I was in the Navy and stationed on Guam when this guy finally surrendered. A few years before him, a similar occurrence happened on Guam.
RIP.
My uncle spent a better part of a year lost on a Japanese held island. People who knew him before and after say that in a lot of ways he he never came back.
Well, he wasn’t “kempeitai” (military thought police), or equivalent to either SS, or a Party political officer embedded in a Soviet military unit or USSR submarine such as from the Frunze Academy, but just an average young Japanese man sent off to war, with a sense of patriotism and giving his all for his country, flag and Emperor. If he committed no atrocities on civilians (or US military for that matter), and stayed loyal to his own side as a military man to that extent, I say, even if on the enemy side at the time, yes, it was HEROIC and ADMIRABLE and we would want our US men in the field to equally avoid capture to this extent. This is called basic “escape and evasion tactics” and anyone trained in the military knows it. This man carried it to incredible lengths. He was indeed samurai (or at least true to the Code of Bushido).
War is over, if you want it.
Finally.
I have his book. Interesting read.
Something tells me the Grim Reaper had his hands full on this one.
An interesting story not worthy of celebration nor admiration.
There was a Three’s Company where the kids are hired to clear out an overgrown lot. Jack says, “Man, that brush is thick! I kept thinking I’d find a Japanese still fighting the war!”