Sergeant Yokoi on Guam and 2 other Japanese Army holdouts

 

When I in my 2nd year of high school, I remember reading about sergeant Yokoi. In fact I still have the news paper story I cut from my local home town news paper. It For most of the 28 years that Shoichi Yokoi, a lance corporal in the Japanese Army of world War II, was hiding in the jungles of Guam, he firmly believed his former comrades would one day return for him.

It wasn't until years later that I learned about Lt. Hiroo Onoda who was another hold out in the Philippines. These men both held out for about the same about of time - roughly 28 years. The difference between the 2 is that Onoda continued to wage "war" of sorts on the local folks in the PI. Where as Yokoi was more survival oriented. I also read that he was an apprentis tailor before being drafted. His learned survival skills are impressive. He dug a pit shelter using a shovel he made from an artillery shell, He fabricated smoke filters to hide his cooking fires, he fashioned cooking pots from old canteens, and, he used his tailor skills to fashion clothing, using his Tailor scissors he brought with him to war.

However, The most notable Japanese Army holdout  was Takasago Volunteer Teruo Nakamura (Attun Palalin), the last confirmed Japanese holdout, who surrendered on Morotai Island in Indonesia in December 1974. The Native Taiwanese men were organized into Takasago volunteer units and were issued uniforms, weapons/ammo and minimal foods. As "Native people" they were expected to forage from the land and take whatever else they needed from the enemy.

The Taiwanese conscripts were not incensed with the warriors code - at least not in the Japanese sense. Those Taiwanese were head hunters and warriors in their own culture no where near the Japanese ideology about warfare.

Anyhoo, Yokoi's story and that of Onoda and that of Nakamura are interesting , especially for me from a survival standpoint. Im certain that anyone interested in history and survival would enjoy the book about him Titled "28 years in the Guam jungle"

Tomahawk - out!