Surrender Orders

After Gen. Kataoka surrendered his samurai to Gen. William H. Arnold, he barked orders to the Japanese troops in Ilihan who then stacked their weapons, mortars, grenades and ammunition in one big pile. The Japanese troops were immediately boarded on six-by-six trucks for the 50-mile journey from Ilihan to the port of Cebu City.

In the next two days, an additional 7,200 Japanese troops surrendered in Ilihan, bringing the total number of Japanese troops who surrendered to the Americal Division in Cebu to 9,867. They were all transported back to Cebu City and loaded into waiting troopships for the trip back to Japan. American intelligence reports said there were only 12,000 Japanese troops in Cebu. But the Cebuano guerrilla force led by Col. James Cushing reportedly killed some 8,000 Japanese in the entire war.