Possible WWII "Vets" found on Philippines.

[BlackScorpion 0]

BBC News article.

Quote[/b] ]

'Japan soldiers' found in jungle

Japanese officials are investigating claims that two men living in jungle in the Philippines are Japanese soldiers left behind after World War II.

[Billabong81 0]

Pretty amazing. And they are living with Muslim rebels. Kinda strange eh?

[Nemesis6 0]

We'll have to see, and I want to know if this is true or not.

[Victor_S. 0]

Ive heard stories like this before. Like 20 years back they found a guy in the philippines or some where. I think he was japanese. Any ways they found him because he had been shooting at some of the people around the area. He said that american planes flew over declaring victory, but he thought it was just propoganda.

Edit: I just read the article and it mentions the guy I was talking about. That is just crazy.

[Bordoy 0]

This was in the Daily Mail on Friday, it had a picture of one the people found and the pic was taken durin WW2 and he was on a horse.

[dmakatra 1]

I think it's a myth. It comes up from time to time. I think this is the third or fourth time I've heard it in half a dozen years.

[Colossus 2]

Since we are talking about MIA japanese soldiers I want to quote something that Shoichi Yokoi said after returning to Japan, defending the island of Guam for 28 years and believed that the war was still on.

Quote[/b] ]It is with much embarrassment that I have returned alive.

Link

[Balschoiw 0]

I don´t think that such stories do have to be a myth automatically.

Japanese soldiers were sometimes deployed in low numbers to small islands to keep up japanese presence or prepare the islands for japanese operations. They often lost contact to their superiors because the radio equipment failed to operate under that climate or they simply ran out of fuel/batteries for the generators they had, if they even had such.

We´re not talking about huge islands, but sometimes just little islands with no population and no strategic role.

They were just forgotten.

I guess it´s a matter of japanese discipline and code of honor that made them stay there for decades. They may have wondered about the high flying planes that passed them and maybe celebrated each of them as the liberating supersecret german/japanese airpower that will bring final victory.

If an island is off major shiproutes it´s not that unlikely that they are never detected, keeping in mind that they will certainly not be interested in talking to strangers coming to the island as they would be too busy hiding themselves from the intruders they still assumed as enemies.

Tragic stories, but I guess some of them are really true.

Another one:

Quote[/b] ]Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda (小野田 寛郎 Onoda Hirō; born March 19, 1922) is a former Japanese army intelligence officer who was stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippines. He was there when it was overrun by United States forces in February 1945, towards the conclusion of World War II. Most of the Japanese troops were slain or captured by American forces. However, Onoda and several other men hid in the dense jungle.

Onoda continued his campaign, initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers. One of his comrades eventually surrendered to Filipino forces, and the other two were killed in gun battles with local forces - one in 1954, the other in 1972 - leaving Onoda alone in the mountains. For 29 years, he refused to surrender, dismissing every attempt to convince him that the war was over as a ruse. In 1960, Onoda was declared legally dead in Japan.

Found by a Japanese student, Norio Suzuki, Onoda still refused to accept that the war was over until he received orders to lay down his arms from his superior officer. Suzuki offered his help, and returned to Japan with photographs of himself and Onoda as proof of their encounter. In 1974 the Japanese government located Onoda's commanding officer, Major Taniguchi, who had since become a bookseller. He went to Lubang and informed Onoda of the defeat of Japan in WWII. Lieutenant Onoda emerged from the jungle 29 years after the end of World War II, and accepted the commanding officer's order of surrender in his dress uniform and sword, with his Arisaka rifle still in operating condition, 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades.

Though he had killed some thirty Philippine inhabitants of the island and engaged in several shootouts with the police, the circumstances of these events were taken into consideration, and Onoda received a pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos.

After his surrender, Onoda moved to Brazil, where he became a cattle farmer. He released an autobiography, No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, shortly after his surrender, detailing his life as a guerilla fighter in a war that was long over. He revisited Lubang Island in 1996, donating $10,000 for the local school on Lubang.

[Colossus 2]

Quote[/b] ]Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda (??? ?? Onoda Hir?; born March 19, 1922) is a former Japanese army intelligence officer who was stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippines. He was there when it was overrun by United States forces in February 1945, towards the conclusion of World War II. Most of the Japanese troops were slain or captured by American forces. However, Onoda and several other men hid in the dense jungle.

Onoda continued his campaign, initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers. One of his comrades eventually surrendered to Filipino forces, and the other two were killed in gun battles with local forces - one in 1954, the other in 1972 - leaving Onoda alone in the mountains. For 29 years, he refused to surrender, dismissing every attempt to convince him that the war was over as a ruse. In 1960, Onoda was declared legally dead in Japan.

Found by a Japanese student, Norio Suzuki, Onoda still refused to accept that the war was over until he received orders to lay down his arms from his superior officer. Suzuki offered his help, and returned to Japan with photographs of himself and Onoda as proof of their encounter. In 1974 the Japanese government located Onoda's commanding officer, Major Taniguchi, who had since become a bookseller. He went to Lubang and informed Onoda of the defeat of Japan in WWII. Lieutenant Onoda emerged from the jungle 29 years after the end of World War II, and accepted the commanding officer's order of surrender in his dress uniform and sword, with his Arisaka rifle still in operating condition, 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades.

Though he had killed some thirty Philippine inhabitants of the island and engaged in several shootouts with the police, the circumstances of these events were taken into consideration, and Onoda received a pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos.

After his surrender, Onoda moved to Brazil, where he became a cattle farmer. He released an autobiography, No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, shortly after his surrender, detailing his life as a guerilla fighter in a war that was long over. He revisited Lubang Island in 1996, donating $10,000 for the local school on Lubang.

So you see, you almost have to get the emperor of Japan to convince them to "surrender".

I must say that they are HIGHLY disciplined and patriotic to defend an island in almost 30 years.

[Bordoy 0]

I also heard before that the Vietnamese have American POWs. If it's true, why isn't the US goverment doing anything (as far as we know).

[Nemesis6 0]

I also heard before that the Vietnamese have American POWs. If it's true, why isn't the US goverment doing anything (as far as we know).

Well, you can answer that question by asking: Why is no-one accusing China and all those countries of torture, opression, and all that? They cannot provide solid proof, and even if they could, it would break important diplomatic ties. It's all a matter of diplomacy? Why do you think China has never been investigated for the massacre at Tinananmen square? Doing so would embarass a superpower and would be bad for diplomacy.

[Colossus 2]

It's all a matter of diplomacy? Why do you think China has never been investigated for the massacre at Tinananmen square? Doing so would embarass a superpower and would be bad for diplomacy.

Would you go to war against China? With 1,306,313,812 people in it and a crazy paranoid N. Korea at there back with nukes?

It would be better if they don't poke "the red dragon" with things like this.

[Nemesis6 0]

Exactly. They're maniacs. Don't agitate them.

[CAPAIRMAN 0]

My dad has told us about how in the 60's they found alot of Japanese soldiers in the jungles how did not think the war was over. Pretty wierd, yet oddly honorable.

[ebns72 0]

Well, at least it seems these guys are well aware the war is over and are just staying on their own terms. The other guy found in the 70s believed the war was still going on