Devoted or stupid soldiers?

Dr Who SG

At the 60th anniversary of Tokyo's second world war surrender, diplomats were today investigating claims that two octagenarian Japanese soldiers had emerged from the mountains of the southern Philippines.

According to Japanese media reports, the men were separated from their division six decades ago. Although they wanted to return home, they feared they would face a court martial for withdrawing from action.

Now are our troops so devoted? (or stupid?) Fighting on without instructions to surrender.....

aerozapper SG

I don't think that they are devoted or stupid.
They've merely been brainwashed.

In WWII Japan, things were much different, Japanese soldiers followed the rules of Bushido, the warrior spirit. Part of this meant that all soldiers revered the Emperor of Japan as a god. To withdraw from battle was equivalent to bringing shame to their god, hence, it's probably the fear and shame that's kept them in Mindanao for these decades.

You shouldn't look down on them as stupid, you should pity them. They're the poor infantrymen who have had to suffer for the mistakes of an empire who left them behind.

tvdog SG

Only people who fought to defend their country have never regretted war.

baer SG

Haha another quick money hoax.

Locals (?) dig up old Jap relics (e.g. helmet passed down as family spitoon), maybe we earn easy money, get senile grandfather to pretend as Jap solider, maybe get easy yen.

Obersturmfuhrer SG

Then comes a bugging question:

How do you differentiate between devotion and stupidity? Confused

Lance_han SG

you don... Laughing

but even if u do,it's on a case-by-case,person-by-person basis

cause one man's meat is another man's poison

tankee1981 SG

Well whats the latest news on these people? Seems like a long time since the article from ST is published. Very Happy

Obersturmfuhrer SG

According to the Oz newsies, the Japanese embassy officials turned back after a short period without obtaining any concrete evidence. Heck, I dun think they even met those two “soldiers”.

m113apc SG

just something to share...

i had read a book once before , written by a japanese soldier who fought on guam, who was found like some 20 over years later...!!

it was one of my favourite books, but had misplaced it when i shifted house ...pity..
i cant remember the title now..

basically, it told of how he was enlisted from his village,sent to the frontlines in Guam...and how when he was doing patrols, he was seperated from his company...with 2 other soldiers..that was around 1944, when the tide was turning against the japanese in the pacific war...

it told of how he avoided the american troops, had firefights with them, how they were ambushed, and vice versa..how he survived on breadfruit, on trapping snakes, igunas...

it told of how he found leaflets strewn from planes, saying that the war was over, and that the Emperor has surrendered..etc...its pretty interesting(this book was translated from japanese)..it shows the thoughts of the author....
how much he wanted to surrender, how the other stragglers were not convinced, saying that it was all a trap...the stories that the american soldiers wld throw them of the cliffs...and that the glorious japanese emperor wld never surrender, etc etc...

it continues wif how he ekes out a survival in the jungle, .how he calculates the time/date/ via the moonsoon seasons...how one by one, his other 2 fellow stragglers passed on...

the day he was finally "caught", he was sick....and weak..it shows how he was so surprised that"the blue eyed devils" were treating him so well, and how a japanese looking man kept asking questions and stuff...and how he was still convinced it was a trap, and he was gonna be killed...

when they told him that all that had happened, and that they were sending himback to japan, he was still convined that he wld be thrown of the plane...

it ends wif him being reunited with his family, and how he talked abt losing his youth in the jungles of Guam...

a truely very interesting read....and thus, the story of the japanese solders in the philipines is totally believeable...

devoted or stupid?i think its a combination of both, and bad luck that they were not caught earlier.

m113apc SG

i found a link to the story...it was 26 years, and not 20 years as i mentioned!

m113apc SG

heres the link to the story

http://vikingphoenix.com/public/rongstad/bio-obit/yokoi.htm

alexkusu SG

Definately Devoted. Or brainwashed by their commanders Laughing

Marco_Simone SG

they can become JCC instructors. Very Happy