24. Japanese Holdouts Held Out For a Variety of Reasons, Ranging From the Innocent and Noble to the Ignoble
Some Japanese holdouts were true believers in Japan’s claims that the war had been fought to free fellow Asians from European colonialism. So when their comrades marched off to POW camps, they stayed behind and joined forces with nationalist anti-colonial movements such as the Viet Minh. Others had snapped, suffering what modern psychology would describe as post-traumatic stress. They acted in strange and irrational ways because of mental instability. Others were simply jerks. They could not or would not swallow their pride and admit that all the wartime suffering and sacrifice had been for nothing, and face up to the fact that they had lost.
Most holdouts did not hold out for long. Within a few months, most were convinced that the war had ended. So they stacked their arms and turned themselves in to the nearest Allied forces, or if unable to face the humiliation of surrender, committed suicide. Others, were cut off from supplies of food and medicine, starved to death or succumbed to illness. Others were tracked down by Allied or native forces and killed. However, a tiny minority held out for far longer, continuing the war and eluding capture or death for months or for years. The first famous holdout was Sakae Oba, below.
