| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Jihad Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
Here's a strange one. Have you heard that the Japanese are looking for a couple of World War II soldiers, both in their mid- to late-eighties, who may still be alive and in the Philippines? Well, some reports have indicated that Islamic jihadists from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have the old men and are demanding that Japan play the dhimmi and pay for their ransom. Japanese officials deny this. From the Gulf Times, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
GENERAL SANTOS: A Japanese embassy official denied yesterday that guerrillas had demanded a ransom for two former World War II soldiers reported to be hiding near this southern Philippines city."We have no such information on guerrillas," the Japanese embassy's press attache, Shuhei Ogawa, told reporters when questioned about a report in a Tokyo newspaper.
Asked if any money had been requested in return for the two soldiers, Ogawa said, "No, nothing".
He was commenting after Mainichi Shimbun reported yesterday that Philippine rebels are demanding $232,000 ransom in exchange for "delivering" the two men to Japanese authorities.
Mainichi cited a Japanese businessman who reported their presence.
The newspaper did not say if the pair were being held against their will and did not identify the rebel group.On Saturday Ogawa said Philippines national police had warned Japanese diplomats, who are in this Mindanao island city to try to confirm reports about the old soldiers, not to go into the mountains because of the rebel threat.
The area is home to both the communist New People's Army and the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and other Muslim extremist groups. Muslim rebels are known to have conducted kidnappings for ransom.
But the MILF on Sunday said it had information on where the old soldiers were and offered to act as a go-between for the Japanese government.
"We would like to know what help the Japanese government want: Do they want us to assist in locating the men or assistance to bring them down from the mountains?" Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, told AFP in nearby Cotobato city where the MILF is holding a major conference on the future of peace talks with the Philippine government...
Posted by Robert at May 30, 2005 2:22 PM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
I read this story on Friday on the BBC site. It just said that there were two old Japanese men who had been living in a remote village since the end of the war. Unlike "the case of Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, who was found in the Philippines jungle in 1974, still carrying a rusty rifle and unaware that the war had ended." they knew the war was over, had married women from the local Moslem community and had their reasons for not returning to Japan. Which I took to mean they had deserted, or were reluctant to rejoin the rat race.
The BBC story as updated http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4589115.stm strangely leaves out all these family details. Hum.
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 30, 2005 4:55 PM
I heard that at least one of them is reputed to have helped the local Muslims train for war. That they were deserters is beyond doubt, but there is something more than any belated fear of Japanese military authorities behind this strange unwillingness to appear - and the MILF's equally strange offer to help find them.
I reckon everyone is speaking in code. Both Filipinos and Japanese are said to be very good at conveying their meaning indirectly.
Posted by: Paolo at May 31, 2005 9:12 AM
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)