Largest Stranded Garrisons?

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C

Conslaw

Senior Airman
627
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Jan 22, 2009
Indianapolis, Indiana USA
The United States' "island hopping" campaign bypassed a lot of Japanese-held islands (and atolls) with substantial garrisons. Does anybody have any interesting figures on the relative sizes of these garrisons, and what happened to them, i.e. were they evacuated, or survived or starved to death, etc. (I was surprised to learn in the book "The Siege of Rabaul" by Henry Sakaida, that the large garrison of Rabaul didn't do too badly after it was bypassed. The island was big enough and fertile enough to produce a significant amount of food, plus they had a fishing fleet of small boats. By 1945 the men stuck on Rabaul were probably eating better than the folks at home in Japan.)
 
While in the USAF, a fellow airman had been aircrew on SA-16 Albatross with air sea rescue. As a favor when they picked up an aircrew at sea they would fly them back to their home base. I can no longer remember the the particular islands but it was known there were Japanese hold outs on several bases. He told me they fell into three types: first, those who knew the war was over but wouldn't go home in dishonor for losing, second , those who were not sure the war was over but were content as they were. Third were those who didn't care if the war was over, they were still at war. At one base, a gate had been installed near the kitchen in the perimeter fence so food could be put out for those living in the jungle/swamp. It was a tradition for new men and guests to sit on the back steps of the kitchen and watch for those to come and get food. No one ever saw them, yet food would gradually disappear during the night. Roy told me that it bothered him enough he couldn't watch through the night, knowing that they were watching him but he couldn't see them. At another base, he was told to be inside the fence at night because they recently had two Marines and two women killed by knife at night. They had gone in the bush in a jeep. Roy was in Air Sea rescue out of Okinawa from 1954 until Jun 1959. He told me those days three fourths of the island was off limits to US personnel and half was off limits to everyone. He had pictures he and a buddy took in the off limits area, souvenir hunting, of him at the mouth of a cave with a large mortar mounted on rails so it could be rolled in for reloading. The Japanese Self Defense Force was always clearing the off limits area of explosives and weapons. Roy said one year at the annual Japanese patriotic parade, they showed a 2man tank found cared for and operable.
 
Thumpalumpacus said:
Truk had a pretty large garrison cut off, no? I don't have numbers available.
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Looks like about two divisions, all told, after a little reading, all told. Japanese strength tables, so perhaps 15,000 IJA troops, aside from naval support/second-line combat personnel. One full division and two or three independent regiments is my takeaway.

A lot of guys there. Anyone know how many were recovered to Japan proper before the Marianas operations cut the route?
 
I mentioned this in another thread. A family friend, now gone, was in the first Army AA unit installed on Okinawa. While the island was declared secure, it was generally known there were Japanese soldiers still active. One morning, three Japanese infiltrated the newly arrived P-51 pilots tents and killed several in spite of MP guards. After the Japanese had been killed Mr. baker, the family friend, said he and another G.I. walked along a freshly graded road and saw their tracks from the previous night. He said two were barefoot and the third had hand made three toe shoes. About two weeks after he told the story, I watched a video on military channel about Okinawa and when the camera panned toward dead Japanese. some were wearing three toe shoes. I would have missed that if not for Mr. Baker's story.
 
SaparotRob said:
Rabaul gets a lot press. Was it a larger installation than Truk?
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I believe its garrison was larger, yes. I seem to remember a count of 110,000 stranded at Rabaul, while Truk with one division and three independent brigades might have totaled 20,000 aside from naval support troops, dock workers etc.
 
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