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Japanese Soldiers Discovered Still Fighting WWII? Or Gangs Fighting TODAY?

Austin Bay [1] reminds me of a story I saw over the weekend, with a link to the Telegraph:

Two men claiming to be World War II Japanese soldiers have been found hiding on a Philippine island.

Japan is sending embassy officials to Mindanao to meet them.

"Embassy officials will check whether they were truly former soldiers" of the now defunct army, Japan foreign ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said.

Japanese media said the two men had been living in guerilla-controlled mountains until late this month.

It is not known if they knew of Japan's surrender in August 1945 to Allied forces.

Well, the Telegraph is now posting a story [2]suggesting the whole thing could be a lie…

While Japanese diplomats tried for a fourth day to establish the veracity of the reports, suspicion grew today that kidnapping gangs on the island might have invented the rumours as a scam to lure foreigners into the region.

Newspaper reports that unidentified rebels were asking for money for the two Japanese soldiers were a sign the whole thing could be simply a "money-making scheme", warned a regional police intelligence chief.

Well, we’ll see how this develops.