About the book (from jacket flap):
After three weeks of ferocious fighting the American invasion troops overran the island of Guam. The surviving Japanese defenders fled into the jungle but the fanatical code of the Japanese soldier demanded that they continue to fight. The same of becoming a prisoner-of-war could not be endured. Without ammunition, weapons or supplies their guerrilla warfare was soon replaced by desperate efforts to avoid capture and, so they firmly believed, an ignominious death at the hands of the Americans.
Patrols of troops and local tribesmen gradually hunted down the survivors until only two were left. This is the story of the sixteen long, long years Ito Masashi and Minakawa hid in the jungle. They frantically jumped from hide-out to hide-out. They had to eat anything edible from breadfruits to frogs…
During their incredible life of bare survival the two men exhibited courage, patience and an unswerving determination to live. Even leaflets dropped by the Americans, which they had found, telling them that the war was long over did not convince them and they continued their pathetic and stubborn efforts to avoid capture.
