18. The Japanese drafted men as old as sixty, and women as old as forty
To aid the troops and sailors in the resistance to the American invasion of the home islands, the Japanese created the Volunteer Fighting Corps during the summer of 1945. All males between the ages of 15 and 60, and all females between 17 and 40, were conscripted by the governor of the prefecture in which they lived. The Corps was intended to be the second line of resistance, carrying out guerrilla warfare in the mountains and in cells in the cities and towns in the event the Americans overran areas of Japan. This would have included the port cities which were targets of Operation Olympic, and the third of Kyushu of which American occupation was a goal.
The formation of the Volunteer Fighting Corps gave Japan access to 28 million additional fighters, although by the end of the war only about two million were trained and organized into units. Units of the Volunteer Fighting Corps never saw action against the Americans since the invasion of Japan never happened, but some units did fight against the Soviets after they invaded Manchuria near the end of the war, as well as in Korea and Sakhalin. They also fought and sustained heavy casualties against the Soviets in Manchukuo. Often armed with simple bamboo spears, they like their military counterparts usually fought to the death.