Japanese holdouts (Japanese: 残留日本兵, romanized: zanryū nipponhei, lit. 'remaining Japanese soldiers') were soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the Pacific Theatre of World War II who continued fighting after the surrender of Japan at the end of the war for a variety of reasons. Japanese holdouts either doubted that Japan had surrendered, were not aware that the war had ended because communications had been cut off by Allied advances, feared they would be executed if they surrendered to Allied forces, or felt bound by honor and loyalty to never surrender.
After Japan officially surrendered on 2 September 1945, Japanese holdouts in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands that had been part of the Japanese Empire continued to fight local police, government forces, and Allied troops stationed to assist the newly formed governments. For nearly 30 years after the end of the war, dozens of holdouts were discovered in the jungles of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with the last verified holdout, Private Teruo Nakamura, surrendering on the island of Morotai in 1974. Although newspapers throughout East Asia and the Pacific reported more holdouts and searches continued until 2005, no additional holdouts were found.
