Turn-over of alleged Japanese stragglers hangs

By Ronron
May 27, 2005

General Santos City - The release here of two alleged Japanese stragglers hangs as of this writing after officials of the Japanese Embassy in the Philippines failed until early Friday night to convince their contact to bring out the alleged World War II veterans.

Embassy officials yesterday told Japanese and local reporters at a hotel here that they were not sure if the mediator, who is also allegedly a Japanese, would be able to turn over the two old Japanese soldiers until last night.

The mediator, according to Embassy officials, contacted the Japanese Embassy in Manila first last Thursday about the existence of the two stragglers who were reported to have been in hiding in the mountains of this city since the second world war ended in 1945.

Historians have said that Japanese soldiers who invaded the Philippines in the 1930's and onwards retreated to the mountains when American soldiers returned in 1944. It was believed that some of these Japanese refused or forgot to return to the lowlands out of fear of being hit back by angry Filipinos whom they abused during the invasion period.

A newspaper in Japan said Yoshio Yamakawa, 87, and Nakauchi Tsuzuki, 83, both of the old Japanese Army, hid in the mountains of this city after failing to escape after the war. They reportedly were not able to catch up with their fellow soldiers who were able to return to Japan.

The two are said to be in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as they wanted to go back to Japan.

However, NBI Sarangani District Director Atty. Boye Mama said he does not have any knowledge about the said report, adding that they did not even receive an official communication from embassy officials regarding the matter.

"I only learned about it today. Somebody, a Japanese man, called me up and my staff this morning and was asking about that report. I told him I don't know anything about it," Mama said in Filipino in an interview yesterday at his office on Tiongson St., Barangay Lagao of this city.

He said he also verified those two names at the local Immigration office but both were not in the latter's list.

The office of the city mayor here has also conducted verification actions on said report.

A number of news reporters, mostly from Manila, arrived here yesterday morning to verify the report but were only left frustrated at the end of the day. They expect a major breakthrough to happen today./DMS