3. Left to Languish
Elsewhere in the Marianas, American authorities learned of the Japanese on Anatahan after natives from nearby islands informed the US Navy of their presence. However, the small island was off the beaten path, lacked military significance, and the Japanese marooned there posed no threat. So the castaways were allowed to languish in isolation as the war continued and reached its climactic conclusion elsewhere.
After Japan surrendered, authorities remembered the Japanese on Anatahan. Printed leaflets were airdropped on the island, informing its denizens that the war was over and directing them to surrender. However, the castaways dismissed the leaflets as propaganda, and refused to believe that their government could have thrown in the towel. The island was even less important after the war ended than it had been while the conflict raged, and its inhabitants were just as isolated and harmless to the outside world. So the American authorities did not deem it worth the trouble to send in US forces to root them out.
