The Last Japanese Holdout on Iwo Jima Didn't Surrender Until 1949
Despite the US Marines declaring the island of Iwo Jima secure, many Japanese troops remain hidden in caves, tunnels and bunkers across the island. Many will need to be flushed out by force. The last Japanese holdouts will finally surrender 4 years later, in 1949.
Bibliography
Alexander, Joseph H. Closing in: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima. Glasgow, UK: Good Press, 2019.
Bradley, James, and Ron Powers. Flags of Our Fathers. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 2016.
Kakehashi, Kumiko. So Sad to Fall in Battle: An Account of War. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2007.
King, Dan, and Linda Ryan. A Tomb Called Iwo Jima: Firsthand Accounts from Japanese Survivors. Rockwall, TX: Dan King, 2020.
Leckie, Robert, and Ted Burwell. The Battle for Iwo Jima. New York, NY: Random House, 1967.
"They wanted uplifting tales of courage, not the shameful disgusting truth. I encountered no glory on Iwo Jima" Such an incredible quote about war and recounting history!
This was an unneeded and disastrous battle. Iwo Jima was no threat and of no value. kzhead.info/sun/a8Zyp7l5q3aoqYk/bejne.html
You would have had to have been there, those marines payed the ultimate sacrifice so you can KZhead.
@@belovedson9585 That makes no sense the Japanese could never invaded and conquered America. He didn’t die “so you can KZhead” they died so that the war could finally end.
@@belovedson9585 I support our troops as much as anyone else but the idea that every war we’ve ever been in, we thought because it somehow would’ve ended our way of life is bullshit. Like for example you cannot tell me Vietnam turning communist somehow affected our society on the other side of the world.
there’s a ducumentry coming out called “what i want you to know.” they have a youtube with some video clips offering a different point of view of what happen in the afghan/iraq war. check it out if you’re interested
My former father-in-law was a B29 navigator during the War and was stationed on Guam into the 50's. He said that Japanese Imperial Marines wold be occasionally spotted on the beaches but they were not considered as hostile, just surviving in the jungle until they either surrendered or died of exposure.
Incredible.
The last one on Guam was found in 1972.
@@michaelbarnett2527 He remembered seeing some on the beach, probably Japanese Marines. The were tall. You had to be at least 6 ft. to be one.
@@untermench3502 6ft to be a WW2 Japanese Marine?
@@beezelsub This is what I understand.
The courage shown by the interpreters and PoWs is incredible. In a war where courage and heroism was almost commonplace, risking their lives and willingly descending into the hellish caves in the hope of saving a man they had to know was willing and ordered to kill them stands out.
@Maximillian Wylde ...I THINK THAT ANY JAPANESE AMERICAN WHO SERVED IN THE U.S. ARMED FORCES SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN A MEDAL- JUST FOR SERVING- BECAUSE AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED- THE JAPANESE AMERICANS DIDN'T OWE THIS COUNTRY A GODDAM THING AFTER THE WAY THEY WERE TREATED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT!!! WHEN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TOOK AWAY THEIR RIGHTS AS U.S. CITIZENS, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AUTOMATICALLY ABSOLVED THE JAPANESE AMERICANS OF THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES AS AMERICAN CITIZENS!!!
Speaking about POWs , I have a little quip about the erroneous notion from the fascist officers of the Japanese considered refusing to surrender because it was "disgraceful" that's just parroting overt propaganda, the real reason is ugly. What, it's "graceful" to be killing each other for limited supplies and cannibalizing, than surrendering? Doesn't add up. They refused to surrender because, they firmly believed all the cannibalism of slaves and natives, POW brutality, raping underage girls was "normal and justified behavior" and if their imaginations ran wild thinking they would suffer the same if they lost. The "Yamato samurai spirit" and superiority over all races... including the "cowardly capitalist white pigs," whom they were told all sorts of racist lies. (Like not putting radar on some ships for Midway was justified with "only the blind white pigs need that, we just need our Japanese men with superior eyesight.") They believed in their racial superiority because they posited, they alone were guided by the one true god that is Emperor Hirohito and nihilistic Japanese Zen Buddhist rhetoric of dying and killing is just early deliverance to paradise... is what led them to blow 10s of 1000s of people up in suicide attacks by plane, submarine, boat, diving suit, manned antitank mines, etc. Remember they had all their Shinto shrines defaced with their individual patron shamanistic gods from ancient times, and repurposed to an Imperial Cult worshiping only Hirohito (and his holy sons). The Japanese soldiers seldom surrendered, for they thought they would be flayed like the prisoners in the Pacific Islands, or Singapore, or the 2 million butchered in Vietnam, or 25 million gas bombed and anthrax germ bombed and experimented on in China _(Not even Germans used WMDs in war, Japan was using these WMDs AND developing two nukes up till the end of WW2, and tried to buy time by scheduling Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night for September of 1945, trying to bomb America with bubonic plague and mustard gas. The Soviet push in August is what got them to surrender like Nazi butchers in Eastern Europe running to the West to surrender in order to avoid being sent to Soviet Gulags. The Japanese accounts actually show that by the end of WW2 casualty reports by 10s of 1000s did not faze anyone at all, so the nukes hardly fazed anyone in the Daihon'ei high command)._ *They also feared that if they surrender, the Americans will do what they gleefully did to 100 million Asians.* (the number includes 30 million of them killed) _(Also, there is a difference between accounts from the better-off officers and the base soldiery with lower morale. Some men were too timid to refuse anything so they instead, ran off to the jungles to eke out a living there for years, bothering nobody, and when finally found, all they could do was be sorry that they were "surrendering" at all after all these years. While some officers held out near villages and kept robbing livestock, threatening, and terrorizing villages at katana-point, being bandits into the 70s.)_ There's a reason the 1 billion Asians cheered for American nuclear liberation. Well Japan hides that 1/3 of those casualties were foreign Asians put to slave labor in their munitions factories or poison gas factories (Hiroshima was Japan's primary poison gas production hub and Nagasaki was Mitsubishi's slave factory complex), and blames America for "Starting Pearl Harbor" to this day. Their logic is, America "had no right to stop exporting US steel and oil to Japan." Which was done as a the last straw against all its decades of invasions in Asia and an outcry against Japan's bombing cities all over the Republic of China (Chongqing being the most infamous) since 1937 (this wasn't the first Japanese bombing of foreign cities, that was Siege of Tsingtao in 1914) with all sorts of bombs and chemical/biological WMDs. And one should not clump all the colonies in Japan to be all "Japanese," which was actually Japan's intent. They figured if rural islanders showed fierce suicidal resistance fighting on the outskirt islands of Japan, they hoped the US Forces would be too afraid to land on Japan proper. By the way, the Okinawans are like the Irish brutally subjugated by the English for centuries. Okinawa's Ryukyu kingdom was subdued some time ago, but the people have been for centuries, overtaxed by samurai even worse than the samurai did back in their homelands _(MABIKI or infanticide was as common as 1 in 3 households annually, according to Nobuhiro Satou from 19th century Japan, because contraceptives didn't exist and mothers couldn't feed themselves. The 16th century Samurai wartime heyday was also like this, according to Portuguese missionary Luis Frois, Japanese mothers would kneel on their babies' throats when the the 75% tax rate rendered them unable to raise babies, which was 3 times the effective tax averages throughout feudal Asia and also feudal Europe)._ They were told to listen to the Japanese oppressors and sacrifice their lives as cannon fodder for Japan because the Americans would be 10 times worse if they landed, and will eat and violate all their children, so might as well just kill their children now to spare them the fate, and parents should follow suit with seppuku. They were surprised to find that they were given food and medical supplies instead. And found that their Japanese were the ones doing everything they warned that the Americans will do. (Himeyuri Students is one infamous case of what they did in Okinawa, conscript school children for official sex slavery approved by the Japanese government)
@@CrabTastingMan Thank you so much for this brilliant and insightful comment. I apologize for not having more to add or anything constructive to say, but I believe your effort deserves acknowledgement so, again: thank you for sharing.
Which pow's are you talking about...???....americans had no choice..
@Maximillian Wylde I tried to find the life expectancy of interpreters on iwo but could not so I guess it wasn't that dangerous...not like being a flamethrower.... their life expectancy on iwo was all of 4 mins...
I find the story of Yamakage and Matsudo's surrender to be both tragic and a little comic. Apparently, they were spotted by some Americans in a jeep walking along a road in American army uniforms they had scrounged. The Americans, who didn't speak Japanese, took them for Chinese laborers and offered them a lift to the base, driving with them back to the motor pool, which, as far as I can understand, was more or less the center of the base. The Americans then left to find someone to translate for them, returning to find the two men gone. Shortly afterwards, they were found at the base of the flagpole and recognized as Japanese. I can only imagine what was going through the two men's heads during that interaction, which the Americans apparently didn't think was all that important to document. Did they ever consider trying to attack the occupants of the jeep? Were they walking out with the intent to surrender, or did they intend to keep hiding? Had they done this trick before and escaped? And what did they think about when it was all over, they were finally in custody, and they realized that the last four years of their life hadn't had to go the way it had? That the world had left them behind and their enemies no longer recognized them or thought of themselves as at war?
Wow how interesting, did they ever write memoirs?
@Maximillian Wylde judging by the konji I can make out, it means "The Last Two Men of Iwo Jima"
@@StevenL00 Curious though as the last two men in Iwo Jima, I presumed they resulted to cannibalism, putting down other soldiers below from them or other gruesome things that may stripped their honor and glory. If they did wrote it, I salute to their bravery to find inner peace to let go of their harboring experiences as vets.
@@bisacool7339 even in the video OP talked about how no publisher would work with the 2 men initially, that's probably saying something
11:50
The last Japanese soldier to surrender in the Philippines did so around 1973. It was only when they managed to get one of his officers who had survived the war to seek him out and give him the order to surrender that he gave up.
Onoda was an intelligence officer ordered NOT to surrender nor take his own life, hence, he held out for decades, an amazing story.
The last one was in Indonesia 1974
It's false. The last Japanese to surrender was in Indonesia in 1974. His name was Teruo Nakamura or Attun Palalin. He was a Taiwanese-Japanese.
@@raptorfromthe6ix833 yep
Quite Amazing Really if he was a German he would of been Tried and hung. Surprised someone didn't take him out later for killing civilians
On that small island to hide for four years is amazing. My dad was Air Police on Guam (his first assignment after he joined in 1948) and they had issues with Japanese taking potshots at convoys, guard shacks, and anyone with a uniform. My dad said he had to learn three phrases in Japanese (it helped him to learn Japanese, when he later went to Japan to help start General Lemay's self-defense programs by training with Japanese Sensei in Judo and Ju-Jitsu.). The phrases were along the line of "Please don't shoot me", "The War is over.", and something about the Emperor allowing his surrender. The first phrase was very important to my dad and he learned that one the fastest.
Are you talking about the japanese holdouts in Guam?
@@Ramzi1944 Yes, and I specifically mention Guam. But that wasn't the only place the Japanese held out. There were articles from years ago about holdouts on Saipan, Philippines, Marshall Islands, and even some holdouts on Okinawa as they didn't believe the war was actually over on that Japanese Island. One of my dad's fellow Air Policemen had transferred over from the Army Military Police. He told a story about a military patrol that found some Japanese holdouts on Okinawa a few months after the war hiding in a cave system. They were found while fishing for food near the cave system they had been hiding at the entire time. They avoided a firefight as one of the patrol members spoke fairly good Japanese (his neighbor back in the US was Nisei and had taught him Japanese as he was growing up.) He was able to convince them that the war was actually over. It wasn't unusual to find holdouts for a couple of years after the war. Many of the holdouts were quietly brought back to Japan without publicity to avoid embarrassment (public shaming is a huge cultural thing in Japan.).
@@Ramzi1944 the last one In guam held out until 1972
My dad was on Guam in '46 until '47 approx. Navy yeoman, worked for the chief chaplain in the Pacific theater. Jeep came with the job, and he explored the whole island. Once he came upon a warm campfire, hastily abandoned when they heard his jeep. There was a pair of Japanese binoculars, he would later give them to me. Had they ambushed him alone he wouldn't have had a chance. He spoke of the airbase, he could drive there for lunch. Sometimes the 'Jap renegades' would get in the chow line at the AFB, looking like jus' ol' ordinary US airmen. When my dad sat down with the AF guys, they'd say; "You were on THAT part of the island? When we fly over there we get shot at."
My grandfather was apart of the occupational force in Japan and learned Judo and then Kuntao. I wonder if he was in the same self defense program as you mentioned.
as an US Marine, years ago I was given a bag from a recently deceased Marine that served on Iwo Jima from my home town. The bag contain the battle map (which I still have) and photographs and post cards from Japanese soldiers on Iwo. Was able to track the family down in Japan and return what belonged to them. The sons barely remembered their father... he left and never returned.
great to hear that you could track the family down. Even if they didnt remember their father i bet it helped them.
no wonder Japan had so many issues after the war. Basically almost an entire generation of kids either grew up without a father or had one that was physically or psychologically destroyed from the war. I never really thought about just how man Japanese men never went home, there had to be millions of kids who didnt have a dad because of that war.
That was great of you!
@@iraniansuperhacker4382 Remember that their society also went through a massive upheaval with the emperor renouncing divinity, turn to pacifism and losing the ways of the old.
Huge respect that you gave those back and I'm glad his sons were alive to have some closure on their father
My father was career military, as was I. When he passed away in 1983, mom asked me to get him into his dress uniform for burial. He was Army, then Army Air Corps, then Air Force. He was in from 1946 to 1968. His retirement papers, his DD-214, showed a Bronze Star, with a "V" device, denoting valor in combat. WTF? He never served in a combat zone. I did some digging, and found out that my dad, while on rotational guard duty, shot and killed a Japanese soldier attempting to sabotage a US Air Force plane, in late 1947. This woke up the entire base. My dad was 19, and was at that point, a Chaplain's Assistant. I had one hell of a time getting his ribbon set complete, and accurate. It took some old guys in our VFW to help...and they helped with some ribbons that were not available, 38 years after the war ended.
Nothing to be proud of shoot a person to death,ur dad kept the secret! I know USA 🇺🇸 hv problem of shooting becouz everyone own a gun !
Respect
Exceptionally well done. The History channel would have been half as informative and taken four times longer filled up with emotion jerking music and simplistic nonsense. This video is a clinic on how to make an historical documentary.
And that's when they did history and not a whole bunch of unrelated content...
We would have had that weirdo aryeh nusbacher that curly haired soft featured guy who had annoying way of speaking and using excessive words and corny intonations, and then he disappeared for a while and came back and was now a transvestite and still was a professor at. I think the one of the British military universities and he was referred jokingly as Mrs. Gunfire
The experiences of the later holdouts were surreal, fighting a one-sided war. There's a great story in Toland's "The Rising Sun" of a Japanese holdout soldier who, long after the battle was over, threw some grenades at a drunk marine who was asleep in an unguarded field kitchen and was in the end captured peacefully when all three grenades turned out to be duds. Must have felt like he was in a dark comedy sketch.
Very lucky indeed, had they gone off , woe to the Leatherneck and the Japanese soldier.The first would have blown into smithereens and the Japanese would have been riddled with bullets.
I believe a Japanese soldier hid out on Guam I till the 70s. In the Philippines on Mindanao, a Japanese soldier "went native" and lived out his life in a remote area. He was discovered around 2000. His story was verified in Japanese archives and he visited Japan to visit relatives. However, he returned to the Philippines to live out his days with his Filipino family.
he was fuckin smart he seem them Filipino women and knew there was something to live for.
@@iraniansuperhacker4382 Haha...could be. He visited Japan after being discovered and returned to the Philippines to live out his days..
One difference here is that Iwo Jima is pretty much a barren island with a giant US occupation force present. For these two to hold out for four years was just mind boggling.
@@syjiang That'd be like three termite colonies living right next to an army ant pile.
There’s potential for a good movie about that guy
i'm told burning alive isn't the most common thing from a flamethrower or other fire attack. the bunkers and tunnels quickly run out of oxygen. if you were not hit by the fire in these tunnels. or noticed the gasoline flowing in. you probably ran to the deepest point and just suffocated or experienced carbon monoxide poisioning also. the story of Terry Takeshidoi is amazing. and being awarded the silver star for essentially rescuing the "enemy" seems surreal almost
You will hardly experience carbon monoxide poisoning in the deepest part of the cave since the gas in question is lighter than air. But carbon dioxide, on the other hand...
@@VersusARCH If I would have the choice between the two (and no other), I would prefer carbon monoxide.
Maybe he was awarded the star not so much for saving them, as for neutralizing them through other means. War is "...politics by other means...", after all; and there are important benefits in the post-war political landscape to returning men to their homes and families, no matter whose side they were on.
@@jasondusek1792 I thought the same, he was awarded because of his outstanding courage and bravery "neutralizing" the enemy, which would probably cost more some Americans lives if was done in the "conventional" way.
I'm not an expert on the subject but I've heard that flame weapons in an enclosed space (like bunkers and tunnels) produce a thermobaric effect. This is why we just switched to thermobaric weapons and cut out the middle man of flame weapons. Essentially it creates a superheated pressure wave of both negative vacuum pressure, followed immediately by a wave of overpressure. The effects on living organisms are.... well extreme. Your internal organs become external at worst, and at best you will suffer extreme internal bleeding, and serious blood poisoning. Extreme burning of the internal lungs from superheated pressurized air is also reported, almost always fatal. In modern thermobaric weapons the effect is in theory supposed to be instantly lethal and nearly painless. Your body goes through pressure changes of being in the vacuum of space to the bottom of the ocean in a tiny fraction of a second.
My drill inspector at OCS was a Iwo Marine Private. The man was all business. He was from another era and all business. I wish you well, Gunny,where ever you are.
My father was there.He was Chief Pharmacists Mate 1st Class…he fought the entire war in the Pacific by saving lives and I will go to my grave honoring him.
Am astounded, by the quality production, of this four part series. The introduction of The Intel Report, gives a mirror image offering, that explains matters from both perspectives. Ties everything together with no unexplained holes in the story. With all due respect and consideration, a series regarding Okinawa, would be humbly appreciated. The horrors, endured by both sides, during the culmination of The Pacific Campaign, needs to be told here. Thanking you all in anticipation.
More like a 6 part series if you include both channels
I'm a WWII nut and I had never ever heard this story before. You guys are doing amazing work.
There was a Japanese intelligence officer in the Philippines that did not surrender until 1974. His old commander had to be tracked down to tell him the war was over. His name was Hiroo Onoda.
my family once told me that some fillipinos still believe that there are still japanese hiding out in the jungle as some people still dissapeared or died mysteriously afterwards. of all the things and problems that fillipinos face nothing was more terrifying to my family than a impirial japanese soldier. Can't say the same for the new generation of fillipinos though.
Onoda write a book about his time on Lubang Island in the Philippines. It was titled " No Surrender, My thirty year war". I have a copy. Absolutely amazing.
96% KIA out of 22,000 men. Hard to fathom.
1,080/22,000 = 4.9 So 95.1%, right? 🤔😅
I expected much worse. I thought only a few 100 made it out alive.
@@HarryBalzak Tarawa had 147 survivors, most were korean "workers"
Gaius Terentius Varro - "Hold my scutum."
100% would have been better
Those are the last known soldiers to have surrendered. Who knows how many Japanese Soldiers actually lived down there in those tunnel systems.
Are we sure they've all left?
@@garryferrington811 Almost certainly not. There was a bit of noise in the 80s about finding mummified remains in the tunnels. Those things are so long and complex that they're treated as a war grave.
About 22,000 lived in the tunnels before the invasion or invasion bombings. All the Japanese lived underground. Every day a few more died.
There is a YT channel that explores some of the caves. Astonishing footage.
@@kirbyculp3449what is it called?
My grandfather was stationed on Guam. In 1946 he, and his buddies, found two Japanese holdouts.
I only saw a few entrances and didn't go deep down but there is an immense, impressive cave system. It's well made with stairs and everything. It would be any occupying force's fear as they can pop up seemingly anywhere. I'm very grateful I got to visit the island. The amount of rusting military gear, weapons, and crashed airplane parts make it quite real.
A close family friend was a US Marine Tank Gunner. Among many of the stories he told me, he said they never went into the tunnels. They would give Japanese soldiers a chance to surrender. Then they would just weld shut the exits to the tunnels.
We had a friend in the 70s, who had flown med evac missions in Vietnam. He talked about his escape and evasion training one time where Japanese hold outs were described as the gold standard of EE (or today SERE) students. I'm not surprised as in learning essential kanji that makes up most Japanese words it takes up to 3 years for student who grew up with the language to be proficient. Respect.
There were Japanese in Vietnam?
@@thatperformer3879 yes and no. While it’s not what this person was talking about, he’s just saying that the American military during Vietnam regarded the ww2 Japanese holdouts as an example to study for their own troops to learn how to evade and escape capture. But since you asked, yes, Japan occupied Vietnam, then “French Indochina” a colony of France, during ww2. The American OSS, the CIA’s predecessor, helped found the Viet Minh actually, the predecessor to the Viet Cong, to fight the Japanese. After the Japanese surrender the French came to take back control of their colony, but the Viet Minh hadn’t fought to liberate themselves from the Japanese just to bring back the old colonial order. Thus things flipped quickly and soon the Imperial Japanese troops still there were being used by the Allied powers to fight alongside the French against the Viet Minh. Coincidentally many Japanese either previously stationed there, or who’d fought the allied powers elsewhere, joined the Viet Minh or later after they became the Viet Cong, for various reasons like holding a grudge against the west or specifically US, and they’d contribute not insignificantly to the initial training and effectiveness of Vietnamese guerrillas.
@@thatperformer3879 saw a thing about it on another cool documentary channel, maybe it was Mark Felton? I’ll share the link if I remember
@@fromthefire4176 you would be surprised about how many foreign volunteers there are helping the war against French with the Viet Minh
I had a great uncle who was stabbed by a Japanese Soldiier after the cease fire. He was a cook and went to start morning chow and the next thing he knew he was stabbed in the back (he lived). I had not idea there were so many Japanese Soldiers left on the Island after the cease fire.
I've read a number of books and seen many documentaries about Iwo. One documentary account did describe an attack by Japanese on the Army pilots quartered near the foot of Suribachi after the island was "secured." Marines that were waiting to be withdrawn but were still on the island were dispatched to kill them. However, this narrative is the first time that I've heard, as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story." Extremely interesting. I was a Marine in the early-to-mid 60s, and have a keen interest in Marine history, especially during WWII. Good job here!
The image of Japanese soldiers so terrified of surrender that they kept fighting hoplessly until being burned alive is bringing tears to my eyes. Its nearly as disturbing to imagine being a civilian engineer assigned to kill a cave full of people. I know it was a war and they probably hated the Japanese soldiers but they still managed to save hundreds of holdouts. I'd live the rest of my life wondering if someone changed their mind just before the phosphorus dropped in.
The Japanese were afraid that the things they did to others would be repaid in full to them. The army did some horrendous shit that made even the Nazis flinch.
Nothing was said about civilian engineers. He said Navy Construction Battalion (CB).
I think if you had fought there, you would fully understand why the US Marines didn't worry too much about not taking prisoners. If someone adopts suicide tactics against you, and you want to live, I don't think you would worry too much about taking them out.
@@ianjarrett2724 Both the Japanese and the Germans would use fake surrenders to kill Americans, one reason the Americans would just shoot everyone.
If you're tearing up over oue *enemies*, you deserve to be sterilized.
Thank you so much for the hard work you have done to create this video series. I have enjoyed waiting for each episode! 😀😀
Thank you for including the "mopping up" operations.
It's also important to note that most of the surrendered are from the holdouts. Barely any Japanese surrendered in the fighting earlier on in the campaign like Mount Suribachi etc.
Thank you on behalf of my Dad, PFC Burlin Beam 4th Marine Div. The day he died in 1997 at the VA, he was having nightmares about Iwo Jima.
I am so sorry to hear that. I was lucky my father served from 46-49 and missed both world war 2 and Korea
This is really interesting. So few talk about the post occupation period of these islands, but there's probably stories like this for most islands the Allies invaded during the war. All the people that died when the battle was "over" were just as dead as those who died during the main action.
There's a website that collects these stories, about Japanese holdouts. It only has a few of them, & IIRC doesn't include any information about the last ones surrendering in 1949. Most of the holdouts only lasted a few years, but every year it seemed another one or two would make the news. Stories about Japanese holdouts had something of a minor vogue up to the last ones to emerge. Some concluded that they'd never see home again, married into the local population & "went native". Some in Malaysia joined the Communist guerrillas. And it's thought many died from starvation or exposure, without their existence ever being known.
Down the road from where I live is a small bridge with a bronze plate. The bridge is named for a U.S. soldier killed in action on Iwo Jima in 1945. But the date of death is in the month of June; well after the battle was officially over.
Hïro Oonada didn't surrender until 1975. He caused millions of dollars in damage to Phillipine food and water storages, he also killed several uniformed police officers. When his former commanding officer was flown out to relieve him of duty personally he was taken into custody with his arasaka and bayonet in perfect working condition. He assisted the Phillipines military in finding and disposing of several landmines and booby traps he had set on trails. After a brief detention he was given a full pardon and returned to Japan as a hero. He lobbied for a return to Japanese nationalism and opened a school to teach young Japanese men the traditional ways of Bushido. Eventually he became disgusted with modern Japanese culture and moved to Brazil. Upon hearing of a Japanese boy who murdered his parents with a hammer, he returned to Japan to teach troubled and at risk youth until his death.
What a wild life story! And interesting how he kept trying to do good, even if his definitions shifted over the years.
Moved to South america. Ha. That's classic. Confederates, Nazis, and imperial Japanese soliders have all moved there after they lost. It's the place where defeated bad guys go to put their feet up and take a break 🤣
@CKS1949 still a population of "confederados" in brazil who fly their battle flags and speak English with a drawl lol.
@@maxmccullough8548 WHERE? My far off kin is there.
@@conspiracyscholor7866 I don't know exactly what part of Brazil but I met one of the descendants working pipeline, we both had ancestors that rode with bloody bill., They took a fair amount of gold with them from North GA and the McCormick mine in SC I know that from the county archives.
Wonderful to hear of the good treatment of the United States. What a horrible business to burn out those resourceful Japanese after repeated attempts to bring them to surrender. A true testament to the intense Japanese loyalty which their whole regime fostered through Emperor worship. The history of U.S.A with Japan - especially post-WWII - is incredibly interesting. Thank you again, Operations Room! This is what I wish all history lessons were like. Far too often they're saddled by overt ideological ends these days.
Don’t think tried too hard to get them to surrender
I wonder how many decided to stay in the US rather than to back to Japan, where could one find such information?
@@tomhenry897 You can argue that. Then again, anyone can argue anything. But if even the Japanese said they gave them "many" chances to surrender, then I don't think we can argue very effectively that they didn't try too hard to get the Japanese to surrender. On the flip side, the self-less courage that the American's showed by going into cramped caves without weapons for years against enemies that had killed their countrymen and were (apparently, by their own admission) completely ruthless, is without doubt. Risking your life multiple times to sue for peace and being rejected with grenades and murderous intent that even your enemies agree you were just in your actions is beyond remarkable.
It probably helped that 147 th division from Ohio had no experience of the battle so they didn't have hard feelings and probably many of them were kids from high school. If it had been the battle-scared marines still present, they probably would have exterminated the Japanese like insects.
@@CA999 Very good point. My reply got that wrong. Edited to be more correct!
My father served on Iwo Jima shortly after the war ended and commented on Japanese soldiers raiding the American supples. There was no mention of fighting. Thanks for sharing this story.
A girl I dated in college her Italian-American father was in the USAAF during the war. He was on Okinawa guarding B-29 bombers (he would later have the "privilege" of guarding the Enola Gay) when on evening a Japanese soldier stepped out of the treeline and said in perfect English, "Do you have a cigarette?" As he wasn't armed, and showed no aggressive intent, he gave him one. While they stood there smoking my girlfriend's dad asked, "So what do you think of the B-29?" And without missing a beat the Japanese soldier said, "We got bigger."
They should really publish that Japanese soldier's book.
powerful words, "they wanted uplifting tales of courage, not the shameful disgusting truth..." history in a nutshell.
These two series were outstanding. A fitting tribute of remembrance to all the sacrifice on Iwo Jima. Thanks for all your work.
I don't understand an honor system that precludes surrender, but is ok with brutally attacking one's own brothers
Propaganda is powerful. Even today, you see pro-Putin media and their corresponding braindead consumers.
It wasn’t “ok” with it. It’s just that surrender was the greatest crime, and any rules might broken to prevent surrender if absolutely necessary.
It's practical, honor was not the primary reason. If killing one man attempting to surrender makes 9 others reconsider and keep fighting, in the army's eyes that is preferable. I'm talking out of my ass of course but that's what I reckon.
They seem to favor violence over intelligence
The official Japanese Military Rule book “Senjinkun” basically made surrender illegal and penalized those who surrendered with 6 months to 1 year and imprisonment
Thank you for posting. I am a U.S. Army veteran during Iraq war. Can't imagine the horror both American & Japanese combatants endured . A very informative and sober assessment of the heroes there.
watched the entire Iwo Jima campaign with interest and anxiety at the same time. looked forward each series till the end. So much more informative than any other history channel or series. The details and accuracy in my opinion, are second to none. well done. Thank you
Quite amazing these Japanese soldiers survived for so long after the battle and the war on Iwo Jima.
Goes to show they must have had decent survival training in the imperial military
I sure hadn't heard about the holdouts on this island in such detail. You made a nicely informative video. Great job.
Lt General Bill Smith paid homage to them," we all talk about fighting to the last man and the last bullet, but the Japanese solder was the only one who actually did it."
An Addendum and Clarification to this Video, is that Soldiers of the 147th Regiment were captured by the Japanese Soldiers. My First Cousin, PFC Garnett Whittle was one of those Soldiers. He and a fellow Soldier were in a foxhole and perimeter guarding an Anti-Aircraft Gun Battery in the center and at the base of Suribachi. Jap Sappers came out at night, and while my cousin was asleep, his turn, his foxhole mate, who suppose to be awake, was bayoneted by one of the Sappers, the other Sapper discovered PFC Whittle, and pressed a bayonet in his chest but nodded, his head “follow us or die”….he was taken Prisoner and remained a POW in the maze of tunnels for 88 days. He told me there were several Marines and other Soldiers in there as POWs. He said many of the “Big guys” died of dehydration due to water shortages and lack of calories. I asked, what did you eat: “the Japs gave us a raw fish head, a handful of rice, and a cup of water per day”, he said the Japs fished on the bluff side and caught fish at end of tunnels at night, but our Navy Ships anchored off Iwo Jima started machine gunning them for fun”….”but we were praying the Navy missed as we were starving”…..I asked Garnett , what saved your life?…”The Atomic Bomb”. PFC Whittle weighed about 150lbs when he was captured, 88 days later he weighed 92 lbs……he also said, it took weeks for their guards to be convinced by Jap Officers, on megaphones, that Japan had Surrendered and the War was over. This story of American POWs on Iwo Jima is a part of the total story that needs to be researched. There are a few more Americans, like PFC Garnett Whittle, that were prisoners of the Japanese on Iwo Jima in 1945.
Thank you for this. So, the Japanese, themselves starving still kept the POWs alive. That contrasts with the story of them killing their own (which seems to make little sense, as they too could have gone scavanging, and anyway, it was about resistence. I doubt those reports).
In 1968 I read the book “The Stragglers” (pub 1962, Ely Kahn) when I was a teenager dependent at Clark AFB, Philippines. At that time, a holdout Japanese soldier had been found on Guam I believe. The topic was very much real. Stories were everywhere. The holdouts stories are nothing less than heroic and honorable to me. Duty bound and dedicated from a different era.
It seems a bit sadder to me. Most of them had stopped fighting actively or thinking about their situation seriously as soldiers. While these guys in the video giving up in 49 is ridiculous, it is on the outside edge of normal behavior. After that, it's basically mental illness.
@@contrapasta2454 It was part of the Bushido code: death was preferable to surrender. Most of the holdouts were average guys who simply wanted to live, & didn't want to die in a futile banzai attack, but believed they couldn't go home where they would be shamed & ostracized. So they hung on in a sort of limbo, living day-to-day, not knowing how to escape their situation. I don't know if any were mentally ill at the beginning of their isolation, but doubtlessly this condition resulted with at least some succumbing to mental illness.
Talk about dedication
@@contrapasta2454 there is nothing wrong or mental about their actions, they were soldiers and they were unwilling to take the easy way out, they were loyal to their country and didn't want to give up Their bravery and willpower should be praised, we could learn a thing or two from them
@@llywrch7116given the state of modern Japanese men, the japanese soldiers who refused to surrender, kept fighting and died honorably, were the lucky ones I can't imagine the prospect of my grandkids being subjects to a foreign power, that treats them as a high tech factory and geo-political chess piece
Well today is veterans day 11-11-2022. I like to thank all the veterans out there including all my uncles cousin and my father who was in the army and navy. And all my cousin that are currently active. A big thank you to all veterans.
Heartbreaking.
It’s crazy how japan is now one of our strongest allies. If only those that died could see our love for each other now. Japanese ppl & culture is beautiful. Yea they did horrible things in the past but I think that’s why their so giving & peaceful now, just like America. The Japanese military was so brave & had one of the strongest military’s in the world. It’s crazy what evil leaders can do to their ppl & brain wash them to fight in war.
They did terrible things because the mindset of the time was "might makes right", and they thought they would win the war anyway (hence might).
@@gorilladisco9108wrong, the usa still goes by might makes right lol, Its just hypocrisy, when the usa invades iraq for oil its ok, but when russia invades ukraine to stop nato expansions its suddenly bad
To this day, I don't think the Japanese are particularly crazy about Americans. However, they like the other would-be world powers a lot less.
Terry Doi's a hero. He doubtless saved many lives on both sides at great personal risk.
Yet more fascinating history content. Seeing real footage is a good balance to the operation room stuff
This is gonna be a good one!
A solid account of what the Japanese soldier experienced during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Someone should make a movie about Yamakage and Matsudo's experience.
Just finished Operations Room latest upload and came straight here! I highly recommend you all like and subscribe with notifications. These guys never have a bad vid!
What a fantastic account, I learned a great deal more new info here. Superb research & presentation. Well done, 10/10! 👍🏻
Very well-done video. I have always been fascinated by stories of the Japanese holdouts on the pacific islands. There is something about the desperation and cunning of these men in surviving surrounded by their enemy and with no way home that I find interesting.
i cant believe content this great and informative is free. Good job!
We had a PoW camp here in Australia where the Japanese decided it was wrong that they were being treated well, and to assuage their guilt and uphold their honour, performed a Banzai charge at the gates. Several hundred were killed, some by the machine guns, some by suicide, some killed by other Japanese PoWs.
Per the records only 235 were killed including guards.
@@dudeman5300 as I said, several hundred.
@@dudeman5300more then 200 is technically hundreds
The work you do and the way you present is stunning.
Its almost Unbelivable how those guys ( the Japonese) could stand living in those conditions,its realy beyond me. They had to be extremely Mentaly strong. Brave man,despite being Japonese or not,very Brave man,indeed.
Thank you for something truly amazing! Loved the entire iwo jima series! ❤️
This is like some Fallout Mad Max level of survival but hey they had many many chances to surrender rather then suffer for a bad and losing cause
My late father told a similar story about his part in the invasion of Saipan and his role in the transition to the Military Government. Nippon soldiers were still being flushed out or surrendering even when he headed home in Feb. "46. Containment camps for POW's, their families, Chamorrans (?) and a myriad of other ethic civilian laborers were segregated and had to be fed, clothed and provided for until repatriation or return. Narragansett Bay
The Chamorros were the indigenous people of the Marinas Islands.
@@rickiecomeaux8287 Correct. After the hostilities were over there was nothing left for anyone to live in. Those Chamorros from the Guam did not co-exist peacefully with members from the Northern Marianas. It was a balancing act to get life up and moving again. jb
It's pronounced "nip". "vermin" and "rabid dog" also work.
Completely amazing video. I had never heard about the high command considering the prisoners as more valuable than dead because they could write letters home and hopefully soften up resistance. Very smart!
that's insane. finding a crate and discovering coke for the first time.
yeah there accustomed to opium but coke surely a novelty !
Surprising it hasn't been used in an add for the product!
Outstanding presentation. I have a general knowledge of WW2 battles but had never heard any of this post Iwo Jima information. Thank you
That was a very well put together doco on Iwo Jima. Thank you for the effort you put into this.
Extremely well done and very informative! Great work on the Iwo series!!
I hope they found peace and lived prosperous lives afterwards.
I doubt that. Anyone who went through such horrors wouldnt be able to live happily after. Memories would hunt them until they die.
@@Semperidem94 And if the memories didn't keep them up at night,the sheer futility of their actions would.I imagine many of them went to sleep crying and saying "why didn't i surrender sooner?" .
I would wish the same to the Marines and US Navy corpsmen who were there but would have preferred to be elsewhere.
Thank you for sharing these stories. 🙏🏼
Fascinating to hear about these courageous soldiers. War is hell. May all, who fought and died RIP. First time hearing this story.
Much lesser known situation - but somewhat similar in context to this - is Latvian 19th legion in Kurland (also known as Courland Pocket or Courland Pot). Even when Germany surrendered Latvian troops (not all, but A LOT of them nevertheless) kept on fighting against the invading Russians. Russians, of course, were nowhere near as hospitable against them as Americans against the Japanese. Most ended up "wiped out" by 1955, but I've spoken to a veteran who claimed that the last dugouts, still supported by Latvian civilians, didn't go down till mid 1970s. Ironically enough those boys outlived many, many of their comrades who either surrendered to Russians or "escaped" to Sweden. Their faiths often ended in mass executions or being sent to Siberian gulags to work themselves to death.
@CKS1949 That particular dude wasn't actually much of a fighter. He was conscripted into the soviet army late into the war, fought somewhere relatively near his home in Latgale (South-East Latvia, while Kurzeme is West Latvia), got knocked out in the battle, woke up after it with everyone having moved away and just went into hiding for the next 50 or so years. Only kept in contact with his sister as he was too afraid someone would recognize him and that then leading to soviets executing him or sending him to a gulag. Not quite a fighting man, but an interesting story nevertheless
Thanks for the amazing content as per usual!
Brilliant work. Thank you.
Didn't expect this to be as interesting, or moving, as it is, my deepest thanks.
We love this channel!🙏
Well done great series. I enjoyed the format and presentation.
What an interesting story - once again - very well done sir!
The Intel Report, The Operations Room and of course Mark Felton Productions are on a different level. Thanks so much!
Apparently One Japanese Soldier Held Out In The Phillipines Till 1973, When a Personal Friend Flown In From Japan, 🗾 FINALLY Convinced Him To Surrender!
Fascinating... great research as always, thank you for your education:)
Keep all this in mind when people wonder why the 2 bombs were dropped.
Another comparable story: German holdouts in the sewers of Stalingrad until mid 1943. Losses there were horrific, too: About 1,700,00 Soviet soldiers perished. On Axis side over 1,00,000 lives were lost in the cauldron, about 108,000 became POW, but only 1,600 did see their final release home in 1956 after 13 years in captivity, hard labour on starving rations.
Though technically Russia was part of the allies, to speak of them as such is so contrary.
Why is it difficult? The Russians lost 26 million dead fighting against the German Army. Every dead German they caused was one less German soldier our fathers and grandfathers had to face. We lost around 480k dead in World War 2. Without the Russians paying in blood for us, it would have cost us another million dead to defeat Germany. Don't confuse the problems of today with the problems of 80 years ago. FYI, Russian soldiers rescued my starved, nearly dead uncle from a POW camp. They fed him, gave him medical care and carried him on a stretcher for 4 days to an airfield so he could be airlifted back home. The only words understood jointly was tovarish (friend) and bevo (beer). My uncles only complaint was didn't know how to say thank you..
Loving the new channel. What a fantastic documentary and series. Keep it up dude.
Look up the story of Hiroo Onoda and his book - "No Surrender, my thirty year war" Onoda finally surrendered in 1974.
I read it, and reflected upon how many years Onoda gave to his Emperor, in vain.
The part with the Japanese soldier tasting coke for the first time was hilarious 😂
Many thanks, excellent post script, to the battle.
Most of the FOBs I went to in Iraq & Afghanistan had a sign at the ECP which read "Complacency Kills"
This is some of the best content on KZhead.
Wow. Thanks for sharing. Loyalty and determination to hold out for 4 years.
What an amazing story. Thanks for the great and hugely informative video.
Fascinating. I was aware of the odd few soldiers holding out, but wasn't aware of the large amount here.
Now this is a story. FIrst time hearing of this. Would love to hear more.
Thank you for taking the time to make these well researched videos.
One of the best videos I've seen in a while. Lots of good individual stories in here. You must have a deep list of sources!
This was history about the Pacific theater of WW 2 that I never knew about. I was aware of the Japanese holdouts on Guam and in the Phillipines. But I never knew about the holdouts on Iwo Jima.
Never knew Ft Eustis VA was a POW camp for Japanese POWs. I’ve grown up in Newport News my entire life and had never learned that until I saw this video. Very interesting to learn. I had been on Ft Eustis multiple times in my life and saw no record of that before. Very cool.
I was at Eustis back during the Iraq war and I never heard that it was used as a POW camp for the Japanese. My grandparents were from Hampton and they told me they had a POW camp for Germans at Fort Monroe and one time some of them escaped. One of my grandparent's neighbors in the Fox Hill neighborhood caught one of them hiding under a staircase in his house. He yelled "GET OUT" and the German ran. I heard another story about a woman who lived on a farm at the end of Pasture Road in Poquoson overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. One day during the war she went out to hang clothes on the line and when she came back in her house she surprised a guy who was going through her fridge trying to find something to eat. She said he uttered something in German and ran out of the house. They were not sure if he was an escaped POW or a German saboteur dropped off near the Virginia Capes by a U-Boat.
Absolutely fascinating. Subscribed and invested. Really nice work.
This ws unknown to me. A bit of hidden history you brought to my knowledge. Well done and thank you.
To think the holdouts even turned on each other like that. Still that one who gorged himself on Coca Cola provided some lighthearted levity in this otherwise bleak and bloody affair, as did the survivor who attended his own funeral.
Both the same person! :)