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Teruo Nakamura (中村 輝夫, Nakamura Teruo, born Attun Palalin;[1][2] also known as Suniuo;[3][4] 8 October 1919 – 15 June 1979) was a Taiwanese-Japanese soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army who fought for JapaninWorld War II and did not surrender until 1974. He was the last known Japanese holdout to surrender after the end of hostilities in 1945.
Teruo Nakamura
| |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Attun Palalin |
| Born | (1919-10-08)8 October 1919 Toran, Taitō Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan |
| Died | 15 June 1979(1979-06-15) (aged 59) Donghe, Taitung, Taiwan |
| Allegiance |  Empire of Japan |
| Service/ |  Imperial Japanese Army |
| Years of service | 1943–1945 (continued service until 1974) |
| Rank | Private |
| Unit | 4th Takasago Volunteer Unit 高砂義勇隊 |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Nakamura was an Amis aborigine, born 8 October 1919. In November 1943, he enlisted in a Takasago Volunteer Unit of the Imperial Japanese Army. Nakamura was stationed on Morotai Island, in the Dutch East Indies, shortly before the Allies overran that island in the September 1944 Battle of Morotai. Allegedly, the Imperial Japanese Army declared Nakamura dead on 13 November 1944.[3]
After the Allies captured the island, it appears Nakamura remained there with other stragglers well into the 1950s, though setting off for extended periods on his own. In 1956, apparently, he relinquished his allegiance with his fellow holdouts, and set off to construct a solitary camp consisting of a small hut in a 20 m × 30 m (66 ft × 98 ft) fenced field.[5]
Nakamura's hut was accidentally discovered by a pilot in mid-1974. In November of that year, the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta requested assistance from the Indonesian government in organizing a search mission, which was conducted by the Indonesian Air Force on Morotai, leading to Nakamura's arrest by Indonesian soldiers on 18 December 1974. He was flown to Jakarta and hospitalized there.
News of his discovery reached Japan on 27 December. Nakamura decided to be repatriated straight to Taiwan, bypassing Japan. Upon his return, the Taiwanese press referred to him as Lee Kuang-hui (李光輝), a name he learned of only after his repatriation.[3] Initially, the Republic of China government on Taiwan did not receive him well, seeing him as a Japanese loyalist.[2][6]
At the time, the Japanese public's perceptions of Nakamura and his repatriation differed considerably from those of earlier holdouts, such as Hirō Onoda, who had been discovered only a few months earlier and was both an officer and ethnically Japanese. As a private in a colonial unit on foreign soil, Nakamura was not entitled to a pension (due to a 1953 change in the law on pensions), and he thus received only the sum of ¥68,000.[1] Following considerable outcry in the press, the government made an exception for Nakamura and offered him ¥3.5 million in total on top of ¥750,000 in public donations from Japanese citizens.[7]
Five years after his repatriation, on 15 June 1979, Nakamura died of lung cancer.[6]