Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

Two hundred thousand Japanese troops died on Luzon; just 9,000 were taken prisoner prior to Tokyo’s surrender in August 1945. Only about 40,000 Japanese troops who fought on the island eventually returned to their homeland after the war. Overall, according to Japanese government statistics, the army suffered cumulative losses of 368,700 dead in the Philippines.63 American forces had destroyed nine of Japan’s elite army divisions and reduced another six to a condition in which they could no longer fight effectively. The campaign had caused, directly or indirectly, the destruction of more than 3,000 Japanese airplanes, and had forced the Japanese to adopt kamikaze suicide tactics as their main aerial tactic for the remainder of the war. American combat losses amounted to about 47,000, of whom 10,380 were killed—but casualties to causes other than combat, especially to diseases, ran to 90,400 American servicemen.