Japan will send government officials to the Philippines on Thursday to investigate unconfirmed reports that a few Japanese soldiers are still hiding out in the jungle, refusing to surrender after World War II.
The mission, involving three researchers of the Health and Welfare Ministry, will search jungles on Luzon Island during a week-long investigation, a ministry official said on Wednesday.
”We have received information that a former Japanese soldier had lived in a village in the suburb of Manila, pretending to be a local resident, and the man apparently contacted a few Japanese still hiding in a jungle before he died in 1996,” the official said.
The mission also includes two former Japanese soldiers who surrendered in Philippine jungles and were sent back to Japan after the end of World War II.
If the reports prove true, it would be the first confirmation of Japanese holding out since 1974, when a former Imperial Army second lieutenant, Michio Onoda, returned to Japan after surviving for three decades in a jungle having refused to surrender.
But the ministry official played down the latest reports.
”There are many Japanese soldiers still living in areas where they were deployed and decided to stay on as a local residents after World War II,” the official said.
”Even if the reports are correct, the chances are high that the men made their own decision to stay there and lead a normal life together with local people, which is different from a stunning holdout with a rifle,” the official said.
About 4 000 Japanese soldiers reportedly refused to surrender and decided to go into jungles in the Philippines after the end of the war. — Sapa-AFP