Lost WWII soldiers reported in mountains

GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines – Sixty years after the guns of World War II went silent, reports that two Japanese Imperial Army soldiers had been found in the mountains of the southern Philippines sent Japan’s diplomats on a frantic mission Friday to try to contact them.

The two men, in their 80s, reportedly have lived on the restive southern island of Mindanao since they were separated from their division, staying on for fear they would face court-martial if they returned to Japan.

A day of waiting at a hotel in General Santos, a city 600 miles south of Manila, turned to disappointment for Japanese 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 journalists, waiting to see them.

Diplomats were trying to schedule a meeting today 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 of the report that the men were the latest of a handful of old soldiers who held out on various islands for decades after the war ended in August 1945.

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

One veteran, Goichi Ichikawa, said he had heard of at least three Japanese men living in the mountains of Mindanao from someone who went there late last year and alerted Japan’s government in February.

“It’s amazing they were able to survive for 60 years,” Ichikawa told reporters in the Japanese city of Osaka. “Of course I was stunned.”

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