The Leper Spy Read Online Free PDF

explosives over territory that had belonged to the United States since the 1898 Treaty of Paris—Clark Field to the northwest, Baguio to the north, Iba to the east, Del Carmen to the southeast—catching fleets of US airplanes, P-40s and P-35As and B-17s, on the ground, immobile, the jet fuel igniting and giving rise for the last time to flaming fuselages.
    Doors blew off hinges. Nipa huts disintegrated. Black sprays of sand climbed over the treetops. Flames sprinted across tarmac. The detonations came quick and cracked like short, sharp thunder, and towers of fire licked at the sky, then gave way to pillars of black smoke. The piers were burning. The docks were burning. Depots and hangars jumped from the earth and separated at the seams, and wafts of cordite filtered through the trees. The sky was a horde of white hornets. American soldiers, boots planted on shaking ground,fired .45-caliber pistols worthlessly into the air. The few planes that were scrambled came down as quickly as they had gone up. Guns lit up on Corregidor as enemy bombers passed to the east, out of range. Fire leaped across rice paddies and parade grounds and city streets. The Twenty-Sixth Cavalry, the last horse unit in the American army, the most professional and best-trained combat unit in the islands, advanced in long columns down Dewey Boulevard, northbound, their mounts rustling nervously in trailers with each new concussion, a prideful portrait of an impoverished strategy.
    The twelve-acre campus of the Ateneo de Manila was covered in festive bunting, and a band played in the schoolyard as the boys, out of class for the feast, gathered for Mass at noon in a state of confusion.
Was it true?
The American Jesuit fathers were searching for information themselves about the attacks outside the city.
    â€œI’ve just been informed that Fort Stotsenberg has been bombed,” the rector told the boys, interrupting Mass, “and that the United States has declared war on Japan.”
    Father Forbes Monaghan saw a newsboy run into the Ateneo with the morning paper as a throng gathered around. “State of war!” the boy shouted.
    Planes soon appeared over Manila, but the boys on the ground had trouble believing they were Japanese planes. The Japanese didn’t even make good toys, they thought. How could they build airplanes that could reach Manila? Some believed they were German planes being flown by German pilots. All day they came, whoever they were, and even though the city was under a forced blackout that night, the planes still roared in. The pilots used the shorelines of the Pasig River and Manila Bay as navigational tools and struck Nichols Field, just to the southeast of the city, and the Cavite naval base on Manila Bay. Maj. Gen. George Moore and the soldiers on Corregidor watched Cavite burn.
    When the sun came up, Father Monaghan watched the sky as thirty pursuit planes raced north to repel another attack on Clark Field. It was the first and last time he’d see them as a fighting organization. The next day, they were gone, just like the bomber fleets.
    US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the world what he knew, that the Empire of Japan had suddenly and deliberately attacked the United States at Hawaii, which was just one piece of a wild and surprising portrait of the Asian nation’s march across the Pacific. Yesterday they attacked Malaya, he said.
    Last night, Hong Kong.
    Last night, Guam.
    Last night, the Philippine Islands.
    Last night, Wake Island.
    This morning, Midway Island.
    â€œAs commander-in-chief of the army and navy,” he said, “I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”
    Quickly, the Philippine government activated reserve