Japan's renegade hero gives Saipan new hope

[AsahinaKimi]

'Last samurai' who fought on after war's end may be tourism savior

Unbowed: Renegade Capt. Sakae Oba surrenders his sword to a U.S. officer on Dec. 1, 1945. PHOTO COURTESY OF GORDON MARCIANO

By ROB GILHOOLY
Special to The Japan Times

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands — Graciano Lisua doesn't look like someone who would get too worked up about ghosts. Yet superstition, says the broad-shouldered, barrel-chested Chomorron as he leans on his machete, is of great import for the inhabitants of the Mariana Islands.


Past continuous: Wartime Japanese artifacts in a "Harakiri Gulch" cave. Below: guides hack a way through jungle in an area that Oba favored. ROB GILHOOLY PHOTO


Traditionally, it seems, the aboriginal Chomorro people believe in taotaomona — spirits of the dead that are said to occupy, and even haunt, the mountains and jungles.

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[Marengo]

1. Interesting article, I look forward to the film N/T

[Philippine expat]

2. Interesting story but

I disagree with the title because there were holdouts on other islands where
Japanese soldiers held out for years.

[madrchsod]

3. a war so long ago is still haunting...