Thursday, April 20, 2006

More bizarre news from Japan

Stories of old Japanese soldiers who never came home after WWII, and who are still hiding out in the jungle somewhere (perhaps even imagining the war to be ongoing), crop up in folklore and also every so often appear in the Japanese press. Usually, they fade away, apparently an unsubstantiated rumour (there have been famous cases like Hiroo Onoda in 1972).

But then a story like this appears in today's paper - ok, he wasn't actually hiding and didn't think the war was still continuing, but it's still quite a surprise. He was even declared officially dead a few years ago in Japan, but has been living all this time - complete with family (at least, a son) in Sakhalin. Wow.

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