1. Shoichi Yokoi was a Japanese soldier who served as a sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second World War, and was one of the last three Japanese holdouts to be found after the end of hostilities in 1945.
11 Facts About Shoichi Yokoi
1. 2.
Shoichi Yokoi was discovered in the jungles of Guam on 24 January 1972, almost 28 years after US forces had regained control of the island in 1944.
3.
Shoichi Yokoi was an apprentice tailor when he was conscripted in 1941.
4.
Shoichi Yokoi used native plants to make clothes, bedding, and storage implements, which he carefully hid in his cave.
5.
Shoichi Yokoi later said that he expected the local men to kill him at first but was surprised when instead they allowed him to eat hot soup at their home before turning him over to the authorities.
6.
Shoichi Yokoi was in relatively good health, but slightly anemic due to a lack of salt in his diet, according to doctors at Guam Memorial Hospital.
7.
Shoichi Yokoi's diet included wild nuts, mangos, papaya, shrimp, snails, frogs, and rats.
8.
Shoichi Yokoi became a popular television personality and an advocate of simple living.
9.
Shoichi Yokoi was featured in a 1977 documentary film called Yokoi and His Twenty-Eight Years of Secret Life on Guam.
10.
Shoichi Yokoi eventually received the equivalent of US$300 in back pay, and a small pension.
11.
Shoichi Yokoi died in 1997 of a heart attack at the age of 82.