Japanese Holdouts

 

Japanese holdouts (Japanese: 残留日本兵, romanized: Zanryū nipponhei, lit. 'remaining Japanese soldiers') were soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during the Pacific Theatre of World War II who continued fighting after the surrender of Japan in August 1945. Japanese holdouts either doubted the veracity of the formal surrender, rejected demobilization for ideological reasons, or were simply not aware because communications had been cut off by Allied advances.

Some continued to fight enemy forces and local police, or volunteered with local independence movements such as the First Indochina War and Indonesian National Revolution, for years after the war was over. Many holdouts were discovered in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands over the following decades, with the last one, Private Teruo Nakamura, surrendering on Morotai Island in Indonesia in December 1974. Newspapers reported holdouts into the early 1980s and said searches had been conducted several times over the decades, but the information was too scant to take further action. Since the 1990s a number of holdouts have been allegedly spotted, which some investigators believe to be stories invented by local residents to attract Japanese tourists.

History

1945–1949

Captain Sakae Ōba, who led his company of 46 men in guerrilla actions against United States troops following the Battle of Saipan, did not surrender until December 1, 1945, three months after the war ended.

On January 1, 1946, 20 Japanese Army personnel who had been hiding in a tunnel at Corregidor Island surrendered to a US serviceman after learning the war had ended from a newspaper found while collecting water.

Lieutenant Ei Yamaguchi and his 33 soldiers emerged on Peleliu in late March 1947, attacking the U.S. Marine Corps detachment stationed on the island believing the war was still being fought.

Reinforcements were sent in, along with a Japanese admiral who was able to convince them the war was over. They finally surrendered in April 1947.

On May 12, 1948, the Associated Press reported that two Japanese soldiers surrendered to civilian policemen in Guam the day before.

On January 6, 1949, Yamakage Kufuku and Matsudo Linsoki, two Imperial Japanese Navy machine gunners, surrendered on Iwo Jima.

1950s

Private 1st Class Yūichi Akatsu continued to fight on Lubang Island in the Philippines from 1944 until surrendering in the village of Looc in March 1950.

On June 27, 1951, the Associated Press reported that a Japanese petty officer who surrendered on Anatahan Island in the Marianas two weeks before said that there were 18 other holdouts there. A U.S. Navy plane that flew over the island spotted 18 Japanese soldiers on a beach waving white flags. However, the Navy remained cautious, as the Japanese petty officer had warned that the soldiers were "well-armed and that some of them threatened to kill anyone who tried to give himself up. The leaders profess to believe that the war is still on." The navy dispatched a seagoing tug, the Cocopa, to the island in hopes of picking up some or all of the soldiers without incident. After a formal surrender ceremony all of the men were retrieved. The Japanese occupation of the island inspired the 1953 film Anatahan and the 1998 novel Cage on the Sea.

Murata Susumu, the last holdout on Tinian, was captured in 1953.

Corporal Shōichi Shimada (島田庄一) continued to fight on Lubang until he was killed in a clash with Filipino soldiers in May 1954.

In November 1955, Seaman Noboru Kinoshita was captured in the Luzon jungle, but shortly afterwards committed suicide by hanging himself rather than "return to Japan in defeat".

In 1955, four Japanese airmen surrendered at Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea: Shimada Kakuo, Shimokubo Kumao, Ojima Mamoru and Jaegashi Sanzo. They were the survivors of a bigger group.

In 1956, nine soldiers were discovered and sent home from Morotai.

In November 1956, four men surrendered on the island of Mindoro: Lieutenant Shigeichi Yamamoto and the Corporals Unitaro Ishii, Masaji Izumida and Juhie Nakano.

1960s

Private Bunzō Minagawa held out from 1944 until May 1960 on Guam.

Sergeant Masashi Itō, Minagawa's superior, surrendered days later, May 23, 1960, on Guam.

1970s

Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi was discovered in Guam on 24 January 1972, almost 28 years after the Allies had regained control of the island in 1944.

In January 1972, Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi, who served under Masashi Itō, was captured on Guam.

In October 1972, Private 1st Class Kinshichi Kozuka held out with Lt. Onoda for 28 years until he was killed in a shootout with Philippine police.

Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda in 1944 while in Lubang Island, Philippines before becoming Japanese holdout.

In March 1974, Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda surrendered on Lubang after holding out on the island from December 1944 with Akatsu, Shimada and Kozuka. Onoda refused to surrender until he was relieved of duty by his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who was flown to Lubang to formally relieve Onoda.

Private Teruo Nakamura, a Taiwanese-born soldier (Amis: Attun Palalin), was discovered by the Indonesian Air Force on Morotai, and surrendered to a search patrol on December 18, 1974. Nakamura, who spoke neither Japanese nor Chinese, was the last confirmed holdout and was discovered 29 years, 3 months, and 16 days after the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed.

1980s

The Asahi Shimbun reported in January 1980 that Captain Fumio Nakaharu (中晴文夫) was still holding out on Mount Halcon in the Philippines. A search team headed by his former comrade-in-arms Isao Miyazawa (宮沢功) believed they had found his hut. Miyazawa had been looking for Nakahara for many years. However, no evidence that Nakahara was still alive at the time has been found.

In 1981, a Diet of Japan committee mentioned newspaper reports that holdouts were still living in the forest on Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands, and said searches had been conducted several times over the preceding few decades, but said information was too scant to take any further action.

In 1989, two Japanese holdouts who ended up joining the Communist insurgency in Malaysia laid down their arms and emerged after the signing of a peace accord.

1990s

Holdouts were allegedly spotted as late as the 1990s however no proof of their existence has ever been found, either living or dead. Investigators believe these late reports may be stories invented by local residents to attract Japanese tourists. It is practically certain no living holdouts remain, as they would be 90 years of age or older in the year 2020.