The first group of holdhouts, under Captain Sakae Oba surrender at Guam on December 1st 1945, about 3 months after the end of the war. This group was composed of 46 guerrilla fighters, and their surrender ended the last group of organized Japanese military forces.
The next five years saw a large number of encounters with Japanese holdouts. In the Philippines, Filipino and American divisions were tasked with rooting out the remaining Japanese forces on the island. This process was not immediately successful, and a few battles were fought over the next 5 years, killing dozens of American and Filipino soldiers. In 1948, most of the Japanese remaining in the Philippines surrendered, when 200 relatively organized soldiers gave themselves up. However, small groups held out on the island chain until 1974 and 1980.
The largest group of holdouts gave themselves up in China in late 1980. The exact number that surrendered is largely unknown, but it is estimated to be 10 to 20 thousand troops. These soldiers were not exactly Japanese holdouts, as they had been trapped in the mountains of Manchuria in a no-mans land between warring Nationalist and Communist Chinese forces.
http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/list.html
This is a very interesting post. As everyone knows, when a war "ends" the fighting is not actually finished as there will always be people or groups with constant combative attitudes. This post is good because you pointed out multiple accounts of where the Japanese resisted and also why they did. After doing a little bit of research I found that the Japanese weren't the only ones who wouldn't surrender, some Germans until September. You can find more information at http://militaryhistorynow.com/2014/04/30/hitlers-holdouts-meet-the-last-german-troops-to-surrender-in-ww2/
ReplyDeleteThis is such a fascinating topic. It's amazing that even up to 30 years after the war ends, people were still convinced that they hadn't lost the war. I think this is a good demonstration of how powerful Japanese propaganda was on their society- in one of our documentaries, a Japanese native also stated that the thought of losing wasn't even an option during the war. If you're interested, check out this link about Japanese propaganda throughout the war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_Japan_during_World_War_II
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