Shoichi Yokoi as a young Army Sgt. A tailor by trade, he was conscripted in 1941. In 1944, after U.S. forces retook Guam, he was the sole survivor of his 20,000 man garrison. (Public Domain)
By Donn Nemchick
In 1972, I was stationed at the Naval Communication Center in Guam when the news of Shoichi Yokoi’s capture by two Chamorro hunter/fishermen who were clearing their traps in the Guamanian jungles was reported. An Imperial Japanese soldier, Yokoi spent the last 28 years in hiding, unable to accept that the war was truly over. I remember being amazed to learn he’d been living in a cave very near the unspoiled Tala’fo’fo’ Falls and Ugum river basin, our favorite hiking and swimming area.
Strange as it may seem, it was not inconceivable for him to think that the war had not ended. The US Navy and Marines often trained in those Guamanian jungles and during the Vietnam War years, he would have seen daily flights of B52 bombers headed to Vietnam from Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base as well as other military aircraft flying daily operations.
Shoichi Yokoi was intent on not surrendering and the two Chamorro men were surprised when the weak 57-year-old soldier fought them for their rifles and had to be subdued. To avoid dishonor, Yokoi asked them to kill him. Instead, they treated him with compassion and took him in, feeding him hot soup before turning him over to the island authorities. When interviewed by the Japanese Consul, Yokoi knew it was 1972. He’d kept track of time by the phases of the moon.
Later, it was learned that Shoichi Yokoi had survived eating shrimp, fish, toads, and jungle vegetation. To avoid detection, he moved about only at night, covered by darkness and thick jungle growth.
Not long after he was discovered, Yokoi returned to Japan to a hero’s welcome. The trauma of his experience in Guam was never fully revealed and for the rest of his life Yokoi struggled with nightmares of being chased by the enemy. He returned to the island of Guam several times before his death from a heart attack in September 1997 at the age of 82.
Donn Nemchick was a Petty Officer in the US Navy and served in Southeast Asia and the Pacific from 1971 to 1974.
