Even though the youngest survivors would be well into their eighties, the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare fears that some veterans may not know that the war is over.

It has begun a mission to retrieve the hidden fighters after receiving tip-offs that several Japanese may still be on the Philippine island of Luzon. The team of three ministry negotiators and two former veterans of the war in the Philippines will spend a week looking for four survivors.

The ministry acknowledges that the search may have come too late, but says that it has a duty to do everything in its power to retrieve even the remains of fallen members of the Imperial Army.

Yoshihiko Terashima, 82, one of the veterans who will accompany the mission, remained under arms in the Philippines for five years after the surrender and is the president of a veterans’ organisation. “If they are there, then my father will bring them home,” his son, Kazuhiko, told the South China Morning Post.

The decision to send the mission was made on the basis of information from a Japanese soldier who voluntarily stayed in Manila after the war. Like many Japanese soldiers, he worked his way into local society and for years passed himself off as a local resident.

Before his death, in 1996, he is thought to have made contact with Japanese soldiers still hiding in the mountains near his home. Other corroborating evidence comes from Japanese voluntary groups, who make regular visits to the Philippines to look for the remains of those missing in action. These groups have forged strong links with local people, and have learnt to sift good information from bad.

A ministry spokesman said: “Even if the reports are accurate, it is very likely that the men made their decision to stay there and lead a normal life with local people.”

In 1974, acting on similar information, the Japanese government found Michio Onoda, a former second lieutenant, who had survived in the jungles. He was unaware that the war had ended. Despite pleas from his family and Japanese officials, Lieutenant Onoda refused to surrender until ordered to do so by his former commanding officer.

In 1972, Shoichi Yokota was found still standing guard on Guam. The former tailor’s apprentice was armed with a rusting machinegun and wearing clothes made from fibres from hibiscus plants. Two of his comrades had died of starvation eight years earlier.

Historians say that the emergence of Japanese soldiers decades after the end of war reflects how the island outposts were seen by both sides in the conflict. As American and Australian forces advanced, they avoided islands of little strategic value. Japanese soldiers manning those positions were left to starve or surrender when they eventually found out that the war was over.

At the same time, the Japanese military taught its soldiers that surrender was a terrible dishonour. soldiers were trained to live off the land wherever they were posted.

If any soldiers are found, they might be better off remaining where they are: many who have tried to return to Japan after extended periods in the jungle, such as Lieutenant Onoda, have had considerable difficulties returning to a country that has changed beyond recognition from the one they left more than 60 years ago.

No surrender...

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