18 Japs Finally Accept The

End Of The War

AN extraordinary sequel to the Pacifie war was the discovery that 18 Japanese still were holding out on Anatahan (a small mountainous island in the Marianas, about 60 miles north of Saipan).

On June 10, 1944, American planes sank three Jap merchantmen in Anatahan harbour, and 33 Japanese personnel scrambled ashore. They made a camp and lived on the country; and they had a machine-gun and a few rifles.

When, at the end of the war, American warships visited the island, the Japanese refused to surrender and insisted that their country was not beaten. The Yanks left them to it; and they have lived precariously there ever since. Their numbers decreased slowly to 18.

In 1951, when the Americans found that the Japanese remnant was still defiant, they asked the Japanese Government to act. So, recently, a US Navy beach party left in Anatahan, near the Jap camp, a waterproof box containing photographs and documents, including a letter from the Japanese Government telling them that the war was over, and their families wanted them to come home.

The Japanese surrendered to the Ameri cans in June and were sent home to Japan.

If the plan had not worked, the Navy would have sent a party ashore, to take the camp by direct assault.