From Insta-Glenn (who has linked me for the first time, woohoo! [Quit your jubilations, dude. --- ed. Awww shuddup I never asked him to link to me, just glad he found me maybe from Doc J. - Jay]), something even I never heard of in the Philippines:

A team of negotiators and former soldiers from Tokyo has been sent to the jungles of the Philippines to try to bring home soldiers of Japan’s Imperial Army who are still fighting the Second World War.

Three negotiators from Japan’s health and welfare ministry and two veterans, who themselves opted to stay behind in the Philippines after it fell in 1945 rather than face the shame of surrender, travelled to Manila yesterday.

[...]These men were driven by the Bushido code of feudal Japan, which forbade surrender, and it was months – and in some cases years – before they realised the war was over. (Scotsman Article, softcopy on file)

I swear I had no idea that this was going on. I know that this kind of situation has been the subject of so many science fiction episodes that I have watched I can’t even name one, haha. You know how it goes: “The war is over!” “No it isn’t!”

We had our share of insurgents, rebels, and destabilizers, but I wonder if any of these soldiers have fired on civilians before, and the Philippine government chalked it up to Islamic separatists. I have never heard of reports of these Japanese soldiers, not even rumors, but I hope that they actually could find it in themselves to accept that the war has been over for the longest time and that they need to move on and out of my former country.