From Deseret News archives:
How did WWII stragglers survive?
Soldiers may have lived in mountains, hid identities
Prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War, there were about 26,000 Japanese living in the island's main city, Davao, which was known as the Japanese Kingdom.
Today, the area is rife with Islamist extremists, and the Philippine government has lost control of some parts of it. Yet somehow, the men believed to be Yoshio Yamakawa, 87, and Tsuzuki Nakauchi, 85, have survived this era of change.
According to Hikaru Miyake, the 62-year-old chairman of an association of Japanese in Davao, many Japanese moved to the region before the war to grow jute, a fiber used largely in burlap and twine.
When the war began, many of these permanent residents were drafted as civilian employees of the army, later fleeing with Imperial Japanese Army troops when U.S. forces made landfall on the island.
But the majority of these residents-cum-soldiers who lost their lives during the war did not fall to U.S. bullets but to infectious and endemic diseases such as malaria and to indigenous tribesmen in the mountains.
Thus Yamakawa and Nakauchi could easily have passed undetected in the mountains. But today, Mindanao is home to a number of extremist Islam groups, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is seeking to establish an Islamic state on the island.
While the vicinity around General Santos is a base for commerce for the southern part of the island, it is also the gateway to a terrorist highway through which foreign extremist groups that have close ties with local extremist Islamic groups pass on their way to other areas in which they are active.
It is unclear if the two Japanese men had any kind of relationship with the terrorist groups. It is unlikely they were involved with the Islamists, Miyake said, but, he added, "perhaps they weren't discovered until now because they successfully blended and married into local society."
A spokesman for the MILF on Friday told The Yomiuri Shimbun: "I don't know the Japanese men in question. I've met men in the mountains who resemble Japanese, but I haven't confirmed whether they are Japanese."
Comments
- Smoking up nationally, down in Utah 5:36 p.m.
- 4A: Springville holds off Dixie 5:28 p.m.
- Lit flicks: Holiday movie offerings 5:17 p.m.
- 1940s thrillers are new to DVD 5:17 p.m.
- Keb' Mo' enjoys independence 5:16 p.m.
- On the screen 5:16 p.m.
- Weekend entertainment calendar 5:16 p.m.
- 'Bruno,' 'Star Trek' new to DVD 5:16 p.m.
- Coming soon to theater near you 5:16 p.m.
- Musician writes first note to last 5:16 p.m.
- House passes health care bill
328 - SLC council OKs gay rights policies
311 - TCU showdown has big implications
195 - Senators want food tax restored
158 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
155 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - Will state consider gay rights law?
130 - Editorial: Mormons and gay rights
120 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
119 - Letters: Strange breed in Utah
117
Maybe someone out there can help me understand how raising the state...
About that margin of victory, you got to remember that Bingham gains that...
This woman doesn't want to sympathize, she just wants to pick up the affair...
How did you get hired at your business if they have an intellectual...
"...explain to me how it's possible to know if a mouse is gay or not?" I...
I believed what you are saying.........3 years ago! I knew these wimps were...
Uh, to everyone discussing the Utes going to another BCS game: did any of you...
dear no dissing intended, I appreciate your question. I don't think that...
you care enough to make a post about it. Go RSL
I look for this game to be won or lost in the trenches. With Davis's DE...
Devils rule! Predicting a big upset and a state title for Springville next week


You can be the first to comment on this story.