Identify this Japanese unit!

Ladies and Gentleman,

Triple C here. I have been working as a translator/staff writer in an English newspaper in Taiwan.

Ran across an article that had me scratching my head. It's the story about an IJN officer who disobeyed orders in the Battle of Manila to let his Formosan troops surrender in the Battle of Manila rather than sending them on a bonzai charge with lunge mines. He told them to surrender peacefully and shot himself, rather than carrying out his orders, saving 2,000 "Formosan volunteers" in the process.

Trouble is, he is from what's written in the Chinese article as 海軍巡查隊. It was a kind of police unit within the IJN. This commander was a colonial policeman in civilian life. " His guys should be some kind of IJN unit--apparently deployed on land as a security force par the course but sent to Manila in the final desperate days of the Luzon Campaign.

My colleague who's also a WWII buff believes this was a kind a guard/security brach but not the IJN military police.

His men were called His men were called "volunteers." Apparently this was because Taiwanese/Formosan were, until nearing the end of the war, not drafted.

Urm, what the hell is it?

As you oldtimers might have noticed, my time on the forum had dropped. Well, that's because I have taken on a job in the fourth most despised profession in the world--journalism, after politicking, lawyering and stock-trading (no particular order). The question is work related and I have 17 hours to file this story

Thanks! And if you found out what it is and it's pass the deadline, don't worry. I am mighty curious.

 

Thanks anyway!
It's been a huge mystery.

 

according to Wiki, the commander of the 31st special naval base force, equivalent to the Seabees, an admiral, decided against orders from Yamashita to abandon the city. His 12,000 men joined by 4500 army men fought for Manila

 

My guy was a lower ranking officer with about 2,000 surviving troops under his command at time of surrender. But yes, my thinking is that they might be IJN Seabees.

 

journalism couldn't be worse than those three and tax collection, although the bible treated scribes and tax men equally (bad.) at least the research part stimulates intelligence, while the composition part sparks creativity.