A Very Important Prisoner (March 2007)

The article opens talking about the battle for Iwo Jima, and how on March 17, 1945, a Japanese prisoner was taken. The prisoner, along with the 1,073 others taken, were treated according to the Geneva Convention requirements.

The Japanese taken prisoner on the 17th was Master Sgt. Taizo Sakai, who was in charge of communications for General Kurigayashi, the commander of the Japanese defenders on the island.

The prisoner revealed that the Japanese weren't surprised by US landings, and that Okinawa would be next. He even helped some Marines try to get other Japanese to surrender, though he warned the Marines that the soldiers might come pouring out of their caves and charge, which is exactly what they did, and they were all gunned down.

In talking to another Marine, the prisoner said that he can not go back to Japan. “I am officially dead because I surrendered.”

That sentiment was repeated in others. The article notes that the prisoners that were taken did not want to be sent back to Japan, that they did not send messages home, that some changed their names, and some even disfigured their faces so they could not be recognized.

An American intelligence officer, Captain John Burden, wrote a report, in relation to Japanese POWs, that “many of whom died suspiciously en route to the rear.” (In other words, some of the prisoners were killed).

After the end of the war, Sakai seemed to disappear and has not been found since.

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