[SteveStromberg]

Home is the soldier, home from the wars...
The Yomiuri Shimbun

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, comes the amazing news that two men believed to be former soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army have been found on Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines.

Officials from the Japanese Embassy in Manila have been sent to the southern Mindanao city of General Santos to verify whether the two men are in fact WWII stragglers.

The two men, both in their 80s, are believed to be Yoshio Yamakawa, a lieutenant, and Tsuzuki Nakauchi, a corporal.

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and other sources, the two men were engaged in operations on the island when the war ended in 1945.

During the ensuing six decades, the two have hid out in mountainous areas of the island that are controlled by rebels, remaining "on duty" as it were, although the war has long ended.

We would like to offer words of consolation from the bottom of our hearts to the two men for their long years of hardships.

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Stragglers feared court-martial

The near-unbelievable tale of their survival surfaced when a man from Nagasaki Prefecture involved in a logging project in Mindanao came across the two men in August. The man reported the news to a war veterans association in Japan, which sent members to the island to make contact with the two men.

The two stragglers reportedly told the members of the association that they were uneasy about returning to Japan because they were afraid of being court-martialed and executed.

The association managed to allay their concerns by sending in to the two men old magazines that reported the case of former 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda, who hid out in the jungle on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974 when he was returned to Japan. The association also sent a note saying "There is no need to worry."

The honor for reaching out to these two former soldiers lays squarely with their fellow veterans who went through the same hardships during the war as the two men had.

Both of the two men reportedly want to return to Japan.

We ask the government to help realize their return to Japan as soon as possible and to extend generous support to the two if they want to resettle in Japan.

When it comes to the return of former Japanese soldiers to Japan, we remember Shoichi Yokoi, who was found in the jungle in Guam in 1972, and the discovery of Onoda two years later.

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Search for forgotten soldiers

In the 30 years or so since the discoveries of Yokoi and Onoda, has the government done enough to determine whether there are still forgotten soldiers who have yet to return from the battlefield?

When it receives information that a man believed to be a former Japanese soldier has been spotted, the health ministry contacts the Foreign Ministry, which dispatches officials to the area in question to determine if there is any truth to the rumor.

In tandem with an ongoing project to collect the remains of Japanese soldiers, the health ministry gathers information concerning soldiers who have not returned from the battlefield.

However, some war veterans associations are dissatisfied with the meagre results made through government efforts. As these former members of the Imperial Japanese armed forces are all reaching an advanced age, is the government taking it for granted that there are no war survivors any more?

Reports from Mindanao indicate there are other stragglers in the area. We hope the government will make a thorough investigation and search for any possible survivors.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, May 28)