TOKYO, April 17 - A former Japanese soldier last seen by his family when he went off to fight in World War II has resurfaced in Ukraine and is returning home to see his relatives after 60 years, the government said Monday.

Ishinosuke Uwano, now 83, had been declared among Japan's war dead in 2000, The Associated Press reported.

Suminori Arima, a health ministry official in charge of locating war veterans lost overseas, declined to say where Uwano had been the past six decades or why he had not been in touch with his family in Japan.