After Japan's defeat and surrender, how did the millions of returning Japanese soldiers survive?

These Japanese soldiers were greeted by the whole country when they went to war for the country and were regarded as heroes. When they returned, they were regarded as a burden and a shame by the people and were despised by the common people.

They are said to be a burden, because in post-war Japan, large and medium-sized cities were basically in ruins, supplies were seriously lacking, and everyone was not full to eat. Now millions of young and strong men have returned, doing nothing but fighting. Nor will it.

They are said to be a shame. In the later stages of the war, Japan continued to retreat, and the people gradually understood the truth of the war. Especially after the war, their minds were liberated. The bad things these Japanese soldiers did overseas were gradually exposed to more Japanese people. As everyone knows, this makes the face-conscious Japanese feel very shameful.

After Japan's defeat, approximately millions of Japanese troops returned from China, Korea, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and other places. Among them, there were approximately 1.98 million Japanese troops in China, including Taiwan and Korea, and 720,000 in Southeast Asia. There are still 110,000 people left on the Pacific islands, and in addition, there are hundreds of thousands of naval forces.

These millions of burdens were sent back to the country one by one in depression.

There are some photos reflecting the post-war life of Japanese soldiers. Their experiences were different.

The former imperial army cast an envious glance at the US military. In postwar Japan, the winner dominates everything.

A large number of retired soldiers could not find jobs and were looked down upon by others. In the chaotic times in the early post-war period, those who knew how to fight quickly fell into the underworld and started fighting.

Facing the scorched earth of his hometown, this soldier was at a loss. During the war, most of Japan's large and medium-sized cities were bombed.

This shirtless old devil is ready to rebuild his home. After all, he is back home, and there is always hope.

This retired old devil seems to be living a relatively comfortable life, and he can read newspapers in his spare time.

Many returning soldiers, under the leadership of their former commanders, participated in cleaning up urban war ruins and urban construction.

The old Japanese often went to the US military's garbage dump to find food. It would be a great honor to be able to shine shoes in a U.S. military camp.

The old devil is begging for food on the street. He may be ashamed and wears glasses.

After the war, Japan implemented a rationing system, and soldiers returning from overseas had to line up to receive it like the general public

This should be a Japanese soldier from the Osaka Division, who is better at doing business. , and quickly started a small business in front of the US military camp.

The old Japanese worked for the US military, and he was extremely lucky to have a job after the war.

This old soldier became a mobile vendor.

On the other hand, the commanders of these soldiers encouraged the soldiers to die for the emperor during the war. When the critical moment came, they did not even have the courage to commit suicide, such as Tojo Hideki.

The soldiers of the victorious countries defeated the fascists and became national heroes. These fascist soldiers brought huge disasters to the people of other countries during the war. After the war, they were lucky enough to return home alive and escape punishment. Very good. Compared with the hundreds of thousands of Kwantung Army soldiers who were plundered and sent to Siberia to do hard labor, those Japanese soldiers were really better.

Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has embarked on the road to becoming a powerful country by relying on repeated gambles. It has also embarked on the path of no return, regardless of its own strength, dreaming of carving up the world. , turned around and found that it had been chained for more than 70 years.

What is the treatment of the defeated countries? A defeated country will not only lose its national dignity, but also be invaded by hostile countries in various fields. Japan became a defeated country in World War II. The country's economy collapsed for a time, and even their country fell under the leadership of the Americans.

The Japanese soldiers who are fighting on the front line are naturally not having a good time. Many of them don’t even know that their country has declared defeat. The Japanese soldiers who have returned to their country are not having a good life either. The urns of their comrades, carrying their own guns, took the ship sent by the country to pick them up, all the way back to the motherland?

Here, they did not receive good treatment from the citizens. On the contrary, many people hated this group of Japanese soldiers because they were failures and had no dignity.

In order to win the war, Japan did not send too many soldiers. Their population was originally relatively small. This time they sent out almost all the men of suitable age in the country who could go into battle. Many of them The Japanese soldiers were still children, and some were elderly people in their sixties or seventies.

You don’t have to think about how many Japanese soldiers returned home after the defeat. Because Japan did not develop its economy properly during the war, they were unable to work. After all, they were sandwiched between several superpowers. There is no opportunity to develop the economy.

The failure of the Pacific War dealt a huge blow to the Japanese mainland. Japan's powerful people were faced with difficulties. How could they feed these defeated Japanese soldiers?

Perhaps due to the spirit of the samurai, the Japanese soldiers who returned from defeat encountered hostility from many civilians. Japan was already very poor, and no one was willing to accept these Japanese soldiers. Their situation was deteriorating, and many Japanese soldiers were Reduced to the point of begging on the streets.

The Americans once helped the Japanese soldiers. They relied on this subsidy to firmly control the Japanese army. Later, they no longer provided subsidies to the Japanese soldiers. At this time, the Japanese army was completely gone. Capital to support yourself. During the invasion, these Japanese soldiers probably never imagined that they would end up in this situation.

Later, in order to avoid this chaos, the rulers gave these defeated soldiers some job opportunities. Even so, they could only manage their own food and clothing.

With the increased help from the United States and the outbreak of the Korean War by the Americans, all American supplies were ordered from Japan. This approach allowed Japan's economy to recover rapidly, and many The Japanese once again lived a prosperous life. Compared with the hard life in the past, they simply went to heaven.

Why did Japan's defeated soldiers end up in that situation? In the final analysis, it was because their country was too poor. Without money, they naturally had nothing to look forward to. But things changed after the Korean War began. Japan's economy developed rapidly, and the treatment of these defeated soldiers naturally improved rapidly. At first, they could only beg on the streets.

In order to fight against my country's new forces, the Americans decided to support Japan and let them become a local force to contain China. In order to make this butcher knife sharper, the Americans began to cultivate Japan and deliberately let their economy Development became more rapid, and Japan was even later allowed to handle its internal affairs independently.

The former military bosses took office again, and they treated retired veterans quite well. Because Japan's economy is developing very well, these veterans can actually receive a subsidy of 2 million yen per year. , which has surpassed many ordinary workers.

When Japan surrendered in August 1945, there were actually several million Japanese troops, and most of them still had guns and cannons. At that time, Japan's top leaders were afraid that the hard-liners would kill first and then launch a "kamikaze attack", or that the Japanese people, who were taught that they wanted to die together with the Americans, would actually crawl under the wheels of US military vehicles with explosives in their hands. If this happens, the result will definitely be that the United States continues to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

In fact, the Japanese high-level officials have overthought things. Those "hard-liners" are not even as good as a cooked duck - their meat is rotten but their mouth is not rotten. As soon as the American soldiers arrived, the "hardliners" immediately turned into cowards and wimps, wagging their tails to please the American soldiers, which was called a scramble to be the first. All the hawks and Yan sects have turned into plucked chickens. They must be as well-behaved as they want.

Seeing that the senior generals they regarded as gods had turned into pet dogs, the Japanese army collapsed: "It turns out that you have treated us as fools! Compared with being thick-skinned and shameless, we are not What's wrong!"

So the "kamikaze" who had planes flew out to steal food and then resold it by air. Even the Japanese female doctors and nurses in nurse uniforms directly stole all the medicines. He and the medical equipment escaped, leaving the hospital full of wounded soldiers crying and howling.

When the vast majority of ordinary people were so hungry that their bellies were sticking to their spines, Japan’s black market was at its most prosperous, and all kinds of military supplies, food, and medicines were selling well. Behind these in-demand supplies, there were senior Japanese generals and even The shadow of the Black Dragon Society and other organizations, you know, just a few days ago, they were encouraging soldiers and civilians to commit suicide and sacrifice their country in various public places.

Japan’s postwar moral decline even shocked American soldiers: “Those who were willing to die for their country only a few months ago, who planned to wither as pure and graceful as cherry blossoms, are now ruthlessly defrauding their compatriots! ”

Soon the Japanese people discovered that whether it was food, pots, pans and other daily necessities, black market merchants could always get it from the government through trust relationships.

Japanese society was filled with public dissatisfaction, and Prime Minister Azuma began to "hunt the tiger". However, he sadly discovered that the backers behind the black market were something that he, a prime minister from a royal family, could not afford to offend, so he also No longer the prime minister, he took the antiques sent by his subordinates and started a black market business.

Of course, there are also some who are more "backbone". For example, a prosecutor named Yamaguchi Tadayoshi was determined not to buy food on the black market. As a result, he really starved to death...

Years ago The Soviet Union detained hundreds of thousands of Japanese prisoners of war to dig coal, but Japan did not respond at all. This was not because Japan had a conscience and wanted to atone for its sins, but because if the Soviet Union really sent the prisoners of war back, Japan would not be able to feed them.

There were more than seven million troops and their families who returned to Japan after the defeat. They were greeted not with flowers and hugs, but with bricks and tiles thrown by citizens. The Japanese people bowed their heads respectfully when they saw the American troops. When they turned around and saw the Japanese soldiers in military uniforms, they immediately raised their eyebrows and cursed loudly. Even the palace guards did not dare to wear military uniforms, but put on black uniforms. For a time, the Japanese people They mistakenly thought they were Chinese troops landing, but the truth was revealed as soon as they opened their mouths, and the people threw stones again. Japan was so hungry that it became unbearable. Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru, who took over as the scapegoat, had no choice but to beg MacArthur: "Give me some food, otherwise Japan will go bankrupt." According to current standards, Yoshida Shigeru's request for only 470 tons of food was too serious. It's not high.

But MacArthur thought about it for a long time and felt that the American people would scold Japan for giving food to an enemy country. So a report was sent to the country: Either give them some food, or give me more bullets, and I will kill them all! MacArthur's "Give me food, or give me bullets" has become a famous saying.

As a result, the United States gave Japan 700,000 tons of grain, which actually alleviated the food crisis (presumably the high-ranking officials were full). MacArthur was so angry that he scolded Yoshida Shigeru: How dare you fool me by asking for the money? !

Yoshida Shigeru apologized: We just don’t know how to count. If we really knew how to count, how could we dare to fight with you...

Japan’s defeat was indeed miserable. Since the Meiji Restoration, the overseas benefits gained All was lost, and the homeland was occupied and managed by the US military. Many people are saying that returning Japanese soldiers are not welcome. I am particularly curious about this. How did this spread? What the hell, in Japan at that time, apart from these people, was there any strong labor available? If these people are not welcome, who will support their families?

It depends on Japanese women to be "Pan Pan", and the US military must have such a large consumer market! In fact, MacArthur of the United States was working hard to save Japan at the time. In the name of the urgent need to rebuild Japan's order, he desperately begged for supplies from home and supported Japan to show his name as a benevolent father. Every day, he was intoxicated by the various tricks of the emperor and his wife. Under the flattery, he used his domestic connections to beg for supplies, and even interfered with the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe at that time, causing Marshall to complain, should he put Europe first before Asia? ! Of course, the supplies that arrived in Japan at that time were pitifully small in the eyes of the Americans. Compared with the later war with North Korea, they were really small. However, the Japanese government relied on these supplies to tide over the difficulties.

The first is to resume offshore fishing and collection. Sea vegetables that were not eaten before are also brought into the pot. This is the only emergency life-saving food in Japan that can be restored immediately on a large scale. After the war, the destroyed cities were reorganized on a large scale, basic projects were rebuilt, and relief was provided through work. The workers were given a mixed rice ball and a "mixed grain" rice ball every day. This was the ration for the working people to survive and support their families. It sounds like it has reached the bottom line, especially from the Americans. It really brings out the original white left sentiment of killing people without giving a nod. This is the reason why MacArthur begged for supplies at home and even bizarrely collected donations. It's just Americans. I don’t understand, but before the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese came here for many years, so they just lost everything they took and went back to their old lives.

Among them, the young and strong defeated soldiers who returned alive are the absolute main force. Not to mention the government's urgent need for reconstruction work, a private blind date meeting will be held, and disabled men will rush to get it. Those who come are not welcome. ? Anyone who can earn two rice balls a day must be considered a white-collar worker, right? ! Five or six years later, Korea started fighting, and the reconstructed Japan caught up with the first batch of orders, and the economic miracle began.

After Japan announced its surrender, most of the Japanese soldiers fighting overseas laid down their weapons and returned home one after another. Of course, except for the Kwantung Army in Northeast China, as an agreement between the top leaders of Japan and the Soviet Union, these officers and soldiers As part of the compensation, it was given to the Soviet Union as a labor force. "Please use it as much as you like." In addition to the Kwantung Army, it also included some puppet Manchukuo officials, military dependents (military dependents in Japanese refer to civilians employed by the army), etc. Before 1950, these people basically returned to Japan as long as they did not die in the Soviet Union (the death rate was very high, but lower than that of German prisoners of war. The Soviets were completely revenge on German prisoners of war).

According to the post-war memoirs of the Japanese army that I read, after returning to the country, the Japanese army will issue a kind of ticket for free, so that you can take the train back to your hometown, but there is nothing else besides this, let alone various kinds of tickets. subsidy. If the company before joining the army still exists, you can apply to return to work in the original company. However, due to Japan's post-war economic recession and the damage of the war, some retired officers and soldiers are still unable to return to work in the original company.

However, one characteristic of the Japanese economy is that there are a large number of small and micro enterprises. The survival period of small and micro enterprises is compensated, and the working period of employees is also limited. It is normal to change jobs. After the war, a large number of Japanese soldiers Just be absorbed by these small and micro enterprises, of course, you can also work alone, or raise funds to open a small shop, such as a fried tempura shop. Veterans, I’m talking about those who have no background whatsoever. It seems that after experiencing the life and death and hardships of the war, they no longer fear anything else. They work hard and at least have enough to eat. Many prisoners of war even organize small companies together. Club.

According to the memoirs, the life of ordinary people in Japan after the war was relatively good. Of course, it cannot be compared with the prosperity of today, but compared with the Soviet Union at that time, it was a world of difference. Many Japanese soldiers came from For rural families, life in Japanese rural areas was extremely difficult at that time. It may be similar to that in China in the 1980s. They seldom ate fish or meat. The extreme poverty in the Soviet Union in the early post-war period, especially in the Far East, shocked these Japanese prisoners of war who were born in rural areas.

The Japanese in those years, including prisoners of war, seemed to be working hard to rebuild Japan. The American order in the Korean War played a part, but the main key was the correct policy of the Japanese government to develop a market economy after the war. As well as the hard work of the Japanese, around the 1960s, the cars and home appliances produced in Japan were already highly competitive. At that time, the lives of Japanese people also improved significantly. Consumer industries such as sporting goods stores began to develop, and many of them had The Japanese soldiers also entered the middle class during this period.

The number of soldiers in wartime will definitely be much higher than in peacetime. After the war, except for retaining some of Japan's soldiers as basic security forces, the rest were basically demobilized and resettled. In addition, postwar Japan , because the war recruited a large number of young and middle-aged people, resulting in a general lack of labor force in society, all walks of life were in need of a large number of labor forces, and the laid-off soldiers naturally became a good supplement.

It caused endless pain to the country that year. It can be said that it was self-inflicted. On August 15, 1945, Japan unconditionally surrendered and dispatched as many troops as the Chinese battlefield, the Pacific battlefield, and the Southeast Asian battlefield. More than 3 million. After surrendering, these soldiers were escorted back to the country one after another. So what kind of jobs did they do after returning to the country?

Among the millions of soldiers who returned home, only a very small number were assigned jobs by the Japanese government and were engaged in maintaining local security in Japan. They were supervised by the Allied forces while working, and the salary was extremely low. The economy was low and could only live hand to mouth, because the war extremely consumed resources and destroyed the economy. At that time, Japan was extremely short of food. Soldiers who lost their jobs had no choice but to look for food in the U.S. military’s garbage dumps or give it to U.S. soldiers in order to survive. By shining shoes and cleaning, you may get leftovers from a meal. Some soldiers who are unwilling to work for the US military come to the streets to sell their military uniforms, military shoes, souvenirs, etc.

After Japan surrendered, the Japanese gangs developed very rapidly, and most of them were veterans, because these soldiers came off the battlefield.

After the war, most of the returning Japanese soldiers had a difficult life. In order to survive, some people choose to use the little money they have saved to start a small business to make ends meet. Some choose to join forces with other soldiers, help each other, and jointly open companies or factories. There are a few lucky people whose original companies did not disappear in the war and can still go back to work. But overall, their lives are not easy.

The picture shows Japanese soldiers who left under the supervision of national army soldiers after the defeat

Some returning soldiers became government security personnel, working as police and police officers with meager wages. Security guard's job. Relatively speaking, they are relatively lucky, because these people are at least given jobs and can make a living. There are also some lucky people who are recruited by the US military stationed in Japan to serve American soldiers in exchange for small rewards and possible rewards. Some people are more miserable and can only rummage through American garbage dumps to find leftovers to satisfy their hunger.

The picture shows defeated Japanese soldiers under the supervision of American soldiers

The Japanese garrison in Rabaul was basically the luckiest. Since there are many various factories in this area, and they achieved complete self-sufficiency before local supplies were cut off, they were not only able to bring a lot of food back home, but also precious seeds and agricultural tools. After these people return to Japan, they are often able to acquire a piece of farmland and earn considerable income from selling their crops.

The picture shows the defeated Japanese troops being counted

In short, after the war, these Japanese, who were used to being arrogant in the past, returned to their hometowns and saw nothing but of devastation. The punishment of aggression may not have been imposed on them, but it has been engraved on their hometowns, allowing them to use their difficult lives to partially pay for their sins.

During World War II, Japan, as the main force of the Axis Powers, played a great role on the battlefield. It not only invaded other countries, but also often tortured and killed innocent people in other countries. It can be said that Japan has "achievements" that are comparable to Germany in its war history, and it can be described as a devil. Later, in 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, and Japanese soldiers from all over the world withdrew from other countries. Except for soldiers who committed major crimes and were sentenced to death, other ordinary soldiers were released back to their countries.

According to statistics, at the end of World War II, the number of Japanese soldiers remaining on various battlefields was at least 5 million, and the number of Japanese troops on the battlefields in China was several million. And when these millions of soldiers who invaded China return to Japan, what kind of miserable treatment will they receive? Let’s take a look together next, and there are still pictures and truth, but they really deserve it!

As we all know, Japan is a martial country. After the outbreak of World War II, Japan did a very good job in stimulating people's enthusiasm for the war. So much so that soldiers would receive very high treatment in the country at that time. People will wash and cook for them and praise them in various ways. Anyway, they are praised to the sky. Their families will be proud of them, and the government will give them various preferential treatment in the hope that they can lead Japan to the top of the world. The result was news of Japan's failure.

Therefore, after the war, most people believed that Japan failed because of the incompetence of Japanese soldiers. So when these soldiers returned to the country, their treatment suddenly became very poor. This gap was like changing from an emperor to a prisoner. No one looked down on them, including themselves. So in order to fill this gap, most soldiers chose to commit suicide, and some also became crazy, and they were completely less showy than before.

After Japan surrendered, at the request of the United States, Japan could not form an army, so that millions of soldiers suddenly had nowhere to go. Most of them can only fight and can't do anything else. The disbandment of the army means that there is no job to support themselves.

As early as the war, Japan experienced death bombings from the United States. Many buildings were destroyed and the area became a scorched earth. After these soldiers quit the army, they had no home to return to even if they wanted to. Most of their relatives died in the war, and most of them became homeless homeless people. Even if there are relatives, because they have not been home for many years, their wives have remarried and their children have grown up, they are really torn apart. Under such conditions, they had to live on the streets in large numbers and live miserable lives.

In addition, because Japan's domestic economy was not high to begin with, it almost collapsed after the war. If it weren't for the food provided by MacArthur, Japan would have been starving.

At this time, the influx of a large number of soldiers also meant that the country was experiencing a rapid shortage of food. They could not get enough food to fill their stomachs, and many of them starved to death.

Of course, there are still people who want to support themselves with their own hands, so they will do very low-level jobs, but those disabled soldiers are very pitiful. They have no family, no house, no Food and health are not good, how can we survive like this? It is reported that most disabled people eventually choose to become beggars, begging on the streets all day long, just hoping to survive.

Seeing this, people with good intentions may say that they are pitiful, but you must know how arrogant they were on Chinese soil. The choice is made by oneself, so no matter what kind of ending it is, one should bear it by oneself. Such people do not deserve sympathy.

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its defeat and surrender. At that time, the number of Japanese prisoners of war and expatriates left in China was astonishing. The total number of Japanese prisoners of war and expatriates was more than 3 million, half of whom were in the Northeast.

On October 25, 1945, China and the United States held a conference on the repatriation of Japanese prisoners of war in Shanghai, which established in principle that all Japanese overseas Chinese and Japanese prisoners stranded in China would be repatriated to Japan in an organized manner, and Specific methods for repatriating Japanese prisoners of war and overseas Chinese were formulated: in the order of first inside the customs and then outside the customs, Japanese prisoners of war and overseas Chinese would be repatriated in batches. Among them, the Chinese government was responsible for gathering and transporting these Japanese overseas Chinese and Japanese prisoners to ports via land routes, while the US military organized ships to transport them by sea.

By June 1946, the repatriation of more than 2 million Japanese prisoners of war in the customs had been basically completed, and the focus of repatriation turned to Japanese overseas Chinese and Japanese prisoners in Northeast China.

As of September 1944, there were 1,662,234 Japanese immigrants living in Northeast China. On May 7, 1946, two ships carrying 2,489 Japanese expatriates left Huludao, marking the beginning of the "Huludao Repatriation".

On September 4, 1946, the 105th batch of Japanese overseas Chinese returned to China. On this day, 4 ships totaling 15,908 people were sent home, which was the largest number of people repatriated in a single day.

On December 25, 1946, the last batch of 3,695 Japanese expatriates left Huludao that year.

On June 4, 1948, on September 20, the last batch of Japanese immigrants, 3,871 people, were airlifted from Shenyang to Jinzhou, and then returned to China by boat from Huludao.

At this point, all Japanese overseas Chinese in Northeast China have been repatriated, with a total of 1,051,047 people.