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Saturday, May 28, 2005
Japan checks two men who may be WWII soldiers
MANILA -- Japanese diplomats investigating astonishing claims that two former Japanese soldiers have been hiding in the mountains of Mindanao since World War II failed Friday to arrange a meeting with the men, officials said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's spokesman, Yu Kameoka told reporters they were apparently reluctant to meet with the diplomats at a hotel in the port city of General Santos because of the large crowds waiting to see them. Authorities were trying to schedule another meeting for Saturday.
"We hope there will be new developments tonight or tomorrow," Japanese Consul Seiichi Ogawa said.
Media reports in Japan said the octogenarians lived on the southern island of Mindanao with equipment suggesting they were former soldiers. One report said they were separated from their division and later wanted to return to Japan but feared they would face a court-martial.
Koizumi said in Tokyo he hoped the mystery would be cleared up soon.
"We are checking it now," he told reporters. "It is a surprise if it's true, but we have to check first."
Goichi Ichikawa, the chairman of a veterans group in Japan, said he had learned of at least three Japanese men living in the mountains of Mindanao from someone who went there late last year and alerted the Tokyo government in February.
"It's amazing they were able to survive for 60 years," Ichikawa told reporters in the Japanese city of Osaka. "Of course I was stunned."
The reports were reminiscent of World War II straggler Lt. Hiroo Onoda, who believed the war was still on when he was found in the jungles of the Philippines in 1974. He refused to give up until March of that year, when the Japanese government flew in his former commander to formally inform him that the war was over.
Japan's Kyodo News agency said the two may be Yoshio Yamakawa, 87, and Tsuzuki Nakauchi, 83. But the Health Ministry in Tokyo declined to confirm the report saying it can't disclose any information until officials have identified them.
Embassy officials "want to meet directly with those two persons to find out if they are really Japanese soldiers, (and to find out details) beginning with their names and age," embassy official Masaru Watanabe said.
The Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun said the two had been in the mountains of Mindanao for about 60 years.
They remained there after losing their division in the mountains, the paper said. Last September, a Japanese national in the lumber business ran into them in the mountains. It was learned later that they wanted to go back to Japan but were afraid of facing a court-martial for withdrawing from action, the Sankei said.
Another source told the paper that there may be more than 40 other Japanese soldiers living in the mountains and that they all want to return to Japan, the Sankei said.
Japan's Health Ministry, in charge of repatriating Japanese overseas, said it was sending an official to General Santos, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) south of Manila, on Saturday to try to schedule another meeting with the veterans through a Japanese mediator.
"We are doing our best to contact the mediator," said Ogawa, the Japanese consul. "We will just continue to wait." (AP)
(May 28, 2005 issue)
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