Masashi Itō

Japanese soldier
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroJapanese soldier
PlacesJapan
wasSoldier
Work fieldMilitary
Gender
Male
Birth1921
Death2004 (aged 83 years)
The details

Biography

Masashi Itō (伊藤 正, 1921–2004) was a machine-gunner and sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second World War. He was among the last hold-outs to surrender after the war ended.

War years and post-war survival

When the Americans invaded Guam in July 1944, Masashi was separated from his unit. He hid with two other soldiers and learned to survive in the jungle. For sixteen years, he hid even after finding leaflets declaring that the war had ended.

Surrender

When the last of his companions, Bunzō Minagawa (皆川文蔵), was captured by woodsmen in 1960, Masashi was convinced to surrender on 23 May 1960 and was treated at a nearby American military base.

Later life

Masashi married on January 7, 1961, and had a daughter. A movie was made about his life. He later worked as a watchman for the Toei Motion Picture Company in Tokyo. He wrote a book about his experiences entitled The Emperor's Last Soldiers, published in 1967.

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 26 Jul 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.