| Original caption: “Japanese Prisoners of War at Guam, with bowed heads after hearing Emperor Hirohito make announcement of Japan’s unconditional surrender.” Imperial Japanese military personnel captured on Guam and other islands listen to the Gyokuon-hōsō (“Broadcast of the Emperor’s Voice”) when Emperor Hirohito (April 29, 1901 – January 7, 1989) announces the acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration to the Japanese people. The entire camp turned out to listen to loudspeakers outside as a shortwave radio broadcast carried the Emperor’s message. Contrary to the American public’s belief that the Japanese would fight to the death, increasing numbers of Japanese soldiers and sailors surrendered in the last 18 months of the war, as it became clear that Japan would not win. Thousands of men were taken prisoner, and camps were set up in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. The Battle of Guam was early in the brutal phase of island fighting, so only 87 prisoners were taken from July 21 to August 10, 1944. But 1,250 were captured or surrendered through August 1945. Additional Prisoners of War were transferred from Rota. A large Prisoner of War Camp was built at Tutujan, today Agana Heights, at the present site of the United States Navy Hospital. It had an administrative office and 50 tents, guarded by 2 watchtowers and a double 12-foot-high (3 1/2 meters) barbed-wire fence. Word that Japan had surrendered hit Prisoners of War hard, although by August 1945, many had begun to believe, despite all they had been taught, that Japan might actually be defeated. Breaking the news of the Emperor’s surrender to the Prisoners of War was handled in various ways. Some of the camp commanders let them hear the Emperor’s broadcast, or, when the reception was too poor to comprehend, told them outright that Japan had capitulated. At other sites, camp commanders concerned about a possible violent reaction from the Prisoners of War spoke elliptically in transmitting the message they had received on the radio, or waited a day or 2 before making the announcement. As it turned out, they need not have worried. Several Prisoners of War, mostly bitter-end hard-liners, professed doubt about the authenticity of the report, though in their hearts, they must have known the war was over. A few days later, the Prisoner of War camps received copies of Japanese newspapers that confirmed the bitter truth – Japan had truly lost the war. The Victory Over Japan (V-J) Day celebrations – the fireworks, sirens, pistols shot into the air – were watched and heard vacantly by the Japanese Prisoners of War. A few even cried openly, an unusual display of emotion. Some still harbored doubts that staying alive had been the right decision. They would now be forced to give up a secure present for a future that many still envisioned as precarious. 1st, their military world had disappeared; now their Prisoner-of-War world was about to collapse, and nothing had yet taken its place. Many Prisoners of War seriously believed that with Japan occupied by the Allies, they would be condemned to work as enslaved people for the rest of their lives. At Camp Murchison in Melbourne, Australia, Japanese Prisoners of War were assembled to hear the Emperor’s surrender broadcast, but the ancient receiver picked up only static. An hour later, the Italian compound erupted with even greater joy than it had when Germany surrendered. An Australian officer soon confirmed the news they had all expected. All leisure activities ceased as the Japanese digested the unconditional surrender of the fatherland. They avidly consumed news from home. Pictures revealed the widespread destruction and mass poverty, as well as Allied domination. Japanese newspapers were made available to them with such shocking items as “Japanese women’s price is cheaper than pork” and “Adults steal lunches from school kids.” Worry about how the home folks were coping began to supersede concerns about their own fate. On August 15, Prisoners of War at Camp Kenedy, Texas, were brought together for an unprecedented assembly. They had a premonition that the news would be bad; they had known defeat was only a matter of time, but none dared to voice it. Their Prisoner of War leader, Imperial Japanese Navy Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki (November 8, 1918 – November 29, 1999), – the 1st Prisoner of War captured on December 8, 1941, when he fell unconscious trying to swim away from his midget submarine, whose 4 1/2 years of imprisonment were about to end – told them of Japan’s surrender and asked that order be maintained. The Prisoners of War observed a minute of silence, then dispersed to mull over thoughts of home and the future. Stories that filtered into Fort McCoy near Sparta, Wisconsin, about the cruel treatment of Allied prisoners by the Japanese filled Yoshida Osamu (???? – ????), a Keio University graduate captured on Saipan, with fear of retribution. “We could only hope that they would have been well treated,” he recalled much later, but even then, he knew that his hope was misplaced.” Some of Yoshida’s compatriots were beginning to believe that they, well-treated Japanese prisoners of the Western Allies, were the more unfortunate. Allied Prisoners of War could look forward to a future with confidence, knowing they would be received warmly by their country, families, and friends. Moreover, this was a genuine feeling among American Prisoners of War. Japanese Prisoners of War, on the other hand, still could not be sure how their families and nation would receive them. Reliving the time of his capture, Yoshida eventually realized that he had managed to avoid death because of fear. He had known that dying was the “proper course” but had succumbed to his instinct for self-preservation. It was also true that he was a “coward.” This thought process led him to decide that more basic even than being Japanese was the fact that he was a human being, and that as such, he had a right to life. It was a life that belonged to him, not to his country or to the Emperor. Yoshida was far from the typical Japanese prisoner of war. His university education alone had placed him in a relatively small elite group in prewar society and had exposed him to substantial Western thinking. He probably harbored serious doubts about aspects of the myths propagated during the war concerning the Emperor and, for that matter, the “invincible Japanese race of the gods.” Yoshida was also special in his ability to rationally analyze his feelings and thought processes. On August 15, 1945, the Camp McCoy commander announced the end of the war and asked the Prisoners of War to remain calm. Yoshida still could not bring himself to say that Japan had lost the war, yet his feeling of relief was palpable. He could go home and did not have to disguise his relief. A few days later, the head of the internal Prisoner of War organization came over to him and asked with a serious mien, “So what do you think you are going to do?” Quite naturally, the answer welled up inside Yoshida: “I am going to return home alive.” Those words filled him with immense joy. Understandably, not all Japanese prisoners of war were jubilant when Japan’s surrender finally came about. However, there seems little doubt that, when the truth sank in, they could look forward unreservedly to “going home alive” after all. They would not have been human if that elemental striving had been totally erased. Moreover, with considerable rapidity, the concept spread through the Prisoner of War community that once the Emperor had surrendered, all Japanese had become prisoners. No longer in the despised category set apart from Japanese fellow soldiers and sailors, Japanese Prisoners of War could once again draw a deep breath. With that breath, they took the 1st important step in rejoining their countrymen. After Rota was liberated in September 1945, the garrison was transferred to Tutujan. War Crimes Trials were held at Tutujan from 1944 to 1949, and both Japanese and local Chamorros who collaborated with them were placed on trial. Of the 144 tried, 8 were acquitted, and 2 committed suicide. The camp closed in 1949. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1586.jpg |
| Image Size | 2.24 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 5688 x 4518 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Navy |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 15, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Agana Point |
| State or Province | Guam |
| Country | Marianas |
| Archive | Naval History and Heritage Command |
| Record Number | 80-G-490320 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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