Japanese Holdouts

Japanese holdouts ( ja, 残留日本兵, translit=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 World War II after the surrender of Japan in August 1945. Japanese holdouts either doubted the veracity of the formal surrender or were not aware that the war had ended because communications had been cut off by Allied advances.

After Japan officially surrendered in August 1945, Japanese holdouts in Southeast Asian countries and 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. Many holdouts were discovered in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands over the following decades, with the last verified holdout, Private Teruo Nakamura, surrendering on Morotai Island in Indonesia in December 1974.

Newspapers throughout East Asia and Pacific islands reported more holdouts and searches for them were conducted until the late 1980s, but the evidence was too scant and no further holdouts were confirmed. Nevertheless, holdouts continued to be allegedly spotted until the late 1990s. Investigators now believe that the last alleged sightings of Japanese holdouts were stories invented by local residents to attract tourists.

Some Japanese soldiers acknowledged Japan's surrender and the end of World War II, but were reluctant to demobilize and wished to continue armed combat for ideological reasons. Many fought in the Chinese Civil War, Korean War, and local independence movements such as the First Indochina War and Indonesian National Revolution. These Japanese soldiers are not usually considered holdouts.

History

Individuals

Groups

* 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 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 of the men were retrieved. The Japanese occupation of the island inspired the 1953 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 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.

Alleged sightings (1980s to 1990s)

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. 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. Holdouts were allegedly spotted as late as 1998; 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 of 2020.

See also

* Volunteer Fighting Corps, planned Japanese resistance post-occupation
* Shindo Renmei, Brazilian Japanese emigres refusing to believe Japan's surrender
* Siege of Baler, Spanish soldiers in the Philippines who refused to believe the end of the Philippine Revolution and SpanishAmerican war

Post World War II resistance

* Cursed soldiers, Polish post-World War II resistance fighters
* Forest Brothers, Baltic post-World War II resistance fighters
* Werwolf, planned German resistance World War II post-occupation

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.

References

External links

Holdouts

Two more Japanese holdouts in the Philippines

Final Straggler: the Japanese soldier who outlasted Hiroo Onoda

{{DEFAULTSORT:Japanese Holdout
Aftermath of World War II in Japan
History of Guam
Japan in World War II
Pacific theatre of World War II
World War II resistance movements