Posted on 05/26/2005 8:12:52 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
Edited on 05/27/2005 12:51:25 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Just only a quick blurb in the top news segement today, but Mainichi News reports that two elderly Japanese men in their 80s have turned themselves into or otherwise presented themselves to Japanese authorities in the southern Philippines in Mindanao, apparantly "surrendering" or at least talking to them, after holding our for nearly 60 years in the Philippines following Japan's WWII defeat.
A remarkable story if true.
Japanese-language Mainichi news story is linked. It is unclear what their Imperial Army unit was, if they knew the war had ended, and other details. They were said to be talking now with Japanese officials in a hotel on the island of "General Santos".
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UPDATE!
The latest from what I can tell (3:00 a.m. Eastern Time Friday, May 27, 2005). And by the way, thank you for your kind comment.
A veteran of the Pacific War living in Saitama Prefecture in Japan, a "Teraishi san", who works with the War Survivor's Group, collects the remains of fallen Japanese soldiers. He is in his mid 80s.
He received a call from another man who is married to a woman in the Philipines, who was working to collect word in a forested area in Southern Mindanao. It was only yesterday that Terauchi received this international call from the Philippines which was rather frantic.
The woman had apparantly crossed into or had been in Muslim extremist controlled territory and had heard throught Moro fighters of the existence of "two elderly men from the Japanese army". Further, she got the information that they wanted to get out and passed it on to Japan, where it got to Terauchi.
Terauchi of course worked with the Japanese government who, through the Embassy in Philippines, to get the information.
There are still some survivors around from those days (much as WWII survivors are in the States), and they still look out for their own. Terauchi was in tears in the interview, saying the men were afraid of "Japanese Military Court Martial" if they returned to Japan, but of course he urges them to get back to Japan. This is from Yomiuri news. It is in Yomiuri, Mainichi, Fuji, NHK, Asahi, you name it.
I'll try to post any links to Japanese TV about this. The Moderate might also put (UPDATE) after this thread title if they could do so. Done.
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Families of the men in Japan are reported as amazed, shocked and ecstatic.
In the case of (Sgt?) Nakauchi, his sister thought he was dead all these years. She stated that even before the WWII ended, they received a report he was killed, and they even "received his remains" after wards (ikotsu, literally, 'bones') and had buried him and it was all behind them.
They even had a funeral service when the 'body' was returned to the town, but since it was not recognizable I suppose they would have no way of knowing. At any rate, they want the men home ASAP.
Yamakawa's brother said "he sure hung in there," and expressed the same thoughts.
Nakauchi's mother died some 23 years ago. The Japanese authorities had given notice to the family in June 1945 that Nakauchi had been killed. Nakauchi's relative said that if the mother were alive she would be very happy.
Nakauchi's 'gravesite' can even be visited in Kochi Prefecture. It just says his name and rank, and "June 15, 1944, Killed in the War, 28 years old" on it. By the way, I'm getting that the men apparantly are not both (83), but one I believe is 87 and the other 85--so the age might have been an inaccuracy.
War buddies of the two men, a few still around, such as one fellow in Hiroshima, a "Nagai" (84) only had reflective thoughts of how bloody their battles were and "well, that's amazing. 60 years. I want to say "yoku yatta" when he returns ('you really hung in there').
Another relative expressed some trepidation about returning after all these years, and the fact there may be Philippine families effected because (one or both, not sure) the men married locally there.
Let see what happens. The jury is still out. We report what we know at this point.
My question would be, when in that 60 year period did this go from noble to just plain stupid? How do you not notice for 60 years that the war is not still going on. You never hear gunfire, you never get resupplied, you see people going about their business without fear, and yet you continue to hide.
But one thing is sure. If alive, then they have definitely heard gunfire and know about fighting still going on all around them (MILF vs. PI Army, etc).....
MILFs are fighting? Do you have pictures demonstrating this?
There was a guy on an island in the Pacific who still thought the war was going on until 1972.
What's your interest? What's your angle?
Yes. Skepticism about the Japanese go-between grows.
You can read the story here: http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=338503
FR = FreeRepublic Your profile showed that you had just joined that day, so I was welcoming you here.
The rest of my reply will have to wait until it's not 3:45 am. :-)
Time flies when you're havin' fun!
Though I mean that humorously, there's also a side that might be true...if these guys are for real, perhaps they were deserters who were enjoying the local pleasures.
I've sent something also to the other poster. It would be helpful and considerate if you all could/would observe Freeper rules and argue this irrelevant point (re: this own thread) on some other thread elsewhere. Thanks.
Lose the tagline.
I still think they should do DNA testing, analysis and matching on the remains of "Sgt. Nakauchi" in Japan, and find out for sure. I think it would be easy, knowing how Japanese graves are easily opened and accessible (for ancestor worship purposes). I think a Shinto priest could purify the proceedings so nobody got the chills about possible ghosts being upset.
Thanks for following this thread and contributing so much to the discussion.
You had good reasons (to doubt). !
Material from Independent.co UK is not allowed. Thanks.
These publishers have asked us not to allow any material at all to be posted to FR:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts
" ... It doesn't matter if he's credible or not. The point is, we have to confirm the information. So long as there is information we have to confirm it," Shuhei Ogawa, press officer of the Japanese Embassy in Manila, told reporters."
Has everyone become like the American Democrat Party? ;)
What amazes me is that there are so many that take reports made in published articles, on any event, as being entirely true.
While most articles have some truth to them, rarely are they entirely truthful and devoid of the writers own prejiduces or mistaken interperetation of events as related to them by others.
One need only look at a reported event one has been intimately part of to observe that much was omitted, or misrepresented in some way.
Okay ... so I'm a pessimist. ;)
Recall that the Japanese during WWII were blood-thirsty, suicidal maniacs, much like the Isalmists of today. Both are/were ungodly cults needing a good dose of Christianity.
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