"In some areas, Japanese soldiers were still fighting Americans as the war ended. Many were in the mountains or had lost communications. Soldiers were wounded, sick malaria, woulded, or suffering from malnutrition. Even getting to areas which had been designated as assembly centers for repatriation was extremely difficult; October 1945.... Large numbers of unknown soldiers never made it to assembly camps and died in the mountains..."

From: Ichiokunin no Shōwashi, Vol. 1, June 1980; 225.