonel Tange would write an enthusiastic efficiency report on him, suggesting that he was highly deserving of promotion.
Lieutenant Colonel Tange occupied the former office of the Mayor of Cagayan de Oro, to the right of the entrance foyer; and General Kurokawa Kenzo was in the office of the former Provincial Governor, to the left. Saikaku entered Tange's outer office, ignored Tange's sergeant, and walked to Tange's open door.
"Good afternoon, Colonel," he said, saluting with something less than great precision. Then he walked inside and bowed, quickly, from the waist.
"This, Captain Saikaku, has come to my attention," Lieutenant Colonel Tange said. "I would be very interested in your opinion of it."
He handed Saikaku a sheet of paper on which was typewritten Brigadier General Wendell Fertig's assumption of command and declaration of martial law proclamation.
Lieutenant Colonel Tange spoke English, but not as well as Captain Saikaku, who had studied the language for six years and then perfected it while a young lieutenant working for more than a year as a laborer in Hawaii.
"The name is not familiar to me," Tange said. "And, I checked, it is not on the roster of prisoner officers."