So we often hear how the Imperial Japanese military was infamous for resorting to suicidal attacks before surrendering. And the stories of soldiers who didn’t surrender until long after WW2 ended have become well known. Which creates this whole idea that Japanese soldiers simply did not surrender. And while certainly it’s possible that it wasn’t common. I do find it pretty hard to believe there were absolutely no Japanese POWs. That said what was it like to be a Japanese soldier who surrendered before the war ended. How were they treated?And what was their experience like upon returning home?
In addition to the great answer from u/Georgy_K_Zhukov, I can provide another viewpoint from the book: Taken Captive, A Japanese POW's Story by Ooka Shohei. Ooka was a Japanese reservist in his mid 30s who was drafted in 1944 and sent to Mindoro in the Philippines as part of a 500 man unit stationed there. He had spent most of his life translating French texts to Japanese, most notably Stendhal and he also spoke some English.
His unit had fled the American landings into the hills of Mindoro, but eventually were discovered and came under mortar and gun fire. By this time Ooka had become debilitated by Malaria and after becoming separated, was captured by American GIs.
His account is interesting, because his feelings were a struggle between the bitterness of being sent to die for no reason by the Japanese GHQ and the shame of being captured. According to his memoir, he had tried to commit suicide before being captured, but his grenade was a dud. He struggled with these feelings for several months after being interned until the monotony of being a POW overtook them.
He was greatly surprised at how he was treated by the Americans. His treatment was not only in stark difference to how he was told the US treated Japanese POWs, it was certainly better than starving and sick in the Jungle and even better in comparison to the fairly violent training of Japanese Army troops. He spoke very highly of the American doctors who treated him as well as the US Sergeant, Sgt Walsdorf, who was in charge of his POW platoon near Tacloban in Leyte for most of his stay.
That's not to say POW life was easy. He was captured in late January, 1945 and wouldn't be repatriated until November. It entailed boredom, the same types of food day after day which were unfamiliar to the Japanese. Simply staring at a fence and knowing you can't leave wore on the POWs. They tried to wash off the PW stenciled on the US uniforms they were given as early as possible, especially as they grew close to repatriation.
On the plus side, the caloric content of the food they were provided helped them recover as nearly all were malnourished by the time they were captured. The hospitals were well staffed and stocked. The POWs did everything they could to entertain themselves including writing books that were shared for cigarettes as well as wrote plays that were acted out in the camp.
Two of the most interesting things in his memoir was the difference between the 2000 POWs in Leyte captured prior to the Japanese surrender and the approximate 1300 interned afterwards, all from across the southern Philippines. Basically, the new POWs looked down on the old POWs, but it never evolved beyond some new POWs asking why the old POWs hadn't committed suicide.
The other was the difference in mood between the Japanese POW camp and the Taiwanese POW camp next door after learning of the Imperial Rescript for surrender. A small group of Japanese wanted to scale the fence to attack the Taiwanese for celebrating the surrender, but were eventually dissuaded by cooler heads. Obviously scaling the fence would have been very dangerous as the guards were under orders to provide a single warning before opening fire.
This older answer might be of interest for you.