Japanese soldiers in China

Someone pointed out recently that it would have been impossible for Japan to have repatriated its soldiers from China to help repel an American landing, since by 1945 the American navy had largely destroyed the Japanese navy and merchant marine. That raises a question: what happened to the Japanese army units that were in Japan at the end of the war? Japan certainly was in no position to repatriate them.

Bob Ingraham

Some units and individuals were drafted into the Chinese Civil War by both sides. Some vanished into the Soviet prison system.

I assume you mean those who were _not_ in Japan.

The answer is that they were repatriated using the remnants of Japan's navy and merchant fleet.

For instance, there were several dozen 'Kaikoban' type escorts left afloat and operational at the end of the war. 18 of Class I and 32 of class II were used as repatriation ships. These were 740 ton vessels.

Also 9 MIKURA class escorts, 4 ETOROFU class, and 2 SHUMUSHU class; 18 MATSU class destroyers; light carrier HOSHO; 4 subchasers; 5 Type 1 LSTs, 4 Type 101; landing ship KUMANO MARU.

On a personal note, while serving a tour of duty in Japan during the Korean War, I rented a small house in a village called Najima, which was located outside of Fukuoka, on Kyushu Island from a Japanese lady. She told my wife and myself that she had spent much of World War II in China along with her husband, a Japanese Army doctor. At the end of the war, she and her husband walked with one young child in her arms and an infant in a transport sling hanging off her neck some 800 miles to a seaport in Korea, where they were able to acquire repatriation transportation back to Japan. She, a most petite 100 pounds if an ounce, and her children all survived the arduous journey, as did her husband, who had made the journey with all of the possessions they needed piled on his