Mr. Shoichi Yokoi, a former Japanese soldier who hid in Guam unaware of the end of the Pacific War, was discovered in January 1972 and returned to Japan the following February.[Voir les photos]After 28 years in hiding, Shoichi Yokoi’s clothes had a “peculiar smell”… About 10,000 days of fierce life in the jungle. The “memorial hall” he appealed to was that of the legendary remaining Japanese soldiers who were closed, but his wife, Mihoko, always spoke of the preciousness of peace, seeing and hearing what he thought of life in the jungle and war after returning to Japan. Starting at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 3, 2022, the “memorial meeting for Mihoko Yokoi” began at a hotel room in Naka Ward, Nagoya City. The callers were my nephew, Daimi Hatashin (55, Osaka City). Shin Hata, who supported Mihoko, who died in May this year, in her final years. Since 2020, the year of the corona disaster, Mihoko has been staying at Shin Hata’s parents’ house in Kyoto. Mihoko partially remodeled her house in Nagoya in 2006, and since then she has opened it to the public for free every Sunday as director of the Shoichi Yokoi Memorial Museum, but the museum will officially close on September 3, Ms. Hatshin. At the memorial, many people heard directly from Mihoko about the tragedy of the Guam war and the thoughts of Mrs. Yokoi… I imagine that the news of the museum’s closure reflects the passage of time, or the feeling of empty.
■Meeting in Nagoya… The people who lived with the Yokoi couple talk
Gathered in a hotel room in Nagoya were former journalists who interviewed Mr Yokoi when he returned to Japan, and a former curator of the Nagoya City Museum, where Guam’s everyday objects are kept. by Mr. Yokoi. Mihoko and recommended making picture books together. Distant people participated remotely and around 30 people mourned the deceased. One of the episodes told by the participants was that the clothes Yokoi wore in the jungle had a unique strong smell. After returning to Japan, events were held in various places to display the living hand-made tools that Mr. Yokoi used in the jungle. It was a story that he could feel the hardness of his life because of the smell that clung to him. In the past two years, I’ve never heard of Mihoko-san about the smell of handmade clothes. However, he said, “The hole I also entered was not suitable for humans to live in.” Looking back on Yokoi’s 28 years in the jungle, I can’t help but say he was a superhuman with intelligence and physical strength.
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