It's exactly 40 years since a Japanese soldier was found in the jungles of Guam, having survived there for nearly three decades after the end of WWII. He was given a hero's welcome on his return to Japan - but never quite felt at home in modern society.
Sukihotu,
In Buddhism, we are taught that everything changes and we must embraced it as it comes. But, here's a story about a Japanese when hiding for 40 years entrapped in a war. I thought this is amazing, because man usually moves very quickly and adapt to time. But not this person.
Read the story here...
Shoichi Yokoi, the Japanese soldier who held out in Guam
For most of the 28 years that Shoichi Yokoi, a World War II Lance Corporal in the Japanese Army, was hiding in the jungles of Guam, he firmly believed his former comrades would one day return for him.
And even when he was eventually discovered by local hunters on the Pacific island, on 24 January 1972, the 57-year-old former soldier still clung to the notion that his life was in danger.
"He really panicked," says Omi Hatashin, Yokoi's nephew.
Startled by the sight of other humans after so many years on his own, Yokoi tried to grab one of the hunter's rifles, but weakened by years of poor diet, he was no match for the local men.
"He feared they would take him as a prisoner of war - that would have been the greatest shame for a Japanese soldier and for his family back home," Hatashin says.
As they led him away through the jungle's tall foxtail grass, Yokoi cried for them to kill him there and then.
Using Yokoi's own memoirs, published in Japanese two years after his discovery, as well as the testimony of those who found him that day, Hatashin spent years piecing together his uncle's dramatic story.
His book, Private Yokoi's War and Life on Guam, 1944-1972, was published in English in 2009.
"I am very proud of him, he was a shy and quiet person, but with a great presence," he says.
Underground shelter
Yokoi's long ordeal began in July 1944 when US forces stormed Guam as part of their offensive against the Japanese in the Pacific.
Yokoi's eel trap was one of his prize possessionsThe fighting was fierce, casualties were high on both sides, but once the Japanese command was disrupted, soldiers such as Yokoi and others in his platoon, were left to fend for themselves.
"From the outset they took enormous care not to be detected, erasing their footprints as they moved through the undergrowth," Hatashin said.
In the early years the Japanese soldiers, soon reduced to a few dozen in number, caught and killed local cattle to feed off.
But fearing detection from US patrols and later from local hunters, they gradually withdrew deeper into the jungle.
There they ate poisonous toads, river eels and rats.
Yokoi made a trap from wild reeds for catching the eels. He also dug himself an underground shelter, supported with strong bamboos.
"He was an extremely resourceful man," Hatashin says.
Keeping himself busy also kept him from thinking too much about his predicament, or his family back home, he said.
Pls read the rest of the story on bbc.uk here
Come to think of it, we asked ourselves isn't we all are like Yokoi? Most of us grasped on obsolete ideas for far too long. Even longer than Yokoi. Like for instant, people are still praying to the sun and moon believing God lives there. Some woman are praying for a boy when they are already in the advance stage of pregnancy. Parent still pray for their children to pass their exam knowing their kids never study at all. Devotees seeking for miracle to happen on the spot in churches and temples. Children are taught that bats are vampires, snake are evil and sharks are bad.
I do not know what else to say except to blame ourselves for our own ignorance.
May you be well and fine
Mettacittena
Bugs Tan
25th Jan 2012
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