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Unconfirmed: Two Living, Ex-Japanese Soldiers Found in Philippines (Mindanao)
Mainichi News in Tokyo (in Japanese) (linked) ^ | 26 May 2005 | Mainichi Shimbun in Japan (in Japanese)

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]

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To: King Prout
wierd... just last week I was asking my stepdad when the last such surrender occured...

The only case I know of was in 1974 where one soldier did surrender. I remember reading it in "The People's Almanac #2" but I have to hunt the story down. I did a quick google and I found these on the case I'm referring to:

Second Leiutenant Hiroo Onoda
http://home.xnet.com/~warinner/surrender.html

If this story is true, it would be fascinating and I would love to hear the experiences these guys have to tell. I know there is an old joke, "there is always one man in the unit that has never heard the orders" but dang, this takes the cake. B-)
81 posted on 05/26/2005 8:55:12 AM PDT by Nowhere Man (Lutheran, Conservative, Neo-Victorian/Edwardian, Michael Savage in '08! - DeCAFTA-nate CAFTA!)
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To: Spktyr

They must have finally gotten ronry, so ronry.

It might be a true story. Maybe... 60 years is a long time to E&E in a jungle.


82 posted on 05/26/2005 8:57:33 AM PDT by ex 98C MI Dude (Our legal system is in a PVS. Time to remove it from the public feeding trough.)
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To: jec41
General area:

General Santos, on the tip of Mindanao in the south.

83 posted on 05/26/2005 8:58:40 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (**AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT IS NOT SO MUCH "WHO" WE STAND FOR, BUT RATHER "WHAT" WE STAND FOR**)
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To: Nowhere Man

see post 43 for Japanese Holdout Registry


84 posted on 05/26/2005 8:58:54 AM PDT by 11th_VA
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To: July 4th
"2 ex-Japanese soldiers may be on Mindanao!

Mindanao! Maybe we could tell them that Abu Sayyaf is at war with Japan and get a few kamikazis of our own!!

85 posted on 05/26/2005 9:01:35 AM PDT by cookcounty ("We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts" ---Abe Lincoln, 1858.)
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To: 11th_VA

They were on Mindoro and engaged a patrol of Philippine Marines when I lived there. www.wanpela.com

March 5, 1974 - Lubang Island - 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda
Probably the most 'famous' of the Japanese holdouts, Onoda was the only survivor of a group of four. He surrendered 29 years after Japan's formal surrender, and 15 years after being declared legally dead in Japan. When he accepted that the war was over, he wept openly.

April 1980 - Captain Fumio Nakahira on Mindoro
Captain Fumio Nakahira of the Japanese Imperial Army, held out before being discovered at Mt. Halcon in Mindoro.

January 1997 - 85 Year old Sangrayban discovered on Mindoro
"WAR IS OVER An 85-year-old Japanese soldier has been found on the Philippine island of Mindoro. Going under the name of Sangrayban, he had been living among the Mangyan tribe for 54 years. He had a wife from the tribe who had given him four children and he was in very good health, according to Rufino Baldo, a member of a team searching for such Japanese stragglers. On Mindoro, Sangrayban was one of a group of soldiers who landed on the island in 1943 with orders "not to surrender under any circumstances". He thought that American leaflets dropped over the island in 1945 declaring that the war was over were a propaganda trick. After his companions died, he went native, living among the Mangyan tribe for 54 years. He married a Mangyan women and had four children. He has blocked out all his memories of pre-WWII Japan, but he still speaks an old fashioned form of Japanese. When discovered, he was in "very good health". He does not want to leave his sick wife and is unlikely to return to Japan." NOTE - This story was later proved to be a hoax.



86 posted on 05/26/2005 9:01:56 AM PDT by colonialhk (sooprize sooprize sooprize)
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To: raygun

ping


87 posted on 05/26/2005 9:02:48 AM PDT by cyclotic (Cub Scouts-Teach 'em young to be men, and politically incorrect in the process)
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To: AmericanInTokyo

Maybe the Dems could use these guys for the upcoming Big Filibuster.


88 posted on 05/26/2005 9:03:39 AM PDT by cookcounty ("We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts" ---Abe Lincoln, 1858.)
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To: dd5339

ping!


89 posted on 05/26/2005 9:03:47 AM PDT by Vic3O3 (Jeremiah 31:16-17 (KJV))
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To: jec41
You are right.

The Islamofascist kids of 2005 giving us a few headaches, are pitiful amateurs--they will be slaughtered to the last Koran-hugging, stinking, filthy one of them -- and indeed they are NOTHING compared to the old Japanese codgers who have still the bushido concepts of both the sword and the spirt, of 'giri', 'gaman' and 'jiko gisei'.

90 posted on 05/26/2005 9:04:00 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (**AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT IS NOT SO MUCH "WHO" WE STAND FOR, BUT RATHER "WHAT" WE STAND FOR**)
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To: AmericanInTokyo

They probably decided to finally surrender when they saw the Republicans cave on the filibuster.


91 posted on 05/26/2005 9:04:45 AM PDT by JewishRighter
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To: AmericanInTokyo

Marking for update.

Wow.


92 posted on 05/26/2005 9:06:30 AM PDT by Ramius
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To: Spktyr
"when you're out of..."

There were expected to be very resourceful.

I'm sure that they could have found a knife, broken bottle or a rusted can to disembowel themselves.

Oh, the shame of being captured would have been too much.

93 posted on 05/26/2005 9:12:21 AM PDT by Deguello
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To: AmericanInTokyo

I hope they bought Sony and Toshiba back in '45...


94 posted on 05/26/2005 9:13:01 AM PDT by Pharmboy ("Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God")
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To: Defiant
I'm wondering if these aren't just guys who deserted and got a native girl and a hut and settled down, and who now want to go home.

And couldn't afford a plane ticket. Sounds reasonable to me.

95 posted on 05/26/2005 9:13:37 AM PDT by wyattearp (The best weapon to have in a gunfight is a shotgun - preferably from ambush.)
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To: Air Conditioned Gypsy

96 posted on 05/26/2005 9:15:48 AM PDT by adam_az (It's the border, stupid!)
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To: Bluegrass Conservative
the French who surrender in 60 seconds

Taking that long to surrender would make someone the French equivalent of the Japanese soldiers who holed up for decades on end.

97 posted on 05/26/2005 9:18:10 AM PDT by steve-b (A desire not to butt into other people's business is eighty percent of all human wisdom)
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To: AmericanInTokyo

The Bataan Death March began at Mariveles on April 10, 1942. Let's let these B@$tards reenact it.


98 posted on 05/26/2005 9:18:59 AM PDT by Temple Owl (19064)
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To: Defiant
I'm wondering if these aren't just guys who deserted and got a native girl and a hut and settled down, and who now want to go home.

I suspect it's a combination of the two -- they holed up, didn't find out about the end of the war until years after the fact, and then decided to just stay where they were and are only now changing their minds (because they're feeling too old to survive unassisted?).

99 posted on 05/26/2005 9:20:45 AM PDT by steve-b (A desire not to butt into other people's business is eighty percent of all human wisdom)
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To: Spktyr

If past incidents are any example, they will be cleaned up, fixed up by the medics, issued new replicas of their original period uniforms, and flown to Japan, where the Emperor will order them to surrender. The surrender will be taken by the highest ranking US officer in Japan, and that will be pretty much it.

If true, they followed their last orders (go guerilla, resist the Americans, fight on for the Emperor) for over 50 years. They will be treated with honor and dignity by our military throughout the process. Remember, these are Japan's MIAs.

Yes, and the example they provide of fidelity to Duty, Honor, and Country, should be highly respected.

100 posted on 05/26/2005 9:21:02 AM PDT by Kretek (WPPFF)
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