Why did it take until the 70s for the final Japanese holdouts of World War II to surrender?

by synthpop1917

Surely the Japanese army had some sort of documentation as to where a given soldier was sent, right?

Was it assumed that the holdouts didn't return home because they were killed in action? Did they not have any sort of process to confirm a soldier returned home, or to confirm he was killed?

jbdyer

Contact was tried; see this prior answer by /u/RealFactorRagePolice/, and also the link from /u/mikedash at the end of this answer which goes into incredibly comprehensive detail.