Yokoi Museum to the Guam Museum

 

The Yokoi Museum is closing in Japan, created in the house of the Japanese straggler following his death has closed down. It was opened by Yokoi's widow in 2006, but closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. Mihoko, Yokoi's widow passed away during the pandemic and the family has been unable to find support from the prefecture or city to keep it open and so has chosen to close it. 

In the Guam Museum, we have several items from Yokoi and 28 years hiding in Guam's jungles. But for me personally, I would love to obtain items from the collection of his museum in Japan, even though many of the items, at least from the reporting, seem to be recreations once he was back in Japan. 

 

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Memorial museum for ex-Japanese soldier who lived for 28 yrs in Guam's jungle closes 

September 6, 2022 (Mainichi Japan)


NAGOYA -- The memorial museum here for the late Shoichi Yokoi, a former Japanese soldier who lived in the mountains of Guam for 28 years without knowing the Pacific War had ended, closed on Sept. 3. 

The closure of the museum, located in Yokoi's home, followed the death of his wife Mihoko, who had served as the director of the facility, in May at the age of 94. On the day of the closing, people who had been close to the couple visited the site for the last time to pay their respects to the deceased.

Born in the village of Saori (the present-day city of Aisai), Aichi Prefecture, Yokoi left for the former Manchuria region of northeast China to fight in the war in 1941. He was sent to Guam in March 1944 and continued to live in the jungle, unaware that the war had ended, before being found and returning to Japan in February 1972. His first words upon his homecoming were, "Shamefully I have returned home." This became a buzz phrase at the time.

Yokoi married Mihoko in November 1972 after an arrangement through an acquaintance, and he gave lectures throughout the country as a "poverty-stricken lifestyle critic." In his later years, he suffered from Parkinson's disease.

On his sickbed, Yokoi entrusted to Mihoko his dream of building a memorial museum before he passed away in September 1997 at age 82. Mihoko opened the memorial facility in June 2006. In the first-floor exhibition space of their two-story wooden house, approximately 70 items were displayed, including a life-size model of a jungle cave, in which Yokoi lived during his survival in Guam, reproduced with bamboo and Japanese "washi" paper, Yokoi's handmade loom, and his works of pottery, which he began making at age 60.

Mihoko had conveyed Yokoi's lifestyle and the importance of peace to museum visitors, but the museum had been temporarily closed since April 2020, when she returned to her parents' home in the city of Kyoto due to the coronavirus pandemic. In July 2020, she told the Mainichi Shimbun, "When I get well, I would like to return (to Nagoya), and I would like everyone to come visit," but she was unable to fulfill her wish and passed away.

On Sept. 3, about 20 people including relatives as well as storytellers and others who had been friends with the couple visited the museum and viewed the exhibits with nostalgia. Among them was Omi Hatashin, 55, a nephew of Mihoko and a professor at Osaka Jogakuin University. He said that after Mihoko's death, they explored the possibility of transferring the museum to another party, leaving it as it was, but it proved difficult. There was no one in the city of Nagoya to rely on, so they decided to close the facility.

Hatashin said, "My aunt continued to tell stories in the hope that the war, in which many people did not return home alive, would never be repeated."

Hatashin and others plan to donate as many of Yokoi's remaining items, including his ceramic works, as possible to public institutions in various regions, including Guam. In the future, the museum will be sold after the site is cleared.

Within the museum, there are also audio tapes of Yokoi's conversations after his return to Japan, and Hatashin said, "In the future, I would like to conduct joint research with fellow researchers and make these recordings available to the general public."

(Japanese original by Shinichiro Kawase, Nagoya News Center) 

 

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Guam Museum hopes to receive items from closed Yokoi Memorial Museum

Guam Daily Post

9/9/22


A memorial museum for the Japanese soldier who lived hidden in the jungles of Guam for 28 years after the end of World War II has closed, according to an article that appeared Sept. 6 in Japan's Mainichi daily newspaper.

The article notes that the closure of the Yokoi Memorial Museum on Sept. 3 followed the death of Shoichi Yokoi’s wife, Mihoko, who had served as the director of the facility located in Nagoya, Japan. She died in May at the age of 94.

Shoichi Yokoi was sent to Guam in March 1944 during World War II and continued to live in the jungle, unaware the war had ended, before finally being found and returned to Japan in February 1972, according to the article.

Shoichi Yokoi’s first words upon returning to Japan were, “Shamefully, I have returned home.” This became a buzz phrase at the time, the Mainichi reported.

Shoichi Yokoi died in September 1997 at the age of 82 and Mihoko Yokoi opened the memorial facility in June 2006, the article stated. Among the items displayed in the museum was a life-size replica of a jungle cave that Shoichi Yokoi lived in during his time in Guam.

Omi Hatashin, a nephew of Shoichi Yokoi, said in an interview with the Mainichi that he plans to donate many of Shoichi Yokoi’s remaining items to various places, including Guam.

Michael Lujan Bevacqua, curator at the Guam Museum, told The Guam Daily Post the museum already has a number of items from Shoichi Yokoi’s time on island, noting the artifacts have been a highlight of the museum’s collection over the years.

“In our current 'Hinanao-ta' exhibit, there is a section focusing on Yokoi's story, featuring items that he used while in hiding in Guam's jungles,” Bevacqua said. "But seeing the news coverage from Japan about the closing of his museum, they have more pieces that we would love to get to further highlight his story and that chapter in Guam's history."

Bevacqua added that Dave Tydingco, chair of the Guam Museum Foundation, had seen the Mainichi article and shared it with museum staff.

“He's been in contact with the local Japanese consulate to see how we can get involved and hopefully receive some of the items,” Bevacqua said.