Japanese scribes arriving in droves

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Droves of Japanese journalists are making a beeline for this city after it was reported that a pair of stragglers of the Japanese Imperial Army have been hiding in the mountains outside General Santos City since the end of World War II.

Hotels here reported heavy bookings for the journalists from Tokyo’s main newspapers, broadcast firms and news agencies.

Japanese diplomats were trying to schedule a meeting yesterday with these soldiers.

The two men reportedly have lived in Mindanao since they were separated from their division, staying on for fear they would face court martial if they returned to Japan.

On Friday, a day of waiting at a hotel in General Santos City turned into disappointment for the diplomats.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s spokesman, Yu Kameoka, told The Associated Press in Tokyo the men were apparently reluctant to meet with the officials because of the large crowds, including at least 50 Japanese journalists, waiting to see them.

Diplomats were trying to schedule another meeting yesterday through a Japanese mediator, who had contacted the country’s embassy in Manila about the men. But prospects grew increasingly dim with each passing hour.

"You should know this type of information comes in all the time," embassy spokesman Shuhei Ogawa said, confirming reports that the unidentified Japanese mediator was relying on information provided by a Filipino contact, who got word about the mystery men from yet another Filipino.

"We really have no idea if these two people exist," he said.

The story created huge interest in Japan, particularly among veterans marking the 60th anniversary of the war’s end.

Japanese broadcaster NHK said embassy officials were reluctant to go meet the two men outside the town because of the danger of Muslim rebels and criminal gangs. The area where the pair supposedly were found is notorious for ransom kidnappings and attacks by Muslim separatists, who have waged war for three decades. Communist rebels also are active.

It wasn’t clear how the two had lived on Mindanao all these years, but there was speculation they might have married Filipina wives and even adopted Filipino names.

Japan’s Kyodo News agency said the two might be Yoshio Yamakawa, 87, and Tsuzuki Nakauchi, 85, from the 30th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army.

The Philippines, then a US colony, was a major battleground in the Pacific. Japanese occupation is remembered as brutal and marked by massacres of civilians and deaths of hundreds of thousands of US and Filipino soldiers.

Last September, a Japanese national in the lumber business in Mindanao ran into the men in the mountains, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported Friday. It was learned later that they wanted to go back to Japan but were afraid they would be court-martialed for withdrawing from action, the Sankei said.

Years after the war ended, there were signs in the Philippines indicating Japanese soldiers were still in the hills.

A few surrendered as late as 1948, then in March 1974, intelligence officer Lt. Hiroo Onoda came out of hiding on Lubang island off Mindoro. He refused to give up until the Japanese government flew in his former commander to formally inform him the war was over. — AP