Which Japanese holdout surrendered in Indonesia in December 1974, after World War II?

Teruo Nakamura was the Japanese holdout arrested in Indonesia in December 1974, nearly three decades after Japan’s surrender.

Nakamura was an Indigenous Taiwanese soldier serving in the Imperial Japanese Army. He became separated from his unit and remained hidden on Morotai, an island in what is now Indonesia, after the war ended. Indonesian authorities captured him on December 18, 1974.

His case is often overshadowed by Hiroo Onoda, who surrendered in the Philippines in March 1974. Onoda was more widely publicized, but Nakamura was captured later and is generally regarded as the last Japanese military holdout to surrender after World War II.

These holdouts did not change the legal end of the war. Japan’s formal surrender had already occurred on September 2, 1945. Their stories instead illustrate how isolated soldiers, lacking trusted information or refusing to believe it, continued hiding long after the conflict had ended.