Back in the Day: end of WWII comes 28 years late for Japanese soldier

January 24, 1972 After 28 years hiding in the jungle in Guam where he had been fighting in World War II, Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi is discovered by local fishermen. He was then informed that Japan had ceased hostilities in 1945. Japan seized control of Guam from the United States in 1941, only for the US to take back the Pacific island three years later in the Second Battle of Guam. Yokoi and a handful of fellow Japanese soldiers went into hiding in the jungle, where they lived in caves and hunted with hand-made tools. While his comrades died of disease or malnutrition, Yokoi later said “The only thing that gave me the strength and will to survive was my faith in myself and that as a soldier of Japan, it was not a disgrace to continue living.” He was wary of leaflets dropped from US planes explaining the war had ended, fearing the Americans would kill him if he surrendered. Yokoi was not the only Japanese soldier in denial about his country’s defeat; two others were found alive after Yokoi, in 1974, one in the Philippines and the other in Indonesia.

Also on January 24: assassination of Caligula (AD41); first discovery of gold that started the California Gold Rush (1848); Bucharest becomes the capital of Romania (1862); death of Winston Churchill (1965); Steve Jobs launches the Apple Macintosh (1984).

Born on January 24: Farinelli (1705), Neil Diamond (1941), Jools Holland (1958), Nastassja Kinski (1961), Mischa Barton (1986), Luis Suarez (1987).

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