Shoichi Yokoi
| Shōichi Yokoi | |
|---|---|
Shōichi Yokoi
|
|
| Native name | 横井 庄一 |
| Born |
March 31, 1915 Saori, Aichi Prefecture, Japan |
| Died | September 22, 1997 (aged 82) Nagoya, Japan |
| Allegiance |
 Empire of Japan
|
| Service/branch |
 Imperial Japanese Army 1941–1944 |
| Years of service | 1941–1972 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Battles/wars | |
Shōichi Yokoi (横井 庄一 Yokoi Shōichi?, March 31, 1915 – September 22, 1997) was a Japanese sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during the Second World War. He was among the last three Japanese holdouts to be found after the end of hostilities in 1945, discovered in the jungles of Guam on 24 January 1972, almost 28 years after US forces had regained control of the island in 1944.
Yokoi was born in Saori, Aichi Prefecture. He was an apprentice tailor when he was conscripted in 1941.
Initially, Yokoi served with the 29th Infantry Division in Manchukuo. In 1943, he was transferred to the 38th Regiment in the Mariana Islands and arrived on Guam in February 1943. When American forces captured the island in the 1944 Battle of Guam, Yokoi went into hiding with nine other Japanese soldiers. Seven of the original ten eventually moved away and only three remained in the region. These men separated but visited each other until about 1964, when the other two died in a flood. The last eight years Yokoi lived alone. Yokoi survived by hunting, primarily at night. He used native plants to make clothes, bedding, and storage implements, which he carefully hid in his cave.
On the evening of 24 January 1972, Yokoi was discovered in the jungle by Jesus Dueñas and Manuel De Gracia, two local men checking their shrimp traps along a small river on Talofofo. They had assumed Yokoi was a villager from Talofofo, but he thought his life was in danger and attacked them. They managed to subdue him and carried him out of the jungle with minor bruising.
"It is with much embarrassment that I return," he said upon his return to Japan. The remark quickly became a popular saying in Japanese.
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