Japanese war veteran reports 'fourth-hand at best'

GENERAL SANTOS - Few foreigners venture to Mindanao, an island in the southern Philippines notorious as a stronghold of Muslim rebels and a hotbed of kidnap gangs.

Now it is crawling with Japanese reporters desperate to find two World War II veterans said to have strolled out of the jungle after 60 years.

Japanese diplomats face two challenges: separating fact from fiction about the soldiers, while shielding a gaggle of journalists from danger in one of the world's most unpredictable troublespots.

The port of General Santos, on Mindanao's southern tip, became a focus of frenzied attention following reports of the soldiers.

According to some, the pair - now in their mid-80s - were unaware the war had ended, but expressed the wish to go home.

The Japanese Embassy in Manila says it was alerted to their existence by a timber industry businessman.

Officials are still waiting in their hotel for the pair to turn up and diplomats have admitted the reports were, at best, fourth-hand.

The businessman had not met the mystery men himself, they said, and he had obtained his information from a Filipino contact, who heard about them from another Filipino.

The embassy's press attache, Shuhei Ogawa, said the men might be deterred by the presence of large crowds of journalists in the city.

But he also played down the reports, saying: "This type of information comes in all the time. We really have no idea if these two people exist."

There is suspicion that the whole thing may be a hoax or kidnap trap.

Police commander Robert Kunisala said: "There are kidnap gangs operating near the mountains and the story could be the bait."

More than 100 Japanese journalists have converged on General Santos. Embassy officials have warned them not to leave town and to decline offers from would-be guides.

Some are now starting to doubt the story after the Japanese Embassy contact - a trader who only gave his name as Asano - began asking for money in exchange for information.

A member of a Japanese television network said Asano even offered to sell video of the two stragglers. Some reporters said that Asano was also asking for money to cover his expenses in locating them.

Another said Asano told them he had paid US$50,000 ($71,000) to the "guerrillas" holding the stragglers.

The Japanese media have speculated that the pair are Yoshio Yamakawa, a former corporal, and Tsuzuki Nakauchi, a first lieutenant, both from the 30th Division of the Imperial Army. If alive, they would be aged 87 and 85 respectively.

Japan occupied the Philippines from 1941. In the final months of the war, the 30th Division fought fierce battles against United States troops.

In 1974, Lieutenant Hiroo Onada was discovered with his rusty rifle on Lubang Island. He refused to leave the jungle until ordered by his former commanding officer.

If two men have indeed spent the past six decades hiding in Mindanao, convinced that war was continuing, it would be one of the most extraordinary stories to emerge in years.

What seems more likely - if the pair exist - is that they knew the war was over, but decided to stay. According to one Japanese newspaper, one of the veterans married a local woman and had children with her.

- INDEPENDENT, additional reporting Reuters