Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 9:00am

January 24, 1972: Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi is Captured

 

If there were any question as to the fanaticism, or raw courage and determination if one prefers, of the Japanese military during World War II, the tale of Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi would have answered it.  For 28 years after the liberation of Guam he survived in the jungles, initially with nine other soldiers.  He learned in 1952 that Japan had lost the War, but he did not surrender because Japanese soldiers did not do that.  On January 24, 1972 he was discovered by two local villagers on Guam who subdued him and brought him from the jungle with minor bruising.  On returning to Japan he said, “It is with much embarrassment, but I have returned.”

Two Japanese soldiers of World War II surrendered in 1974 and none since then.  Shoichi Yokoi married, became a popular television personality and advocated leading an austere lifestyle.  He passed away in 1997, his tombstone being the one purchased by his mother in 1955 under the assumption that he was dead.

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Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Tuesday, January 24, AD 2017 7:20am

Donald, your historical posts are always informative and fascinating. Thanks.
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Maybe you could do one on an A.A. Historical Note  …..
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Bill Wilson (AA’s founder along with Dr. Bob Smith) was born on November 26, 1895, and passed away on January 24, 1971.
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(at the age of 75 )………..46 years ago, today!!
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He and Dr. Bob based the AA program – its 12 Steps and 12 Traditions – on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, St. Paul’s Love Chapter in 1st Corinthians 13, and the faith without works is dead philosophy of the Epistle of St. James.
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For this once drunken dope fiend but now a recovering alcoholic drug addict that’s what works.
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Thanks.

Mary De Voe
Wednesday, January 25, AD 2017 8:22am

If Yokoi went back to Japan he would have been executed anyway.

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