Word: morotai
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Yokoi immediately became a national hero. When the second "last soldier" of World War II, Lieut. Hiroo Onoda, was found in the Philippines last March, Tokyo sent a chartered jet to bring him home. When a third last soldier was captured on the remote Indonesian island of Morotai last month, the Japanese began to show a little embarrassment. How many more aging sons of Nippon can still be fighting for the Emperor in remote corners of the Pacific...
Like his predecessors, Private Teruo Nakamura was motivated to hold out both by fear of capture and fidelity to orders. After a final banzai charge against invading U.S. troops failed in January 1945, radio contact between Tokyo and Morotai was lost. Nakamura, who was separated from other members of his commando unit, managed to avoid capture and built a grass hut deep in the jungle. He survived by raising potatoes and picking bananas off the trees. "My commanding officer told me to fight it out," he explained. Last month he was spotted by a Morotai native, who alerted Indonesian authorities...