Takenaga incident
The rest of the unit was made up of former mountain artillery from the 41st Division, whose squads were disbanded when all of their guns were destroyed at Driniumor River, and marines, among others.
There was suspicion that directly before they surrendered, Takenaga's unit ate the body of one of the villagers from Tau who had been killed in the fighting there, and the Australian Army decided to investigate.
[6] In order to uphold the Senjinkun military code, it was considered extremely dishonourable to become an enemy prisoner in Japan at the time, even in a situation as desperate as the one faced by the Japanese Army in New Guinea.
Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi, commander of the 18th Army, also gave an order on 18 March 1945, telling his soldiers that they should under no circumstances bring upon themselves the shame of being taken prisoner.
[7] However, Takenaga's unit was not the first example; there was a previous incident in May, 1905, at the Battle of Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War, where all 42 survivors of a company of the 49th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Division were taken prisoner.
According to the records of the 41st Division, the 2nd Battalion, commanded by Takenaga and comprising around 50 soldiers, decided to head west, separating themselves from their regiment, who were retreating to the east.
[10] However, according to notes made by a sergeant major in the battalion, the main force of the regiment retreated without giving them any notice, after which they thought that they had been abandoned and decided to fend for themselves.
[12][5] The Australian Army learned of the presence of the Japanese troops through reports from police and villagers, and on 16 April they dispatched a platoon from the 2/5th Battalion, led by Lieutenant C. H. Miles, to deal with them.
They took a leaflet containing a notice of surrender that one of the soldiers had been carrying, added some conditions underneath in English, tied it to a pole for the Australians to find, and left the area.
The other Japanese forces thought that Takenaga's unit had gotten lost, and attempted to search for them, but learned of their surrender through propaganda posters distributed by the Australian Army.
Takahashi and Hata say that according to one of the surviving company commanders, after being told that the surrender was an order from Takenaga, those in favour were asked to raise their hands.
[15] An opposing point of view is held by Kiyohiko Satō, who says that only the battalion commanders were asked whether they agreed to the plan, and that the rest of the soldiers were not given a choice.
[16][note 3] Takenaga's unit were held in Aitape for around one month, before being broken up and sent to prison camps in Lae and in Australia, where they received good treatment.
[21] The reasons are said to include the Australian Army's solicitation for the Japanese forces' surrender, the precedent set by Takenaga's unit, and the fact that they had been ordered to defend their positions to the death.
Upon learning of it, Lieutenant General Adachi strongly reprimanded the commanders of the 41st Division,[14] and prayed to the emperor, while shedding tears, apologising for his lack of virtue.
Awareness of the incident gradually increased after the publication of Fumio Takahashi's article in 1986,[25] but even as of 2009 there were still military personnel who denied that the surrender occurred.
