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Thursday, June 02, 2005
Author says Japanese stragglers may be in Bukidnon
By Junhan B. Todiño
Sun.Star Superbalita
THE presence of Japanese stragglers in Bukidnon area is not a remote possibility, an author of a World War II book said as he urged the government to exert effort in locating the Japanese soldiers.
Solomon B. Pimentel, who launched his book "War In My Eyes" on February 6, 2005 at the VIP Hotel, recounted Wednesday his experience with the Japanese Imperial Army in 1944 in Bukidnon.
There may be more stragglers in the area, Pimentel said.
Malaybalay occupies a very significant place in history, Pimentel said, because it was the location where all Japanese officials and leaders convene before they started off their long journey to Butuan City.
When the Japanese soldiers heard a radio report that US General Douglas McArthur is heading to the Philippines they decided "to retreat", taking with them some Filipino government officials and civilians.
"We were taken hostage of sort," Pimentel said, "with my brother Malaybalay mayor Hiraldo Pimentel, the governor of Bukidnon and the official of the Bureau of Constabulary a certain Col Albiar."
"Naguol man gud ang mga Hapon kay moabot na si McArthur," Pimentel said, who was 12 years old at that time.
The Japanese soldiers made the capitol area in Bukidnon as their starting point.
The journey traversed the mountain areas of Silai onward to Cabanglasan, Bukidnon then crossing the Pulangi and toward Agusan del Sur, he said.
About thousands of Japanese troops joined the march.
"Ang tanang giagian sa mga Hapon matawag kadto nga treasure kay dunay mga butang nga ilang gipangbilin sa dalan," he stressed.
Pimentel described the stragglers as those Japanese soldiers during the WWII who were wounded and helpless and seriously suffering from ailment.
Their comrades left them behind during their long journey. They only survive when some natives in Bukidnon area found them and attended to their needs.
So that, according to Pimentel, there are groups now who are extending various aids to the lumads with a hidden motive. They just want the treasure because the lumads know where some of the Yamashita treasures were buried from the stragglers.
Pimentel, 76, didn't discount the possibility that armed groups are working discreetly to intervene in the appearance of the reported stragglers in General Santos and Bukidnon.
On Monday, Pimentel said he was surprised at what Marlyn Beldorol Nagaki disclosed to local and Japanese journalists.
Nagaki showed the bloodstained Japanese flag that was marked with a special seal and names of Japanese soldiers sent over to Mindanao during the World War II.
She presented the flag to support her claimed about her meeting with a Japanese straggler whom she called by a code "Sakurai" at Cabanglasan, Bukidnon three years ago.
Nagaki, a native of Bohol who was married to a Japanese, claimed she met with some contacts who were foresters in 2002 and later wanted to negotiate with the Japanese Embassy for Sakurai's return to his homeland.
It was Sakurai presented the old Japanese flag to her as evidence that indeed he is a straggler who just wants to go home, Nagaki said.
(June 2, 2005 issue)
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