| 1939 World's Fair catalog | There was a picture in that catalog of the dancer Sally Rand. I remembered her when some thirty years later, she was a patient of mine. |
| Fifth column | Group within a country secretly aiding a foreign enemy attack The term originated in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War, when General Mola boasted that Franco supporters were attacking Madrid with four columns and that they had a 'fifth column' inside the city. |
| Bomb | Any explosive was called a "bomb" whether is was an aerial, a howitzer, a land mine, or a booby trap. |
| Caucasians in Ermita | A reminder to the reader that Joseph is only part Filipino. Although his father was Filipino, his mother was a Caucasian American. |
| Death March | A brutal march of Filipino and American troops after the final battle of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1942. |
| Jap | Term used during the war in reference to the Japanese military. It has a perjorative connotation, and my use is only in the context of the times. I do not intend to extend this term to Japanese Americans, who were shamefuly treated by and yet served their country bravely and loyally. They were the most highly decorated Americans in World War II. |
| Kempei (Kempeitai) | Japanese military police - equivalent of the Nazi Gestapo in many respects including the fear they invoked in their victims. |
| Pierre Laval and Vidkun Quisling | Pierre Laval and Vidkun Quisling, were particularly notorious Nazi collaborationists. Laval as a Frenchman and Quisling was a Norwegian. |
| Manila Hotel | The premier hotel in Manila at the time that war broke out. My sister told me we got water from the pool of the British Officers' Club and not the Manila Hotel. I remain true to my memory anyway. She may be right. The Japanese officer told my mother we were going to the Manila Hotel. In all honesty, I kept dodging shell fire and did not pause to read the sign on the entrance. |
| Surviving during the Japanese Occupation (see reference to same in another account) | |
| Tuberculosis | To pretend to be inflicted with this disease, you would bite your tongue and cough. A little frothy spit with blood could save your life. |
| Insanity | Rotate your head, bend spine. Use a bastardized mumbling language. Tagalog, English and an occasional Japanese word help. If you only use one Japanese word, use "baka" ("stupid"; the U.S. Navy called Japanese made, human piloted missiles used near the conclusion of the war, "baka bombs"). |
| White Russian | A Russian who supported the Czar against the Bolsheviks. I believe the White Russians who resided in the Philippines had escaped through Manchuria. |