Sixteen years of jungle survival came to an abrupt end Saturday for Japanese Private First Class Bunzo Minagawa when two Talofofo villagers seized him in an early morning struggle.
END JUNGLE LIFE - Bunzo Minagawa (left) and Masahi Ito ended 16 years of jungle survival
last week.
FIRST PHOTO of Japanese straggler Bunzo Minagawa was taken at Agana Police Station
before he was taken to Guam Memorial Hospital for a physical examintation.
Vincente C. Manibusan and Clemente C. Santos, of Talofofo Village, went into the Togcha area early Saturday morning to hunt for coconut crabs.
Manibusan said when they reached an area near Togcha Cliff they saw a person walking about 300 feet away dressed in short trousers and shirt.
The two men said they suspected it was a Japanese straggler so they ran to higher ground. They said they circled the area and heard noises like coconuts hitting the ground. The two men investigated and saw the straggler, Minagawa, in a a bread fruit tree about 40 feet high.
Manibusan said he then shouted "Company," a word meaning friend in Japanese. The straggler threw himself to the ground and started running away with the two Talofofo men in pursuit.
Manibusan and Santos said they caught the straggler after a quarter mile chase. A brief struggle ensued before the Talofofo villagers overpowered the straggler.
RAIN WATER was trapped by the stragglers using this inner tube clamped at on end with a
down-spout left in the top. A hole in the tube was plugged with a small piece of wood. When plug was
removed a small stream of water gushed from the hole creating a fountain for drinking
The two men then took Minagawa to Route 4 and flagged down two vehicles. Upon learning that Manibusan and Santos had seized a Japanese straggler the drivers drove off.
EQUIPMENT USED BY THE STRAGGLERS include files, knives, buckets, and clothing fashioned
by the two men. The Zorries in the lower center of the picture were fashioned from tires and wire. A
flashlight lens was used to start fires during their 16 years of jungle living.
A third car was then stopped and the driver was asked to go to the nearest telephone and call the Guam Police. A fourth car driven by a Talofofo Villager took the three men to Yona Sub-Station where an Agana Police car transported the three to Agana Police Station.
Minagawa was interviewed at Agana Police Station after a medical examination by a Guam Memorial Hospital physician who said his condition was fair.
The following account of Minagawa's 16 years of jungle survival was told in a press conference held by officials Saturday afternoon.
Through an interpreter Minagawa said he was not married and had come to Guam in 1943 when he was 22 years old. He said he landed at Sumay and remained there for about two weeks. He and other troops were then transported to a place known as Kitamura (translation--Village of the North).
They returned to Sumay about two weeks later and remained there for about two months before the Americans started the invasion of Guam.
When American planes began bombing the Sumay area Minagawa said the Japanese troops dispersed and he and five other soldiers moved away from Sumay in an easterly direction.
Shortly thereafter the group split up and Minagawa was left alone.
He traveled inland and remained in the vicinity of Fena Dam for 16 years.
AT THE NAVAL HOSPITAL == Bunzo Ninagawa (right) and Masashi Ito are reported to be in
fair physical condition according to a Naval Hospital spokesman. The two Japanese stragglers ate
coconuts, bread fruit and other wild fruit found in the jungles of Guam to stay alive.
Minagawa said he stayed there because the area is heavily wooded and was not populated. He first thought that fighting had stopped two years later since fewer American planes were seen in the air over Guam.
Officials at the press conference said Minagawa ate coconuts and wild fruit and drank rain water to stay alive during his 16 years of jungle survival. Minagawa told interpreters he never visited a farm or village because he was afraid of being caught.
He said he slept on the ground and moved his sleeping location frequently so he would not be discovered.
Federal and Territorial officials said no charges were lodged against Minagawa and that he would be turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Services.
Minagawa was taken to the Naval Hospital for physical examinations and rest after the interview. He is expected to remain there for four days.
Ito Found In Yona Jungle Monday
MASASHI ITO was a member of Unit 8, 63rd Battalion, Tobokofu City, Yamanashi, before the
American Liberation of Guam began in 1944.
Masashi Ito, 40, a fellow Japanese straggler of Bunzo Minagawa, was found in a Yona jungle early Monday. Ito, a technical sergeant in the Japanese Army, gave himself up after being called by Minagawa.
Minagawa told Navy investigators about his companion Ito and accompanied the search party in a helicopter to the stragglers campsite.
The helicopter set down about 100 yards away from the campsite and Minagawa called out to his companion. Shortly thereafter one of the members of the search party saw Ito emerging from the underbrush waving a small light colored piece of cloth signifing his surrender.
Ito was then transported to the Naval Hospital for a physical examination at which time authorities listed his condition as satisfactory.
The search party said the straggler's campsite is located about 200 yards south of the cross-island highway about 100 yards from an unfinished structure built about ten years ago to house Marines.
Ito and Minagawa are under observation at the Naval Hospital at the request of Federal authorities.
