The Last Surrender Of World War II
June 30,1951
Occasionally Japanese holdouts in the Northern Marianas were found who had managed to hide and survive for many years. One such group on the island of Anatahan,75 nautical miles north of Saipan, deserves special recognize. By 1951 the holdouts on the island refused to believe that the war was over and resisted every attempt by the Navy to remove them.
This group was first discovered in February 1945, when several Chamorros from Saipan were sent to the island to recover the bodies of an American Tinian based B-29 that had crashed on the island after returning from a bombing raid on Japan. The Chamorros reported that there were about thirty Japanese survivors from three Japanese ships sunk in June 1944, one of which was an Okinawan woman.
Pamphlets had been dropped informing the holdouts that the war was over and that they should surrender, but these requests were ignored.
They lived a sparse life, eating coconuts, taro, wild sugar cane, fish and lizards. They smoked crushed, dried papaya leaves wrapped in the leaves of bananas and made an intoxicating beverage known as "tuba", (coconut wine). They lived in palm frond huts with woven floor matting of pandanus. Their life improved after the crash of the aircraft on the island. They used metal from the B-29 to fashion crude implements such as pots, knives and roofing for their hut. The oxygen tanks were used to store water, clothing was made from nylon parachutes, the cords used for fishing line. The springs from machine guns were fashioned into fish hooks. Several in the group also had machine guns and pistols recovered from the aircraft.
Personal aggravations developed as a result of being too long in close association within a small group on a small island and also because of tuba drinking. The presence of only one woman, Mrs. Higa, caused great difficulty as well. Six of eleven deaths that occurred among the holdouts were the result of violence. One man displayed thirteen knife wounds. Mrs. Higa would, from time to time, transfer her affections between at least four of the men after each mysteriously disappeared as a result of "being swallowed by the waves while fishing". In July 1950, Mrs. Higa went to the beach when an American vessel appeared off shore and asked to be removed from the island. She was taken to Saipan aboard the Miss Susie and, upon arrival, informed authorities that the men on the island did not believe the war was over.
Meanwhile, officials of the Japanese government became interested in the situation on Anatahan and asked the Navy for information "concerning the doomed and living Robinson Crusoes who were living a primitive life on an uninhabited island", and offered to sent a ship to rescue them.
The families of the Japanese holdouts on the island of Anatahan, were contacted in Japan and requested by the U. S. Navy to write letters advising them that the war was over and that they should surrender. In January 1951, a message from the Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture was delivered to them which read: I am very proud to learn that all of you are in good health and still residing on a small island in the Pacific six years after the war is over.
I will not blame you for saying that our country lost this war. That was six years ago in 1945. It was the 15th of August 1945 when the peace treaty was signed (sic!).
Our country lost this war, but we are not unfortunate, as the United States is giving us the best of opportunities to recover and I am sure that we are the best of friends in the present world.
During the war it was said that the American soldiers were killing all prisoners of war, but that was not true. The United States treated our prisoners the best until 1947 when all of them were released and sent home. Now there are no other Japanese military men in the Pacific except you gentlemen.
Previously, in our country, a prisoner of war lost face so that even after the war if he came home he had to live in a dark world. That is not so now. The Emperor ordered all our people, wherever they were, to surrender peacefully. All of those returned will never be separated from their home people again. Those who have returned to Japan give the Americans thanks that the long period of their suffering is over . .
I believe you have read letters from your family which said not to worry which will give you confidence to give yourself up to the Americans. In the box of new letters sent to you we are enclosing a piece of white cloth with which you can signal the Navy boat. You do not have to worry. The Americans will give you their best attention and kindness until you are returned to our country . . .
The letters were dropped by air on June 26 and finally convinced the holdouts that they should give themselves up. Thus, six years after the end of World War II, "Operation Removal” got underway from Saipan under the Command of James B. Johnson, USNR, aboard the Navy Tug USS Cocopa. Lt. Commander Johnson and Mr. Ken Akatani, an interpreter, went ashore by rubber boat and formally accepted the last surrender of World War II on the morning of June 30, 1951 which also coincided with the last day of the Naval Administration of the Trust Territory Of The Pacific Islands.
The men, with there few possessions neatly placed in woven pandanus bags along with several implements from the metal of the B-29, boarded the Cocopa and sailed for Guam.
One week later they arrived in Tokyo aboard a U. S. Navy aircraft.
Source: Richard, Dorothy E., Naval Administration of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands