Shoichi Yokoi
| Shōichi Yokoi | |
|---|---|
 Shōichi Yokoi |
|
| Born | March 31, 1915 Saori, Aichi Prefecture, Japan |
| Died | September 22, 1997 (aged 82) |
| Allegiance |  Empire of Japan |
| Service/branch |  Imperial Japanese Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1972 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Battles/wars | |
Shōichi Yokoi (横井 庄一 Yokoi Shōichi, March 31, 1915 – September 22, 1997) was a Japanese sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during the Second World War. He was among the last three Japanese holdouts to be found after the end of hostilities in 1945, found in the jungle of Guam in January 1972, almost 28 years after US forces had regained control of the island in 1944.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Yokoi was born in Saori, Aichi Prefecture. He had been an apprentice tailor until he was drafted in 1941.[1]
[edit] War years and post-war survival
Yokoi was conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1941. Initially, he served with the 29th Infantry Division in Manchukuo. In 1943, he was transferred to the 38th Regiment in the Mariana Islands. He arrived on Guam in February 1943. When American forces captured the island in the 1944 Battle of Guam, Yokoi went into hiding with ten other Japanese soldiers, and remained in hiding until 1972.[1] Seven of the original ten holdouts eventually moved away. Only three remained in the region. Later these last three separated, but they visited each other until about 1964, when Yokoi found his two friends dead, apparently of starvation. The last eight years he lived entirely alone.
Yokoi survived by hunting, primarily at night. He used native plants to make clothes, bedding, and storage implements, which he carefully hid in his cave.[1]
[edit] Surrender
On the evening of January 24, 1972, Yokoi was discovered in the jungle.[2] He was found by Jesus Dueñas and Manuel De Gracia, two local men who were checking their shrimp traps along a small river on Talofofo. They had initially assumed that Yokoi was a villager from Talofofo; he thought his life was in danger and attacked them[3], but they managed to subdue him, carrying him out of the jungle with minor bruising.[1]
"It is with much embarrassment, but I have returned", he said upon his return to Japan. The remark would become a popular saying in Japanese.[4]
For twenty-eight years, he hid in an underground jungle cave, fearing to come out of hiding even after finding leaflets declaring that World War II had ended, believing them to be false Allied propaganda.[1]
Yokoi was the third-to-last Japanese soldier to hold out after the war, preceding second lieutenant Hiroo Onoda (relieved from duty by his former commanding officer March 9, 1974) and private Teruo Nakamura (arrested December 18, 1974).
[edit] Later life
After a whirlwind media tour of Japan, he married and settled down in rural Aichi Prefecture. After living alone in a cave for twenty-eight years, Yokoi became a popular television personality, and an advocate of austere living. He was featured in a 1977 documentary called Yokoi and His Twenty-Eight Years of Secret Life on Guam. He eventually received the equivalent of US$300 in back pay, and a small pension.
In 1991 he was granted an audience with Emperor Akihito, which he considered the greatest honor of his life.
Yokoi died in 1997 of a heart attack at the age of 82,[5] and was buried at a Nagoya cemetery, under a gravestone that had been commissioned initially by his mother in 1955.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e "Shoichi Yokoi", Ultimate Guam.
- ^ Mendoza, Patrick M. (1999). Extraordinary People in Extraordinary Times: Heroes, Heroes, and Villains, p. 71.
- ^ BBC: Shoichi Yokoi, the Japanese soldier who held out in Guam, 24 January 2012
- ^ Lewis, John. "Japan's WWII 'no surrender' soldier dies", CNN. September 23, 1997.
- ^ Kristof, Nicholas D. "Shoichi Yokoi, 82, Is Dead ; Japan Soldier Hid 27 Years", New York Times . September 26, 1997.
[edit] References
- Hatashin, Omi and Shoichi Yokoi. (2009). Private Yokoi's War and Life on Guam, 1944-72: The Story of the Japanese Imperial Army's Longest WWII Survivor in the Field and Later Life. London: Global Oriental. 10-ISBN 1-905-24669-2; 13-ISBN 978-1-905-24669-4; OCLC 316801727.
- Mendoza, Patrick M. (1999). Extraordinary People in Extraordinary Times: Heroes, Sheroes, and Villains. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 1-563-08611-5; ISBN 978-1-563-08611-3.
