1972 Japanese soldier found hiding on Guam

[underpants]

This Day In History | General Interest

January 24

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=general&month=10272953&day=10272989



After 28 years of hiding in the jungles of Guam, local farmers discover Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant who was unaware that World War II had ended.

Guam, a 200-square-mile island in the western Pacific, became a U.S. possession in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. In 1941, the Japanese attacked and captured it, and in 1944, after three years of Japanese occupation, U.S. forces retook Guam. It was at this time that Yokoi, left behind by the retreating Japanese forces, went into hiding rather than surrender to the Americans. In the jungles of Guam, he carved survival tools and for the next three decades waited for the return of the Japanese and his next orders. After he was discovered in 1972, he was finally discharged and sent home to Japan, where he was hailed as a national hero. He subsequently married and returned to Guam for his honeymoon. His handcrafted survival tools and threadbare uniform are on display in the Guam Museum in Agana.

[Hugin]

1. A fascinating story...

It's similar to how I headed into the desert after the SCOTUS proclaimed the
High Lord and Master of the United States.

Ummm... Is it safe for me to come out now?

[underpants]

3. Hold on let me check

"It's amazing that people say to me, `Well, he's just breaking the law," the president said, with Roberts sitting behind him on stage at Kansas State University. "If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x217691

Not just yet

[Hugin]

4. I'm getting tired of making my own clothes...

I make outstanding prickly-pear jam, however.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. I remember this episode from Gilligan's Island

[BikeWriter]

5. He has since died.

Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese imperial army straggler who lived in the jungles of Guam for 28 years after World War II ended, died at 5:07 pm Monday Sept 22, 1997 of heart failure at JR Tokai General Hospital in Nagoya Japan. He was 82.
http://ns.gov.gu/scrollapplet/sergeant.html

[Strong Atheist]

6. Yeah, seen this before. What an idiot. nt.

[tuckessee]

7. Here's a website with a list of "Holdouts".

http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/registry.html

Tops has to be 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda who finally surrendered on March 5, 1974 on Lubang Island in the Philippines. Unlike most holdouts who simply faded into the jungle, Onoda continued the war by sallying forth every now and then for some raiding, ambushing & looting up until the Seventies. He still had functional weapons when he finally surrendered.