What Happened to Japanese Soldiers After WW2? | Animated History

a Japanese soldier stares out the glass of his train car it has been a long road from the front line back home but he is thankful to see the end of it those final desperate days in these sweltering jungles the shame of surrendering his internment by the Americans all Begin to Fall away as familiar rooftops come into view he is finally home a Japanese soldier stares through the bars of his rolling prison it has been a long road from the front line to wherever this is but he is thankful to see the end of it the sudden Invasion by the Soviets the shame of surrendering the internment in conditions barely suited to cattle all Begin to Fall Away replaced by something far worse he is finally in Siberia foreign hi I'm Griffin Johnson the armchair historian regular viewers will recall our video on the fates of German soldiers after the second world war in which the ultimate Destiny of former access Fighters depended largely on Whose custody they came into the Western allies such as the United States and United Kingdom or the Soviet Union in one of History's many parallels the same is true for the war in the Pacific the fates of Japanese Personnel after the war was directly tied to the Allied Power they were fighting when the emperor made his historic broadcast in this video we will revisit the topic of axis soldiers after the second world war and see the varied and sometimes inhumane faiths of the soldiers who fought to dominate Asia before we continue I'd like to take a moment to thank the sponsor of today's video wondrium formerly known as the Great Courses plus one dream is the Premier Entertainment and educational video subscription service with approachable comprehensive and Illuminating content taught by top professors and experts from around the world with a carefully curated collection of videos tutorials and documentaries you can find lectures and courses on just about anything that interests you from science to history to cooking and even photography new subjects lectures and professors are added every month and you can watch as many different lectures as you want no tests no homework and no schedules to keep I recently watched the lecture series decisive battles of world history and was amazed to learn about how the Battle of Midway and the Pacific Theater as a whole was decided in just four minutes gift subscriptions for one dream are available for friends family or anyone one in your life that enjoys learning support our Channel and take advantage of a free trial for one Dream by visiting onedrium.com the armchair historian or by clicking our Link in the description below the war between Japan and the Allied Powers lasted a total of three years and eight months from the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and its accompanying Asian Blitzkrieg to when the atom bombs fell though the War in China had been on for some time Japan's men in uniform did not find out about their country's surrender immediately veteran and Japanese prime minister tomishi morayama recalled that he and other soldiers heard the news hours after the radio announcement from our superiors At first I felt bad that we had lost but some of us were at the same time relieved because it was a long time coming while Japanese troops throughout the Pacific region would hear of their country's surrender over the next several weeks with the end of the war came the American occupation of Japan from August 1945 to May of 1952 a period of almost seven years Japan functioned as a colony during this period with no military or political Independence all decisions of the Neutered Japanese government had to be approved by the United States this was the world into which demobilized Japanese soldiers returned if they did at all the end of the war is usually associated with homecomings and happy reunions but for the Japanese soldier the end of the war meant uncertainty as he made his way back to a Homeland he no longer recognized while the conflict was ongoing the Japanese government made it extraordinarily difficult for captured soldiers to contact their families and propagandists in the military pushed the narrative that surrender was as dishonorable as it was impossible a Japanese soldier was expected to fight to the death and if for some reason he couldn't honor demanded he take his own life to surrender was not only to invite the greatest shame upon yourself but also to horribly dishonor your family and forfeit one's very identity as Japanese to spare their families they shame being associated with them returning Japanese pows would often not mention their capture to family and friends hiding what they were told was the most mortifying unforgivable sin they had ever committed in their lives foreign [Music] the Western allies had no interest whatsoever in keeping Japanese pows on hand unlike their German counterparts the Japanese were not leased out to reconstruct shattered infrastructure or press ganked to clear minefields the rump Japanese government called for their repatriation and in concert with the Americans had made Provisions for getting the demobilized men home repatriation began in December of 1945 with the sick or wounded ethnic Taiwanese or Koreans and all Japanese soldiers in China pushed to the front of the line the returning soldiers were forced to exchange any foreign money they'd come into for the rapidly crashing Yen but were far more eager to exchange their prison clothes for old uniforms while they waited for their turn to head home they were housed in either old Barracks or warehouses at their ports of entry with basic furniture and no protection from the chill of the Japanese winter conditions were squalid to the point that one returning Soldier noted he wished he'd stay in the Philippines when it came time for the repatriots to complete their Journey they were given enough money for a train fare and enough rations to see them through the arrival home was not always a happy one families of pows sometimes wrongly received notices of death an intentional distortion on the government's part so it's easy to imagine the emotional shock of seeing your dead husband brother or son walk through the front door the returning soldiers limped through these streets of their hometowns often still wearing Surplus uniforms given to them by their former captors and sometimes reduced to begging from American troops though many Japanese civilians privately supported their returning veterans the loss of the war and overnight restructuring of their society was too fresh of a wound and some soldiers were greeted with outright hostility by these same crowds that once cheered them as Heroes they came home quietly said toru Takaya a high school student at the time some of the soldiers told me that when they left to join the war everyone cheered and sent them off but when they came back there was nothing people looked at them coldly regardless of how they were received it was all too common for returning soldiers to suffer a psychological collapse and many who made it back to their hometowns simply walked into their homes closed the door and were never seen again [Music] the Soviet Union and Japanese empire had spent the war in a state of armed non-aggression each eyeing the other while dealing with the pressing matters of Nazi Germany and the United States respectively on August 15 1945 the Soviets defeated the quantang Army in Manchuria ending their war with Japan three days later Stalin ordered the transfer of all Japanese soldiers to the Soviet Union pows were stripped of all of their valuables by the Soviets left with only the clothes on their backs they would endure a long journey into the USSR punctuated by dragging marches between camps the site of Japanese women assaulted by Red Army troops and fijiers anti-jubilation of the natives at the Japanese defeat but at the end of it all they had optimism that they would eventually be returning home the attorneys were poorly cared for as the Soviets put their effort primarily towards stripping their newly acquired territory of anything of value being nakedly named committee on exporting trophy equipment from Manchuria oversaw the pilfering of Manchuria and other Japanese territories of anything regardless of size that could support the rebuilding of the Soviet economy leaving little food or supplies for the pows thanks to the efforts of the export committee huge Trains full of loot were soon steaming toward the Soviet Union with vast quantities of stolen War materiel were tens of thousands of Japanese pows these supremely unfortunate men were in for a terrible shock as some believed they were headed back home instead the Soviets took many of their charges to internment camps in Siberia the infamous Wilderness long used to house political prisoners and enemies of the state winter said in hard and early with temperatures dropping well below freezing fortunately these Soviets were careful to equip the transport trains with stoves and heating equipment when they were sent back in 1947. the Japanese who were transported to Siberia battled the elements on their own with those who touched the metal surfaces of their train cars losing the skin off their hands conditions were no better when they arrived at the camps themselves the extreme cold caused the Japanese soldiers bodies to go into survival mode increasing their blood circulation to Stave off frostbite but the increased activity also meant they could barely sleep when they tried the men huddled in Tangled masses not only to conserve body heat but because their Barracks were often overcrowded latrines were separated from the barracks and if a late night visit was required the returning pow would often find that his sleeping spot had been filled in by his fellows these probations meant that internees required medical attention and the camp infirmaries were staffed by many female doctors and nurses to the Japanese this was a humiliation as the female staff would inspect them from head to toe every month and shave them to prevent infestations of lice it must be noted that this was not part of some malevolent design to shame and psychologically wound the pows but rather a matter of necessity the Soviet Union had lost over 200 000 male medical personnel in the war and fully qualified women were available to make up the shortfall however these effects were present regardless of intent it is important at this moment to make a simple statement it is a fact of history that the Empire of Japan horribly abused civilians and pows alike throughout the war embarking on programs of forced labor human experimentation sexual exploitation and other cruelties Petty and expansive this Bears no denial the purpose of this examination is not to paint the Empire of Japan as a victim Nation but to explore the after effects of the second world war and it is incumbent on us to report them objectively the Soviets abused the Japanese as they abused the Germans as the Japanese abused the Chinese Filipinos Malaysians Vietnamese Dutch Americans British and so on while the camps in Siberia were certainly hellacious there were internment centers built all around the Soviet Union the central Asia regions of the USSR were home to camps that reached sweltering summer temperatures while some Japanese found themselves imprisoned in the underground wastes of verkuta wherever they were imprisoned the Japanese were expected to do their bit to rebuild the Soviet economy in the same breath as he ordered the initial internments in Siberia Stalin ordered that the Japanese pows be used as laborers to repair the damage they and their access Partners did to the workers Paradise the nkvd the Soviet Secret Police and precursor to the KGB was put in charge of dividing the pows into thousand-man labor battalions the vast majority of which were used to build roads lay Rail and construct or repair Bridges and other transport infrastructure others were put to work as industrial workers or Lumberjacks whatever would benefit the Soviet economy the variety and intensity of a pow's labor was a matter of chance what camp they were imprisoned in the effect the war had on the surrounding area how many workers were available and what would be the most advantageous to Stalin's plans the conditions of Labor were equally varied with some camps hosting a Workforce of relatively healthy internees who finished their tasks by midday while other camps hosted ill-car Ford men who regularly failed to meet quotas though their experiences were diverse all Japanese pows shared memories of the work being hard grueling and punishing Japanese soldiers who were in training or otherwise off the field of battle when surrender was announced were taken in by the Japanese government who wished to quickly and efficiently demobilize them despite their junior position in the power Dynamic the government in Tokyo pushed to get these men processed employed and back to civilian life American authorities assessed them for what skills they could bring to the post-war country with those possessing valuable training in civilian trades sent home before others skills also determined the amount of rations and other Goods the government would issue a demobilized soldier as more and more soldiers came home the Japanese government steered them toward jobs in the Agricultural and Industrial sectors incentivizing businesses to hire returning veterans others were enlisted as laborers for the American occupiers Servicing vehicles and working to rebuild the broken Japanese transport system the headquarters of the American occupation in beppu was built with no small amount of demobilized Labor and Japanese workers were a fixture in the building's kitchen but some Japanese who weren't captured took a different attack for them the war was not over at its height the Japanese empire controlled over 20 million square miles or roughly 51 million square kilometers of territory such expansive Holdings naturally meant that news of surrender was slow to reach isolated garrisons and positions especially in the remotest jungles and Island groups isolated and filled with Warrior Spirit some groups of soldiers fought on either unaware or unheeding of the surrender one such lone soldier was Corporal suichi yokoi who lived in the jungles of Guam for 28 years as a holdout when the U.S retook Guam yokoi's regiment was all but annihilated and he was recorded as one of the dead he lived in solitude until a pair of fishermen discovered yokoi checking shrimp traps along a river yokoi attacked the fishermen and was subdued by the Anglers who to yokoi's surprise took him home and fed him rather than dispatched the lone Warrior yokoi was ultimately demobilized in 1972 and wrote a book about his years in the jungle but the most famous of these cases was the Detachment of Lieutenant Hiro onoda whose small group conducted a guerrilla war against the Philippine government until 1974 when the now lone onoda was coaxed out of hiding and formally relieved of Duty by his very much retired commanding officer like the Nazis the Japanese committed a variety of crimes against humanity that demanded prosecution war criminals were imprisoned near where they were captured with jails in Hong Kong Burma Singapore and the Dutch East Indies holding those awaiting trial the prisoner of war information Bureau or p-o-w-i-b was a key participant in preparing for trials in that they actively interfered in the process Japanese authorities encouraged the pow IB to withhold information from Allied prosecutors a demand the ostensibly neutral body ascented to categorizing their files on pows and their personal histories as for Active Release and release only if required the situation was further Complicated by both the pow IB and Japanese government lacking English-speaking Personnel who could interface with the American occupation forces and other Allied Leaders the Potsdam declaration which laid out the terms of Japanese surrender declared there must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest and to this end the Tokyo trials were convened 28 members of the Japanese government including military dictator and Survivor of a failed suicide attempt Hideki Tojo stood trial for a Litany of Horrors stretching from the time the first Japanese soldiers stepped onto Chinese soil through the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the proceedings lasted until 1948 by which time two defendants died of natural causes seven of the 28 were sentenced to death including the aforementioned Tojo the 28 at the Tokyo trials were considered Class A or highly ranking war criminals thousands of lesser offenders were tried in municipal courts throughout Allied territories in the Pacific the Tokyo trials ultimately lasted two times as long as their counterpart in Nuremberg and were similarly effective in the establishment of international law concerning crimes against humanity the Empire of Japan entered the second world war to create a zone of hegemony in Asia but would leave the war a ruined Nation her soldiers coming home in shame were being shipped off to labor camps in the Soviet Union Japan would never wage an offensive War again and would effectively be an American puppet state until 1952. The Fallout of Japan's defeat is especially sad a depressing end to an orgy of violence and hatred with few peers in the journals of man's inhumanity to man [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 2,124,850

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Id: rTh-aM_A4hM

Length: 20min 23sec (1223 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 05 2022