14. The Anatahan Castaways Dismissed News of Japan’s Surrender as “Fake”
Leaflets were airdropped on Anatahan, informing the castaways that the war was over, but they refused to believe it. The island being unimportant, and its inhabitants being isolated and harmless to the outside world, American authorities did not deem it worth the trouble to send in troops to root them out. So the castaways were left to their own devices, with an airplane dropping more leaflets every now and then, which was dismissed as “fake news” each time. Finally, in 1950, a desperate Kazuko flagged down a passing American ship, and asked to be taken off the island.