What was the experience of Japanese POWs upon their return to Japan after WWII?

So its important to remember that many Japanese POWs were retained in both the USSR and the USA to be used as forced labour, and to help rebuild shattered countries like the Philippines. In the USSR they were also subject to forms of political indoctrination in the hopes of starting up a grass roots communist movement in Japanese society. Many people were concerned that they would never see there loved ones again. Radio shows became a popular way of finding out who was coming home, as the radio show would make announcements every time a new POW ship arrived. Listeners could call in asking for specific info about their loved one, at its height a single radio show could receive up to 500 calls a day from Japanese citizens making inquires about their family members.

So when the veterans began to stream back into Japanese society, the veterans themselves were cynical to say the least. The Japanese military hierarchy that had rigidly enforced discipline and fear, had collapsed and this allowed both the veterans and the ordinary civilians of Japan to see just how horrendous and futile their war had been. Veteran stories began to come out that shocked the populace. Stories in popular newspapers of former army officers being lynched, men being abused by their officers, officers drinking and womanizing in occupied territories.

Stories like this shattered wartime propaganda that had claimed that Japanese society was united as one. Japanese soldiers had left home to the sounds of marching bands and parades, and yet when they came back to Japan everything was quiet, there were no big victory parades for them. Communities that once welcomed them with open arms, now turned them away.

Obviously it varied based on community, but in many Japanese communities, ex-soldiers received a less than warm welcome. This was a result of them being seen as responsible for losing the war, but also because of the ever increasing amount of information about the various war crimes committed in China, the Phillippines, etc (despite the Japanese government's attempts to destroy records of the crimes in the last days of the war). They were treated as outcasts, and had trouble finding work, and many returning soldiers found that their families had either moved on or had died. Many had no money and thus many turned to crime to support themselves. This letter was published in a very popular newspaper in 1946.

I returned to Japan from the southern regions on May 20. My house was burned, my wife and children missing. What little money I had quickly was consumed by the high prices, and I was a pitiful figure. Not a single person gave me a kind word. Rather, they cast hostile glances my way. Tormented and without work, I became possessed by a devil

John Dower in his book "Embracing Defeat" elaborates on this man's story (don't worry it has a happy ending):

His "devil" was the impulse to turn to crime. The writer went on to describe how he accosted a young man on a dark street, intending to rob him, only to discover that he was assaulting an off-duty policeman. His story, as it turned out, had an uplifting ending. The policeman did not arrest him, but gave him a hundred yen and some of his own clothing, while

urging him to have faith in his ability to surmount his difficulties. Though the writer was still without wife or child or home or job or money, his letter was offered as a public vow that he would go straight thereafter

Any soldier who suffered from some sort of mental illness or physical injury was not treated any better. Mental illness and physical disabilities were still extremely taboo. Thus any injured veteran or a veteran suffering from say...PTSD... would have pretty much nowhere to turn too for help. They often became beggars and turned to drugs or alcohol (which was plentiful in Japan's emerging black market); these beggars just gradually assimilated into the background, out of polite Japanese society. There were mental institutions and local places where these people could seek help, but they were unequipped to deal with such a large scale problem. Again to quote John Dower on the matter:

Many maimed veterans, haying nowhere to turn, defied these taboos and flaunted their disabilities- more accurately, their pain and hardship-by donning distinctive white clothing and begging in public. In Tokyo, such outcast figures haunted public places until the late 1950s. Others simply gave up the struggle for survival after returning home to find, as one wrote to a newspaper, that "the existence of us injured and ill veterans is forgotten." Writing from a sanitarium, he described the suicides of despairing fellow convalescents and concluded with the announcement that "I myself am five minutes away from hanging."

Japanese veterans were often forced to defend themselves from a society that now despised them. Some took to being overtly apologetic and remorseful, others defended their role in the war and denied any involvement in war crimes of any sort. It didn't really matter in the end, Japanese society did not look favorably upon the men who were seen as servants of the oppressive military regime that had ruled Japan in the last two decades. Once the soldier had been seen as one of the most honorable professions in Japanese society, but the post war backlash against the military rule destroyed any sort of military pride in Japan's Army.

On the issue of suicide, it is not as bleak as one would think. While I lack sources for how many common soldiers committed suicide, among the officers only 600 committed suicide, including 22 generals. There was no mass suicide akin to the ones that had happened on the outlying Japanese islands like Okinawa and Saipan.

The best sources I can offer are John Dower's "Embracing Defeat" and Edward Drea's "Japan's Imperial Army: Its Rise and Fall 1853-1945"