23. The Japanese Who Survived WWII’s Biggest Banzai Charge
Compared to some, Captain Sakae Oba’s holdout was relatively brief. However, his was the first holdout that captured widespread media and public attention, and thus introduced the strange trope of Japanese holdouts to popular culture. Born in 1914, Sakae Oba joined the Imperial Japanese Army in 1934. After years of service in Manchuria and China, he ended up in Saipan, three months before US Marines invaded in June, 1944. Overcoming fierce resistance, the Marines gradually beat back the Japanese defenders.
At the end of their tether, the Japanese higher-ups in charge of defending Saipan decided that they and what was left of their command should go out in a final blaze of glory, and die fighting. So they ordered a massive banzai charge – the largest such charge of the entire war. Captain Oba was among the few Japanese survivors. Rounding up and taking command of 46 other Japanese soldiers, along with 160 civilians, he plunged into the island’s jungles.