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Japanese holdouts (残留日本兵, Zanryū nipponhei, "remaining Japanese soldiers") or stragglers were Japanese soldiers in the Pacific Theatre who, after the August 1945 surrender of Japan ending World War II, either adamantly doubted the veracity of the formal surrender due to strong dogmatic or militaristic principles, or simply were not aware of it because communications had been cut off by the United States island hopping campaign.
They continued to fight the enemy forces, and later local police, for years after the war was over. Some Japanese holdouts volunteered during the First Indochina War and Indonesian War of Independence, to free Asian colonies from Western control despite these having once been colonial ambitions of Imperial Japan during World War II.
Intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, who was relieved of duty by his former commanding officer on Lubang Island in the Philippines in March 1974, and Teruo Nakamura, who was stationed on Morotai Island in Indonesia and surrendered in December 1974, were the last confirmed holdouts, though rumors persisted of others.
Manila, Metro Manila, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia
Cold War, Battle of Stalingrad, Nazi Germany, Battle of the Atlantic, Second Sino-Japanese War
World War II, United States Navy, Royal Navy, Japan, World War I
Mount Lamlam
Lithuania, Soviet Union, Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Estonia, Nazi Germany
World War II, Korea, Harry S. Truman, United Kingdom, Tokyo
Empire of Japan, Imperial Japanese Navy, World War II, Korea, Japanese war crimes
World War II, Korea, Japan, Russian Empire, Meiji Restoration
1899, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1897, 1887, 1882
Philippines, World War II, United States, Mexico, Empire of Japan