There have been dozens of stories of Japanese soldiers found more or less recently in the jungle of the Philippines or some small Pacific island who thought that the war hadn't ended and continued to "fight" for the emperor. Just imagine yourself living completely cut from civilisation for 60 years, without having access to tap water, without soap, without any consumer good, wearing the samew clothes everyday... This alone is absolutely amazing. Most of these Japanese were in their late teens or early twenties in 1945. So they spent about 3/4 of their life after that living like Cro-magnon men, without the social life...

What kind of education can instill people such will and stubbornness to live in so dreadful conditions for such a long time ? It makes it easier to comprehend how similarly young Japanese gave their lives without hesitation while fighting the Americans at the end of the war, be them kamikaze pilots or soldiers that would fight to death or even commit suicide rather than surrender.

Imagine the shock it must have been for someone who has lived for 60 years in the jungle, hunting or fishing everyday to survive, being told that those 60 years were useless, wasted in the name of the emperor, and most of all, that Japan had prospered like never before since the end of the war and had ever since been one of the USA's closest ally. Imagine the shock it must be for someone who hardly knew black & white TV to come back home and see colour TV on mobile phones, computers with realistic 3D animation, a totally different lifestyle and fashion, knowing that we have been on the moon or that during all these years spent in the jungle the average Japanese lived with an refrigerator, air conditioning or washing machine at home.

But what amazes me most is how these Japanese soldiers managed to live past their 80's (i.e. above the highest life expectancy in the world for men) with a probably quite unbalanced and poor nutritition, tropical diseases, poisonous animals (on which one must stumble at leats a few times in 60 years in the jungle !), no comfort, no social contact, no medicine and no hygiene. This defies all we were told about how to live a long life. In fact, if even a dozen were found in their eighties, how many weren't found yet or died after years or decades in the jungle ? My guess is that there must have been thousands, most of whom probably died from diseases and malnutrition in the first decade after 1945, then gradually with time. So many wasted lives, but what perseverance !