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Overlooked Important WWII Figures from History

Khalid Elhassan October 20, 2019 31 min

5. Convincing Oba to Give Up

Sakae Oba surrendering his samurai sword. Pintrest

American officials finally brought in a Japanese general who had commanded a brigade in Saipan, and sent him in to try and find and reason with Sakae Oba. The general tramped the jungle while whistling Japanese military tunes, until he drew out some of the holdouts. They took him to their commanding officer, and after presenting Oba with official documents from Imperial General Headquarters ordering him to surrender, the holdout ended.

On December 1^st, 1945, Oba marched his charges out of their jungle hideouts, and in a dignified ceremony, surrendered his sword and his command. Upon repatriation to Japan, he Oba led a productive life, working in the private sector, before turning to politics and getting elected to his city’s council. He died at age 78, in 1992.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.