Yokoi Shōichi
Yokoi Shōichi (横井 庄一; March 31, 1915 – September 22, 1997 ) was a member of the Imperial Japanese Army who served as a holdout in the Guam jungle from 1944 to 1972 .
Originally a trained tailor, he served as a non-commissioned officer in the 38th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Manchurian Division , an elite Japanese unit.
story
When US troops under General Douglas MacArthur gradually recaptured the Japanese-occupied island of Guam in the summer of 1944, Yokoi withdrew into the jungle with some members of his unit. The news of the surrender of Japandid not reach the group at first. Even the discovery of a leaflet in 1952 that informed about the end of the war did not persuade Yokoi to give up and return to civilization, as he considered surrender dishonorable. After his last two companions died in 1964, he held out for another eight years, living in a small, self-dug burrow; he fed on nuts, snails, frogs, crabs, birds and rats, among other things. In 1972 he was spotted by fishermen looking for crayfish and was overpowered when he attacked them. His discovery on January 24, 1972 caused a great deal of media attention, and more than 70 million Japanese watched his return on television.
He commented on his return by saying:
「恥ずかしながらきながらえて、帰ってきました。」
"Hazukashinagara ikinagaraete, kaette kimashita."
"I am very embarrassed to return alive."
This saying – which has to be seen in the context of the heroic death in battle that was expected at the time instead of surrender and flight – has meanwhile become a dictum.
Yokoi spent 83 days in a Tokyo hospital after his return. After disappearing from the front pages again, he married six months after his return and retired to the countryside in Aichi Prefecture . He worked as a survival coach and wrote guides on healthy eating. In 1991 he received an audience with Emperor Akihito . He considered this the greatest honor of his life.
See also
- Onoda Hirō and Nakamura Teruo , other Japanese soldiers not discovered until decades after the war ended.
web links
- Sebastian Leber: The Late Peace of Yokoi Shoichi. In: Tagesspiegel , January 22, 2012.
- Maria Kronbichler: The soldier for whom the Second World War only ended in 1972. DiePresse.com from January 24, 2012.
- Christoph Gunkel: The lonely fight of the soldier Yokoi . In: one day from January 24, 2012
itemizations
- ↑ Christoph Gunkel: The lonely fight of the soldier Yokoi . In: one day from January 24, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Yokoi, Shōichi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 横井庄一 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese soldier who failed to receive news of Japan's surrender in the jungles of Guam |
| BIRTH DATE | March 31, 1915 |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 22, 1997 |