I think to answer your question we can look at a battle where Japanese prisoners were taken at a larger rate compared to other battles.

Okinawa for the Japanese military was a fight to the last man, the Japanese 32nd army was annihilated with most of the 110,000 man army being destroyed.

But Okinawa did see Japanese prisoners come in larger quantities than other engagements. The Karema islands were right next to Okinawa and taken before the main battle on Okinawa began. Some Japanese officers here surrendered. It impressed Americans because these officers then tried to help American forces in an effort to capture more prisoners. Using loudspeakers and meeting with Japanese groups, some of these officers managed to have some groups of Japanese surrender to the Americans. The US troops had never seen anything like this and were amazed and deeply grateful for the help of these Japanese officers.

But the story of the Okinawan “Bait boys” is really interesting. These were former Japanese soldiers who traveled with US units trying to get Japanese prisoners to surrender. That’s not the crazy part, what makes this crazy is the US troops trusted them enough to not only let them sleep among the US troops, but to give them weapons to defend themselves. So Americans were terrified of Japanese soldiers at night, who were known for their infiltration tactics, Not to mention literally arming enemy soldiers. But Us troops did both of these, and again were grateful. In fact, a pair of these “bait boys” called “Murrymoto” and “Goto” by American troops managed to secure the surrender of something like 700 prisoners on their own.

But not all prisoners were faithful to the US. One case I think of is the case of Japanese Colonel Hiromichi Yahara. He was 3rd in command officially but by May, that is half way though the battle, started to take command of the 32nd army ( its a complicated affair, he wrote a book though and its pretty interesting) So Okinawa was not going well and the last positions were being mopped up. The Japanese commander of the 32nd army, Mitsuru Ushijima ordered Yahara to attempt to survive and make his way back to japan to tell Tokyo and the Japanese command what happened. He then joined civilian refugees and made his way down with many of them.

They made their way to a check point, then a ferry. This ferry was bringing civilians to interment camps in the north or surrounding islands where they could get medical care and food. Yahara just needed to get on a boat to get to one then attempt to escape. The soldiers checking and approving the boarding of troops were Japanese who were former soldiers set up by the Americans. Yahara then made his way up, locked eyes with a Japanese soldier who knew who he was, then let him pass and didn’t tell the American troops he was attached too. Even smiling at him and giving him a head shake. Needless to say, when this came out later on... I assume American command was pissed off and hell probably rolled.

Anyway, Yahara would be betrayed. He made it to a camp and another Japanese soldier, actually a Korean under Japanese command, then called him out as the Japanese 3rd in command of Okinawa, where he would be detained. The US troops and commanders probably respected that.

These are some cases. Okinawa also had many war crimes on both sides but it is nice to hear about some level of cooperation in the saving of civilians between these two armies. But in the effort to save these civilians, many Americans found a new respect for Japanese prisoners, that is for the most part.