James Pagdon asked Lian Tanner:

Did you ever find the Japanese Soldier you were searching for? And have you written about that experience? Thank you for allowing questions here.

Lian Tanner Hi James, no, we never found him, though we spent three days searching, along with a special team from Japan and a large contingent of PNG police officers. Personally, I doubt that he existed, because that part of the Gazelle Peninsula is quite heavily populated and there would surely have been rumours of his existence beforehand. Still, it's not entirely out of the question - this was in 1976, only two years after Hiroo Onoda was found in the Philippines. And no, I've never written about it.

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