I found this quoted elsewhere. I think this is interesting when compared to Europe.

From Richard Franks "Downfall: The End of The Imperial Japanese Empire"--

Location: Garrison Strength: # Prisoners: Fatality Rate:
Attu 2350 29 98.8%
Tarawa 2571 8 99.7%
Roi-Namur 3472 51 98.5%
Kwajalein 5017 79 98.4%
Saipan 30,000 921 97%
Iwo Jima 21,000 1,083 95%
Okinawa 92,000 7,401 92%

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

That is a very few prisoners captured from those garrisions, those losses are quite high.

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Yes, JC. tragic losses the Japanese sustained in many campaigns.

Just one objection (nothing personal): I read somewhere else that there were 17, not 8, prisoners from Tarawa as listed. Nevertheless, those losses are still unbelievable. Just to meet one of the people who survived would be a huge opportunity (not to mention a very rare one).

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I have noticed some differences in some of the sources. With 17 being the most quoted. There is also,


Strength of Japanese Garrison, Apamama, 20 Nov 1943 23

Enemy dead, Apamama 23

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

Robert,

There were a number of locations not mentioned on that list of smaller garrison strength, which I imagine were one hundred percent.

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All the Best
Jack

All too true

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"Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts." - Cicero

"It's called getting wounded, Private. Injured is when you fall out of a tree or something." - Sgt. John Martin, "Band of Brothers"

Im sure that there many instances where there were 100% fatalities.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

I still think the Okinawa # of dead is higher. Need to include the 100,000+ civilian dead also to expand the scope of the carnage.

But it is like comparing apples and oranges to compare the Japanese with anybody. They entered combat arenas in the Pacific NOT EXPECTING TO LIVE.

Casualty figures like those are what help those who delve casually into segments of WWII to realize that any invasion would have been unreal.

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Which battle(s) produced the most prisoners?

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

I don't know about that but I know its not Tarawa obviously

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"Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts." - Cicero

"It's called getting wounded, Private. Injured is when you fall out of a tree or something." - Sgt. John Martin, "Band of Brothers"

That was mentioned in the original post I made.
Tarawa 2571 8 99.7% .

I have seen quotes from 20000 to 35000 as to the total amount of Japanese POW held by the Western Allies. With 5000 being held in the US. I have yet to find out a better breakdown on where and in what battle or campaign they surrendered in.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

I looked also, Robert, and found nothing. I have a book on POWs held in the US that I read 10 years or so ago, but it mainly addresses German POWs here and has very little on the Japanese. I will get it out and look through it again.

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Best Regards,
Not Slipdigit

Thanks Jeff. It is pretty amazing on the scarcity of info on the subject. I did find this and thought it was interesting,

JapanesePOWs in Allied Hands

The cultural difference between the western notion of an honorable surrender and the Japanese notion of fight to the death was a big contribution to the ferocity of the Pacific War. Allied soldiers had trouble comprehending the Japanese will to fight on in the face of certain death, and Allied atrocities against surrendered Japanese was a function of the racism that infused the island fighting. This resulted in very few survivors of the pacific garrisons.

The small numbers of prisoners is shocking. On Tarawa, only 17 Japanese were taken; many surrendered only after being knocked unconscious by gunfire. Many more Korean laborers survived the battle. Many prisoners were only captured when they were unable to resist due to wounds or incapacitation.

Once captured, they were reported as dead to their families and many Japanese POWs chose to aid the Allied effort. Prisoners provided the Allies with important information, sometimes directing bombers against their former comrades.

Once they had delivered all the information they could, or were recalcitrant, they were shipped to POW camps in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Their treatment in Allied hands was better than their Allied counterparts in Japanese prisons. Over 95% of Japanese POWs survived the war, while only 49% of Allied POWs returned to their native lands. As the war ended its final year, more POWs were captured as the rank and file Japanese soldiers surrendered, recognizing the futility of fighting for a lost cause.

During the war, there were a number of suicides and breakout attempts. One of the most violent occurred in the United States, where POW leaders advocated an uprising in the Emperor's name. Several thousand prisoners took part, but it was stopped with minimal casualties. The leaders hanged themselves before capture. Another breakout in Cowra, Australia took weeks to round up all the POWs. No POW is known to have escaped and successfully returned to Japan.

At the end of the war, the Japanese POWs in Allied hands that were not accused of war crimes were returned to Japan. The Japanese in Soviet hands were held in Siberian camps and not returned for years. As late as 2006 Ishinosuke Uwano said he was a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier.

Some "holdouts" refused to surrneder after the war. On some islands, Japanese and Americans fought to the death after the surrender, with casualties on both sides. The last Japanese soldier surrendered in 1980, after thirty-five years. Some Japanese believe that there are still abandoned warriors living in the islands of the South Pacfiic.

Japanese POWs in Allied Hands - World War II Multimedia Database

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

I saw that page, wished it had more information.

In a way, I can see why there could have been little regard for humane treatment of Japanese PoWs when you consider they could have appeared to have little regard for their own lives in the eyes of the soldiers fighting them. Why have more concern for Japanese lives than they themselves have? Couple that with the stories of Japanese mistreatment of Allied PoWs, I can see a certain unwillingness on the part of the Allied soldier to take Japanese as prisoners.

Before anyone gets in an uproar, this is not something I am advocating, just offering discussion.

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Best Regards,
Not Slipdigit

I agree with you there Jeff. Kind of what I was talking about in my "Why was the Pacific War so brutal?" thread.Compared to all the POWS taken in the European Theater the Japanese totals seem a drop in the bucket.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

Col J H Alexander 'Utmost Savagery' gives 145 total prisoners from Betio Island. 17 Japanese and 128 Koreans. While the Koreans were technically in 'labor units' there were issued weapons and required to fight alongside the Japanese soldiers.

Alexander counts 4601 defenders, of which slightly less than 2000 were Koreans. So, you can have % of 96.8% for all defenders, or 99.3% for the likely Japanese count.

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So it looks like according to the stats I posted originally that in the latter part of the war 9405 surrendered. I would love to know where all the rest of the prisoners came from. Does anyone have any stats on the prisoners from the Philippines were?


Saipan 30,000 921 97%
Iwo Jima 21,000 1,083 95%
Okinawa 92,000 7,401 92%

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

I would be curious how many Japanese based in China made it home. Did the Chinese execute many of them ? Also how did the Russians handle the prisoners it took when it invaded the northern islands.

I guess numbers would be hard to come by but JC always pulls a rabbit out of the hat !

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I have seen numbers from 580000 to about 600000. Way more then what the Western Allies held. And most were captured in Manchuria. Many of them were kept and used as slave labor for years after the war And estimates of deaths while prisoners is estimated at about 60000.


Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Anguish of Surrender: Japanese ... - Google Book Search

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

Here's one I found related to your question. It's from Time magazine, Sept. 10, 1945 issue. For the Philippines, the magazine says it's about 40,000 Japanese troops. However, some of these troops were cut off and without any communications and surrendered only decades later.
There are websites that features what I think is good information about these stragglers.


The Bubble Burst



With his ancestors' 700-year-old samurai sword buckled at the side of his faded, patched uniform, fierce, bullet-headed General Tomoyuki Yamashita came trudging out of northern Luzon's Caraballo Mountains.
Whisked to Baguio, Yamashita formally surrendered to Lieut. General Jonathan M. Wainwright, ordered the 40,000 Japanese troops in the Philippines to give up.
Asked if he would commit harakiri, Yamashita grinned and shook his close-cropped head: "Hara-kiri? No, no harakiri." A U.S. soldier who had helped establish contact with Japan's ferocious "Tiger of Malaya" conferred on him a new nick name: "The Gopher of Luzon."
Another Japanese general, surrendering in the central Philippines, defiantly quoted a medieval Japanese slogan: "Shall I die, I shall live again — and again seven times to fight again — swears the warrior."
Elsewhere in the Pacific and Asia the Japanese were giving up, in large garrisons and small pockets.
¶ In Manchuria and elsewhere Russian forces bagged more than a half million Japanese troops. Soviet troops completed their occupation of the fog-bound Kuril Islands. In Moscow Stalin said the Kurils and the southern half of Sakhalin island would again become Russian territory.
¶ Truk, Japan's Pacific naval bastion, and the heavily fortified Palau Islands gave up. So did Japanese garrisons on Pagan and Rota in the Marianas. The catch was estimated at 100,000.
¶Chinese Central Government troops swept into Canton, Shanghai, Ichang, Nanking. In Nanking their first act was to pay their respects to the memory of Sun Yat-sen at his mausoleum. All Japanese forces in China were to be surrendered within the week.
¶ Australians had arranged for the sur render of surviving Japanese troops in New Guinea, New Ireland, New Britain and the Solomons — a bag of approximately 86,000.
¶ British naval landing parties went ashore in Hong Kong. First, however, it had been necessary to bomb suicide craft in the harbor.
¶ In Indo-China the Japanese were ready to quit, but the French expected trouble from Japanese-incited natives. The British, with negotiations completed for the surrender of Singapore's city and fortress, f