Comments on: Ollie ollie oxen free!

Ollie ollie oxen free!

ewagoner — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 13:36:10 -0800

The last World War Two Japanese soldier surrendered in the Philippines in 1980, ending a stream of holdouts. This is their story.

By: goethean

goethean — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 14:17:29 -0800

After returning to Japan, he was unable to adapt to modern life and retired to a ranch in Brazil. He revisited Lubang island in 1996, and still alive today. That must be the one that Camel's awesome album Nude is about.

By: car_bomb

car_bomb — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 14:30:57 -0800

fascinating site ewagoner. i've been reading it for about an hour.
thanks for the post!

By: MonkeyMeat

MonkeyMeat — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 15:17:52 -0800

It's too bad he didn't hold out just a little bit longer. 1980 is about the time Japan really started winning.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 16:15:33 -0800

"According to Yokoi, he had known since 1952 that the war was over, but he was afraid to come out of hiding." Hmmm...so it's not as if he was still "fighting" or even necessarily "waiting to fight." He *knew* the war was over, and then spent nearly THREE DECADES in hiding. Strange - but interesting site. Kudos, ewagoner.

By: ehintz

ehintz — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 16:26:45 -0800

(this is good)

By: philfromhavelock

philfromhavelock — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 20:41:19 -0800

Excellent find, ewagoner. "A tailor when he was conscripted in 1941, Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi said he wove cloth from tree bark fibre from Guam's pago/hibiscus trees and made himself trousers and a jacket." Unbelievable. If Yokoi's hold-out comrades dying in the 1960s is any indication, how many Japanese hold-out soldiers died before they were found? Combined with fighting the locals, animal attacks, infections, etc., there are the risks of typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods throughout the entire Pacific Ocean. There may have been hundreds of soldiers who died anonymously.

By: kcmoryan

kcmoryan — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 04:18:25 -0800

Darned quitters. We still have people fighting the Civil War here in the US. Great post.

By: vito90

vito90 — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 06:17:18 -0800

Thank you ewagoner, this is a wonderful link.

By: philfromhavelock

philfromhavelock — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 08:57:09 -0800

gohtean: he has an e-post address on the Links page, asking for information. "Anode's thirty years of guerilla warfare contained many skirmishes with local police and citizens. Some sources believe that he and his two companions killed between seven and fifty civilians and injured many others in the years after 1945. " Why the huge discrepancy in numbers? Were the locals blaming suicides and "unexplained" deaths on the hold-outs? The articles mention the fear among the soldiers, but what of the locals' fear of the murderous ones in the forest? Sounds similar to Sasquatch or Windigo, but (at least in some instances) the locals knew their Sasquatch came from another country, why they were there. But still.

By: trillion

trillion — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 12:12:58 -0800

I've heard of this before and its fascinating. Thanks for the link.