Japanese holdout

Overview

the city of Bukittinggi, after the surrender of Japan and the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence Japanese holdouts () were soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the Pacific Theatre of World War II who continued fighting after the surrender of Japan at the end of the war for a variety of reasons. Japanese holdouts either doubted that Japan had surrendered, were not aware that the war had ended because communications had been cut off by Allied advances, feared they would be executed if they surrendered to Allied forces, or felt bound by honor and loyalty never to surrender.

After Japan officially surrendered on 2 September 1945, Japanese holdouts in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands that had been part of the Japanese Empire continued to fight local police, government forces, and Allied troops stationed to assist the newly formed governments. For nearly 30 years after the end of the war, dozens of holdouts were discovered in the jungles of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with the last verified holdout, Private Teruo Nakamura, surrendering on the island of Morotai in 1974. Although newspapers throughout East Asia and the Pacific reported more holdouts and searches continued until 2005, no additional holdouts were found.

Groups

, a Japanese holdout, photo from 1937. * Captain Sakae Ōba, who led his company of 46 men in guerrilla actions against United States troops following the Battle of Saipan, surrendered on 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 U.S. 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 that the war was over.

They finally surrendered in April 1947. * On May 12, 1948, the Associated Press reported that two unnamed Japanese soldiers had surrendered to civilian policemen in Guam the day before. * 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 the men were retrieved. The Japanese occupation of the island inspired the 1953 Japanese film Anatahan and the 1998 novel Cage on the Sea. * 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 Indonesia's Morotai island.

Alleged sightings (1981–2005)

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. However, it is believed that these were hoaxes made up to lure Japanese tourists to the islands. Searches for holdouts were conducted by the Japanese government on many Pacific islands throughout the 1980s, but the information was too scant to take any further action, and the searches ended by 1989. In 1992, it was reported that a few holdouts still lived on the island of Kolombangara, though subsequent searches were unable to find any evidence. An investigation into similar reports of holdouts on Guadalcanal in 2001 failed to turn up evidence. It was initially assumed that the media attention scared the two men off as they disappeared and were not heard from again.

Suspicions of a hoax or a kidnapping attempt later mounted as the area where the alleged soldiers emerged from is "notorious" for ransom kidnappings and attacks by Islamist separatists. It was reported by the Tokyo Shimbun on May 31, 2005, that unconfirmed information about remaining Japanese soldiers is said to be rampant in the Philippines. These reports are connected to scams tied to wealth, such as the alleged location of Yamashita's gold and (The M Fund). It is unknown how many or if any legitimate Japanese holdouts remain today, but after over eight decades since the end of the war, harsh jungle terrain, and equatorial climates, it is highly unlikely that any are still alive. The National WWII Museum reported in 2022 that surviving veterans are "dying quickly", as those who served are now "in their 90s or older".

Post World War II resistance

* Cursed soldiers, Polish post-World War II resistance fighters * Forest Brothers, Baltic post-World War II resistance fighters

Fiction

* Block-Heads, 1938 Laurel and Hardy film in which Stan Laurel is found holding out in a World War I trench 20 years after the Armistice.

External links

* Holdouts * Two more Japanese holdouts in the Philippines * Final Straggler: the Japanese soldier who outlasted Hiroo Onoda * M.I.A. - Second World War Japanese 'Hold Outs'

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