Teruo Nakamura

Birthday October 8, 1919

Birth Sign Libra

Birthplace Toran, Taitō Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan

DEATH DATE 1979-6-15, Donghe, Taitung, Taiwan (59 years old)

Nationality Taiwan

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1919

Nakamura was an Amis aborigine, born 8 October 1919.

1943

In November 1943, he enlisted in a Takasago Volunteer Unit of the Imperial Japanese Army.

1944

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.

1945

He was the last known Japanese holdout to surrender after the end of hostilities in 1945.

1950

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.

1953

As a private in a colonial unit in 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.

This caused a considerable outcry in the press, motivating the Republic of China government and the public to donate a total of ¥4,250,000 to Nakamura.

1956

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 x fenced field.

1974

Teruo Nakamura (中村 輝夫) was a Taiwanese-Japanese soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army who fought for Japan in World War II and did not surrender until 1974.

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.

Initially, the Republic of China government on Taiwan did not receive him well, seeing him as a Japanese loyalist.

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.

1979

Five years after his repatriation, on 15 June 1979, Nakamura died of lung cancer.