In the wake of defeat, approximately 6.5 million Japanese were stranded in Asia, Siberia, and the Pacific Ocean area. Roughly 3.5 million of them were soldiers and sailors. The remainder were civilians, including many women and children—a huge and generally forgotten cadre of middle-and lower-class individuals who had been sent out to help develop the imperium. Some 2.6 million Japanese were in China at war’s end, 1.1 million dispersed through Manchuria. In addition, almost six hundred thousand troops laid down their arms in the Kurile Islands and the Darien’Port Arthur enclave in southern
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