Japanese soldier who held out in Guam

[Warden]

I listened to this wireless programme on the BBC World Service last night. Really interesting. I did like his comment when he returned to Japan and saw how things had changed. According to the programme he said "what would happen if the oil stops?"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16681636

 

[DustyUSAF]

Just got back from a deployment to Guam where I heard about this for the first time. There is a little restaurant there called Jeff's Pirate's Cove. On the menu it gives all the details of this story. He hid out just a few hundred yards in the jungle where Jeff's currently sits. Very interesting.

 

[Treetopflyer]

I was stationed there about 6 years ago and they have a replica of where he hid out. It was a small little man made cave. I loved Jeff's Pirates Cove. Wish I could go back to Guam. I have heard that the replica is no longer there.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

These stories have always fascinated me. Like Lt. Onoda who held out on a Philippine island for over 30 years. I imagine there are probably a few that are as yet undiscovered.

 

[LaMedicine]

Here's an old thread on the subject.
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...ldiers-holding-out-for-years.&highlight=Onoda
I remember the media fever very well because I was already in my early 20s at the time of Yokoi and Onoda's return to Japan.

 

[scotrace]

These stories have always fascinated me. Like Lt. Onoda who held out on a Philippine island for over 30 years. I imagine there are probably a few that are as yet undiscovered.

It must be tough, navigating the jungle with a walker...

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

True. Almost a certainty that any as yet undiscovered holdouts are dead. But finding an 87 year old Japanese soldier still holding out would be the story of the century.

 

[Stanley Doble]

"what would happen if the oil stops?"

That's why they went to war in 1941.

 

[LaMedicine]

Hiroo Onoda died at the ripe old age of 91 yesterday. RIP.

 

[PADDY]

Truth can be stranger than fiction can't it. Amazing .

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

Would make for an interesting movie with the right producers and director.

 

[esteban68]

pretty sure it's been done at least as a tv film a few years ago?

 

[Stearmen]

Here is a link to the complete story. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25772192

 

[MrBern]

Hiroo Onoda, in March of 1974, arrived to a hero's welcome in Tokyo after living for 29 years in a Philippine jungle. Jiji Press/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Obituary

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/world/asia/hiroo-onoda-imperial-japanese-army-officer-dies-at-91.html

 

[Guttersnipe]

I was vaguely aware of so-called Japanese holdouts. But since reading more about Hiroo Onoda, I can't help but wonder, am I the only one that finds the "golly isn't that quaint" tone of the press coverage distasteful?

Afterall, the group he commanded was responsible for the killing of about 30 Filipinos, most of them civilians and most of them after 1945...

 

[TomS]

Great story...