[raises hand] Could you expand on that a little?
Because the US overran large Japanese civilian populations a couple of times earlier in the war, and AFAIK there were no Japanese franc-tireurs. On Saipan and Tinian the civilians just fled (or killed themselves); on Okinawa some helped as porters and ditch diggers and such, but I don't know of any actually fighting.
Anyone?
Doug M.
There is virtually no record of this in Japanese history, at least not since the founding og the Shogunate. This is in part due to the draconian laws that existed during the 250 years of the Shogunate period and in part from a simple difference in culture.
The IJA had plans to use civilians in case of the invasion of the Home Islands, but not as irregulars. The intention was to fight set piece actions using militia units with children as young as 7 or 8 being trained to be human kamakazis with backpack bombs against American tanks. The critical difference between irregular/insurgent/terrorist tactics and the plans of the IJA is that the suicide bombers were expected to be used ON the battlefield.
The Japanese always fought to the last man, it is out of character for them to surrender, and they look down upon every one who does. The get this mentality from warriors of old.
In the battle of Hong Kong 2000 Canadians were taken POW after retreating, they were treated mercilessly. Suffice to say, the Japanese don't go down easily.
It is true that Japanese troops tended to fight to the last. It is also true that the Japanese expat civilian population on Saipan committed mass suicides, with many of them seeming to be totally voluntary (some others were, of course more of the "drink the kool-aid" variety). This was NOT the case on Okinawa, which had an actual native population rather than the colonists on Saipan. It is also noteworthy that when Japanese troops
were taken prisoner they were exceptionally cooperative with their captors. This was mainly because the individual Japanese captive assumed that he could never go home, was considered dead to all who knew him, and hoped to be useful in his new life.
The Japanese ARMY didn't go down easy. It is a rather large leap to go from that truth to expecting the civilian Japanese population to have that level of committment. Had the nuclear attacks never taken place, the Japanese would have been in full starvation mode (meaning Donner Party starvation) by June of 1946, even if no enemy soldier had ever set foot on the Home Islands. At that point, save the lunatic fringe, the Japanese civilian population would have surrendered happily.