Teruo Nakamura was the last known Japanese holdout to surrender after World War II ended in 1945.
Nakamura was an ethnically Taiwanese soldier serving in the Imperial Japanese Army’s Takasago Volunteer Unit. He remained on Morotai Island, then part of the Dutch East Indies, after Japan’s defeat and lived in isolation for years.
The Indonesian Air Force discovered his hut in 1974. Indonesian soldiers arrested him on 18 December 1974, making him the last known Japanese wartime holdout to surrender. He was later repatriated to Taiwan rather than Japan.
Nakamura is often confused with Hiroo Onoda, who surrendered earlier in 1974 and received far greater international attention. Shoichi Yokoi also returned earlier, in 1972. These holdouts did not represent continuing organized warfare by Japan; they were isolated soldiers who had not accepted or believed that the war was over.