3. Teruo Nakamura Held Out Until December of 1974
Nakamura stayed hidden in the jungles of Morotai Island, isolated and alone, until a pilot spotted and reported his hut in mid-1974. That led the Japanese embassy to request the Indonesian military’s help in tracking him down, which it did, launching a search expedition later that year. Indonesian soldiers finally located and captured an emaciated Nakamura on December 18th, 1974, and flew him to Jakarta, where he received his first medical care in three decades.