A true story!
I stumbled upon an interesting story from Japan which I feel I must share with you. Though the details vary, the story is well-documented.
Near the end of World War II, in 1944, a husband and wife named Shoichi and Kazuko Higa were living on the island of Anatahan, where they were copra farmers. The island was inhabited by Japanese settlers, but the local islanders who worked the farms had left.
Shoichi, concerned for his family member and travelled to other islands in search, leaving Kazuko to manage the farm. Due to war mobilization, he couldn’t return.
One day, several Japanese ships were bombed by U.S. planes, and 31 survivors, all men in their late teens to late twenties, landed on the island. (Island where on only one family was staying)
Gensaburo Yoshino, a worker on Shoichi’s farm, suggested he and Kazuko pretend to be married to protect her from the sailors. This pretense worked, and they led the island community until another survivor, stabbed Yoshino to death and claimed Kazuko. The power dynamics shifted and Kazuko ended up marring on guy from the survivors.
Later, two men discovered a downed U.S. plane with a corpse and two pistols inside, altering the power balance once again. Kazuko ended up “married” to another survivor, who eventually drowned, possibly by accident.
After 11 men had died competing for Kazuko, the remaining men decided enough was enough. U.S. ships informed them the war was over and they could return to Japan, but they didn’t believe it and stayed on the island.
Fearing for her life now that the men had stopped fighting for her, Kazuko fled into the jungle for a month, hoping to signal a passing U.S. ship, before eventually returning to Japan.
The U.S. ships returned with letters from the men’s families, confirming the war’s end. They waved white flags, and American boats rescued them. Kazuko returned to Japan as a hero, celebrated for her survival among 31 men. She discovered her husband had assumed she was dead and remarried with children. Seeking a way to make a living, she shared her story with the media, wrote a book, and acted in plays and films, though her acting career quickly fizzled out.
The sailors who returned to Japan also wrote a book that portrayed Kazuko negatively, damaging her reputation. Their account was widely accepted, and Kazuko eventually moved to the countryside and disappeared from public view.
Various accounts of her later life exist. Some say she opened a small café and remarried, while others claim she reunited with her husband by chance and they remarried.
There are numerous YouTube videos, Wikipedia articles, and films about this incident. Feel free to explore this fascinating story further.
Also let me know what your thoughts on it 🙂
Happy reading!
