'Japan soldiers' found in Philippines jungle

[Lancer]

http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa120700a.htm

"We considered people dressed as islanders to be enemy troops in disguise or enemy spies. The proof that they were was that whenever we fired on one of them, a search party arrived shortly afterward."3 It had become a cycle of disbelief. Isolated from the rest of the world, everyone appeared to be the enemy. "

This site doesn't go very far into it. I watched a Discovery channel (iirc) documentary which interviewed Philippine families on Lubang. They recalled how their grandmother was sitting on the porch and was shot, that sort of thing. Many civilians were killed just going about their work. A favorite tactic was to shoot rice farmers in their fields. The people would go after the Japanese soldiers after but could never catch them in the jungle. Still, their family members were being murdered so it pissed them off and they never quit trying.

[Lancer]

This states that his rifle was still in 'operating condition'

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000310.html

One much-publicized case was Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda. He had been stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippines when it was overrun by U.S. forces in February 1945. Most of the Japanese troops were slain or captured, but Onoda and several other men holed up in the jungle. The others were eventually killed, but Onoda held out for 29 years, dismissing every attempt to coax him out as a ruse. Finally the Japanese government located his commanding officer, who went to Lubang in 1974 to order Onoda to give up. The lieutenant stepped out of the jungle to accept the order of surrender in his dress uniform and sword, with his rifle still in operating condition.

[Lancer]

Check this out...he was pardoned by >>>Marcos<<<, "much to the disgust of the islanders Onoda had raided and shot at for the last 30 years. "

http://www.trivia-library.com/b/history-of-survivor-hiroo-onoda-the-last-samurai-part-4.htm

"The following day the ceremony was repeated for the world's press when Pres. Ferdinand Marcos again returned Onoda's sword to him. He also pardoned Onoda for his crimes on Lubang, much to the disgust of the islanders Onoda had raided and shot at for the last 30 years. "


"But what had Onoda fought for? Back on Lubang, he left two close comrades and at least 30 Filipinos in their graves. They were casualties of a long-forgotten war because of one man's stubborn adherence to the samurai ways. "

[DanS]

Thank God we dropped the bombs and the emporer personally announced the surrender. That's hard core.

[Lancer]

That's an *******.

[Verto]

Imagine if we'd been allied with them.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Verto
Imagine if we'd been allied with them.

After the Rape of Nanking?! I think not!


(BTW in the map in the first post, if you go directly northward from the "I" in Mindanao, the next island you hit is Bohol, where Lancer's winter residence is.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


After the Rape of Nanking?! I think not!


(BTW if you go directly northward from the first "I" in Mindinao, the next island you hit is Bohol, where Lancer's winter residence is.

As opposed to the Stalinist purges? The ongoing Soviet atrocities?

Ah, what might have been.

[Spec]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
There's plenty of golf courses...

There are, but they cant make anymore...

[Dis]

how could they think the war is still going on. What war lasts 40 or more years? (aside from the 100 years war )

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by DanS
Thank God we dropped the bombs and the emporer personally announced the surrender. That's hard core.

Hard core tempered by good fieldcraft, the worst combination. "Luckily" most of the hardcore were also the "charge straight up Edson's Ridge into .50s and BARs with both crossing and plunging fires and stick it to 'em with bayonets and swords" types.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Verto


As opposed to the Stalinist purges? The ongoing Soviet atrocities?

Ah, what might have been.

"Higashi kaze ame"

More to the point, what might never have been, since the Japanese viewed us as the primary threat to their hegemony over eastern Asia, and viewed us as a key geopolitical rival since Perry's black ships.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Dissident
how could they think the war is still going on. What war lasts 40 or more years? (aside from the 100 years war )

And that little Isreali-Arab tiff.
And the Pakastanis & Indians.
And the Basques & Spanish.

Can't we all just get along.

[Dr Strangelove]

Why didn't the Phillipines send their Army after him?

[GePap]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Why didn't the Phillipines send their Army after him?

The army was more interested in repression back then (during Marco's reign). Who cares if some Japanese coot is shooting peasants, as long as they are not revolting because of it.