p2pnet.net OT News:- Two Japanese soldiers have been hiding in the mountains of the Philippine island of Mindanao since World War II, which ended almost 60 years ago.

Japanese diplomats were negotiating to meet the two but a mediator, “apparently had second thoughts about going ahead with the meeting because of the surge in media interest, the officials, says the Kyodo News, going on:

“The mediator, who was on the island to collect the remains of Japanese soldiers, contacted the Japanese Embassy in Manila on Thursday evening to convey the information he had on the two, who apparently live in the mountains near General Santos, they said. The two men are said to have documents proving they were former soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and have written their names in Japanese, according to government sources."

Other ex-Japanese soldiers discovered decades after the end of the war include intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, now 83, found hiding in the jungle on Lubang Island in 1974, some 30 years after being posted there, says Kyodo, adding:

“He returned to Japan in March 1974 and emigrated to Brazil the next year. Two years earlier in 1972, another former Japanese soldier, Shoichi Yokoi, was found on Guam. He also returned to Japan but died in 1997. Neither Onoda nor Yokoi had known of Japan’s defeat in the war.”

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See:-
Kyodo News - Japan trying to meet 2 possible WWII soldiers in Philippines, May 27, 2005

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