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Japanese WWII veteran Yoshio Ideguchi survived on eating snails in Saipan jungle

Lexi Zotomayor by Lexi Zotomayor
4 years ago
in War in the Pacific
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Long after Captain Oba Sakae had surrendered to the American forces on Saipan, a paratrooper stayed behind several more months and survived on eating snails in the jungle.

Japanese veteran Yoshio Ideguchi, through translators, Kyodo News reporters Eiichiro Ishiyama and Makoto Hori, said he hid in the jungles until July 1945.

For Ideguchi, the announcement for them to surrender sounded strange at first until a native speaker of Japanese made the plea and he finally caved in and surfaced.

Born on Oct. 8, 1925, Ideguchi was 18 when he joined the Japanese Imperial Navy. After completing training in Nagasaki, he deployed to Saipan via Yokosuka and arrived here in February 1944. At the time, the Japanese forces were fortifying their defenses on Saipan.

While en route from Yokosuka to Saipan, Ideguchi said he feared the American submarines would attack their ship. He also said he didn’t know that they were going to Saipan. “It was confidential.”

As to invasion of Saipan by the Americans, Ideguchi said he was lucky to have survived. He was among the 60 Karashima paratroopers, he said, and that they were no match to the American superior weapons and relentless bombing.

He said he could no longer remember as to how he managed to return to their base unscathed.

Ideguchi, who had visited Saipan for more than 30 times, returned in June 2014 to participate in the commemoration of the battle that pitted the Americans and the Japanese against each other.

Ideguchi said he appreciated peace and the camaraderie of the people on island.

He shared a festive occasion at the Manamko’ Center, the facility where senior citizens gather daily for activities, where they shared music from their time. For Ideguchi, it was a universal language that all them could understand.

Tags: KyodoYokosuka
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Lexi Zotomayor

Lexi Zotomayor

She lived on Saipan, in the Northern Marianas Islands for 11 years as a full-time print journalist, PR specialist, magazine manager and advertising agency's production coordinator. She was active with Stellar Marianas, a non-profit organization that has been empowering young women in the Marianas. In 2014, she was chair of the media relations committee of the 70th Anniversary of the Battles of Saipan/Tinian. For her support of environmental causes, including the campaign for the designation of a vast swath of submerged lands and water in the Marianas as a national marine monument, she was Pew/Ocean Legacy Engaged Citizen Awardee in 2008. She has a BA degree in Asian Studies and was close to completing her MA in Asian Studies when she relocated to Saipan in 2004. She was a recipient of a scholarship grant from the Jose Rizal-Sun Yat Sen Society in 1994.

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