10. An Extreme Holdout That Lasted Until the End of 1974
Teruo Nakamura’s unit had been ordered to disperse into the jungle and conduct guerrilla warfare. By the time Japan surrendered in 1945, He and his remaining comrades were deep in Morotai’s jungle, cut off from communications with Japanese authorities. They thus had no means of receiving official notice that the war was over. As with other extreme Japanese holdouts, they dismissed leaflets airdropped over the jungle, advising of war’s end, as enemy propaganda. Nakamura stayed with his steadily dwindling group until 1956, when he set off on his own.
He built himself a hut inside a small field that he hacked out of the rain forest, in which he grew tubers and bananas to supplement his meager diet. Because of his aboriginal tribal upbringing, he was self-sufficient and able to survive in the wild. He stayed in the jungle, isolated and alone, until he was spotted by a pilot in 1974. That led to an Indonesian military search mission, which eventually tracked down and arrested Nakamura on December 28th, 1974. Thus ended the longest-known Japanese holdout.
