Masashi Itō (1921–2004)

An account of one of the most fascinating peculiarities of the Second World War that unfortunately left me none the wiser as to the motives of these people. Itō Masashi spent sixteen years hiding in the jungle, fifteen of them after the official Japanese surrender, and after reading his account I still don't really know why.

To be sure, Itō gets his points across, and some of the dynamics make sense for why he stayed in the jungle: they could not believe Japan would ever surrender, they had been ordered to hide in the forest and pursue a guerrilla war while waiting for relief, they believed the Americans executed all PoWs, the local tribesmen on Guam shot first (due to their understandable anti-Japanese animosity) and asked questions later, and so on.

But Itō never really gets into his own head: what could compel a man to live through such incredible and unnecessary hardship for so long? He does not come across (in his own account, admittedly) as a harsh, fanatical man, and he has doubts over the years as to whether the war has ended. It's almost as if he was lacking in imagination, coached as he was in the stern, fascistic military discipline that characterized Imperial Japan. It's a sort of mind-death that I cannot comprehend, and Itō's book doesn't really help me with this either.

Itō does touch upon some motives but never explores them, and the reader has to work hard for little substantial reward. It leaves you with a sense of dissatisfaction. Partly this might be because of the writing style: the translation into English sometimes makes the book sound inauthentic, with English-language idioms thrown into the mouth of a Japanese soldier. But it's not just the translation: we get little sense of the passage of time, and one moment it is 1945 and the next it is 1952, with as yet no hint of doubt in the minds of Itō and his companion.

Rather than the compelling stuff about motivation and fanaticism, the book is largely about the survival element: how to forage for food, provide shelter, cure sickness and avoid detection in the jungle. It's interesting enough, and this is a notable feat of endurance, but it's not what the reader really wants to know.

Like I said, though it is a fascinating story I still don't really have an understanding of it. Sixteen years in the jungle, and all because your troop leader told you to scatter and wait for the inevitable glorious counterattack to relieve you. (And sixteen years isn't even the longest: one soldier finally surrendered in 1974, nearly thirty years after the war.) That such a story should remain so stubbornly unfathomable is perhaps appropriate.… (meer)

Ito Masashi arrived on Guam with the Japanese Army in 1944. After the Americans arrived and the battle began, Ito and a few others became separated from the main unit. Following their commander's instructions, they hid themselves in the jungle to await reinforcements from Japan. He stayed hidden for 16 years, long after the war had ended. Ito and other stragglers organized themselves into small units, and their activities were completely focused on survival. They were able to gather useful material from American rubbish dumps, and they fashioned tools for catching, killing, and cooking live animals, implements to collect water, needles and scraps of material to sew clothes, and shoes from tires.

When Ito and his remaining companion were discovered in 1960, they had difficulty adjusting to life outside the jungle. They believed they had walked into a trap, and that the Americans intended to kill them. Ito continued to believe this until he landed on Japanese soil after spending several days in a Guam hospital. Ito continued to talk to his jungle companion in the low voice that had been necessary for their survival in the jungle, even though he was aware that there was no longer a need to do so. After their years of isolation, they were overwhelmed by the crowds and the media attention. Ito was aware that his withdrawal was probably hurting his mother, but he continued to prefer solitude to company. He had trouble sleeping since he had spent years listening for the slightest noise that might signal that he was in danger of being discovered. Ito concluded his story shortly after his return to Japan. I would like to know more about his life since then. Was he able to re-integrate into Japanese society and culture? How did his experience in the jungles of Guam continue to impact his life?

Ito and his companion, Minakawa, believed that they were the last Japanese stragglers on Guam. By 1960, it had been several years since they had encountered any other stragglers in the jungle. They both believed that it would have been impossible for either of them to survive in the jungle on their own. However, another Japanese straggler was discovered in 1972 after 28 years in the jungle.

This is strictly a survival story. Ito doesn't address political issues, causes of the war, or military strategy. It will probably be of more interest to readers of survival adventures than to readers of military history.… (meer)