THE FORGOTTEN STRAGGLERS

MASASHI ITO (left) and BUNZO MINAGAWA (right)
shortly after their capture in 1960

Mention Yokoi on Guam and practically everyone knows who we're talking about.

But Ito and Minagawa? Their names are all but unknown.

Yet, almost 12 years prior to the capture of Yokoi in early 1972, two Japanese stragglers were found on Guam in May of 1960.

MANIBUSAN AND SANTOS

MINAGAWA AND HIS CAPTORS

Like Yokoi, the first of the two to be found in 1960, Minagawa, was found by Chamorro men from Talofofo who were hunting. Vicente Manibusan and Clemente Santos, both young at 33 and brothers-in-law, were hunting coconut crab by Togcha when they saw a man in the distance. Just from the look of the man, they suspected he was a Japanese straggler.

They circled the area and found Minagawa up inside a breadfruit tree. When they called out to him, he jumped down and ran away. After about a quarter of a mile in pursuit, Manibusan and Santos caught up with Minagawa and struggled with him till he finally gave in. A hit on the head with the butt of Manibusan's rifle helped! Passing cars were hailed, but it was only the third car which cooperated and promised to call the police to send a patrol car to that area.

A fourth car, driven by Enrique Reyes of Talofofo, agreed to take the trio to the Yoña police precinct. Jesús Sehachi Sayama, a Japanese resident of Guam since long before the war, was living in Yoña and was asked to come to the police station and act as interpreter. Several hundred villagers gathered outside when news spread throughout the village. 

Minagawa had fought and screamed when Santos and Manibusan tried to seize him. At the police station, though no longer screaming, Minagawa wouldn't say a word, even with Sayama present. Not even donuts and coffee could loosen his lips. They waited for a police car to fetch them and take them to the main Agaña police headquarters. Then the Navy stepped in and took over.

FRIENDLY REUNION

Clemente Santos, Vicente Manibusan and Minagawa on Guam in 1964

CLEMENTE CAMACHO SANTOS

One of the two Chamorros who discovered Minagawa

ITO

ITO A FEW YEARS AFTER HIS CAPTURE

In time, Minagawa started to open up. During his questioning by authorities, Minagawa informed his captors that there was another Japanese soldier still hiding in the jungle by the name of Masashi Ito. Minagawa was willing to accompany the military police to Ito's hidden camp site and encourage him to surrender.

When the time arrived, the search party went by helicopter to the site and Minagawa called out to his compatriot. Ito emerged from hiding, waving a cloth, and turned himself in. Ito later said that knowing Minagawa was captured, he himself had to surrender because he could not make it by himself in Guam's jungle. He had survived so far in large part by having a partner. For the last two days he had been searching for Minagawa, not knowing he had been discovered.

There had been a third soldier in their company, Tetsuo Unno (some old newspapers call him Umino), who had died six years earlier due to illness which weakened him that he could not forage for food like the two others. Though the other two shared what they could and tended to him in his aches and pains and worsening cough, malnutrition set in and he died. They kept his bones for repatriation to Japan.

The two stragglers had a hideout in the Talofofo area, but apparently knew nothing about Yokoi. They made trips as far north as Pago Bay, and Manibusan thought he had spotted Minagawa before, while fishing at Ylig River and Bay. A man with long hair tied in a bun, just like Minagawa, was in the water. When Manibusan called out, the mysterious swimmer dove and disappeared. But Minagawa said that there were a few times he walked right down the main street in Talofofo, but late at night when he went to go fishing. Shows how quiet village life was in those days.

MINAGAWA AFTER HIS CAPTURE

The two were eventually repatriated to Japan, in good condition. They found jobs as security guards. All those years in the jungle needing to notice every movement and sound would make them excellent in patrolling the grounds of their employer's business.

Ito and Minagawa had suspected that the war was over and that Japan was no longer in charge of Guam, but they had no idea that Japan had surrendered and had been itself occupied by America. They refused to turn themselves in because it had been instilled in them that Americans killed their enemy captured.

Asked if they thought there were more Japanese holdouts hiding in Guam's jungles, they replied no. Boy were they wrong!

They returned to Guam, in fact, in 1964 to assist in a search for more stragglers reportedly seen but never captured. In 1972, that would change with the finding of Yokoi.

While back on Guam in 1964, they frequently met with their Chamorro captors, going to parties and eating at restaurants. Minagawa said he was thankful that Manibusan and Santos had spotted and captured him, otherwise he would not be back home in Japan, with a wife and a new life.

The discovery of the stragglers naturally made news all over the world