WWII Ended in 1974

Yes, I know my history. And I know that I am 30 years off more or less.

But the interesting thing is this: there were Japanese holdouts who refused to accept that the war was over, or did not know the war was over, who kept fighting into the 1970's. This is pretty amazing, and not something I had heard before. That is 30 years believing that Imperial Japan was still in power, and that you were still in the middle of armed conflict. By 1974 Japan was a rapidly developing modern economy and a close ally of the US, it is pretty amazing to think that there were still soldiers holed up on Pacific islands, prepared to take on the GIs..

Japanese Army stragglers after the end of World War II

1945-1949

• Captain Sakae Ōba, who led his company of 46 men in guerrilla actions against US troops following the Battle of Saipan, did not surrender until December 1, 1945, three months after the war ended.
• Major Sei Igawa (井川省) volunteered as a Viet Minh staff officer and commander. Igawa was killed in a battle with French troops in 1946.^[1][2]
• Navy Lieutenant Hideo Horiuchi (堀内秀雄) volunteered as an Indonesian volunteer Army Lieutenant Colonel. Horiuchi was arrested by Dutch troops on August 13, 1946, while his wounds were treated in a village after the battle with Dutch troops.
• Lieutenant Ei Yamaguchi and his 33 soldiers emerged on Peleliu in late March 1947, attacking the Marine detachment stationed on the island. 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.^{[citation needed]}
• On May 12, 1948, the AP reported that two Japanese soldiers surrendered to civilian policemen in Guam. The policemen were Thomas F. Lee of Pawtuckett, Rhode Island and Hall Willis of Brainerd, Minnesota.^{[citation needed]}
• Yamakage Kufuku and Matsudo Linsoki, two IJN machine gunners, surrendered on Iwo Jima on January 6, 1949.^{[citation needed]}

1950s

• Major Takuo Ishii (石井卓雄) continued to fight as a Viet Minh adviser, staff officer and commander. Ishii was killed in a battle with French troops on May 20, 1950.^[3][4]
• The AP reported on June 27, 1951 that a Japanese petty officer who had surrendered on Anatahan Island in the Marianas two weeks before said that there were 18 other holdouts there. A U.S. Navy plane that had subsequently flown over the island indeed spotted eight or nine 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 sea-going tug, the Cocopa, to the island in hopes of picking up some or all of the soldiers without incident. The Japanese occupation of the island inspired a movie.
• Private 1st Class Yūichi Akatsu continued to fight on Lubang Island from 1944 until surrendering in the Philippine village of Looc on March 1950.^[5]
• Corporal Shōichi Shimada (島田庄一) continued to fight on Lubang until he was killed in a clash with Philippine soldiers in May 1954.^[6]
• Lieutenant Kikuo Tanimoto volunteered as a Viet Minh adviser and commander. Tanimoto returned to Japan in 1954, after Vietnamese Independence.

1960s

• Private Bunzō Minagawa held out from 1944 until May 1960 on Guam.^[7]
• Sergeant Tadashi Itō, Minagawa's superior, surrendered days later, May 23, 1960 on Guam.^[8]

1970s

Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda

• Corporal Shoichi Yokoi, who served under Ito, was captured on Guam in January 1972.^[9]
• Private 1st Class Kinshichi Kozuka held out with Onoda for 28 years until he was killed in a gunbattle with Philippine police in October 1972.^[10]
• Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, who held out from December 1944 until March 1974 on Lubang Island in the Philippines with Akatsu, Shimada and Kozuka, was relieved of duty by his former commanding officer in March 1974.^[11]
• Private Teruo Nakamura (Amis: Attun Palalin) was discovered by the Indonesian Air Force onMorotai, and surrendered to a search patrol on December 18, 1974.^[12]

1980s

• Captain Fumio Nakahira held out until April 1980 before being discovered at Mt. Halcon. He is considered^{[by whom?]} the last Japanese holdout to be found.
• Two ex-Japanese Army soldiers: Kiyoaki Tanaka and Shigeyuki Hashimoto went on to fight with the Malaysian Communist Party (Malaysian Communist Party), in Southern Thailand. The two were part of a group of ex-Japanese Army soldiers and civilians fighting with the MPAJA.^{[clarification needed]}Though they were former WWII veterans, they were not considered holdouts, but rather former Japanese soldiers who went on to fight for another faction and never returned home.^[13]