"We didn't know what to expect from the Americans. The hard-core militarists were warning us that all our men would be made into slaves, would be sent to China to do hard labor, and all our women would be made prostitutes."

— Akira Miuri

"In those days, Japanese soldiers really accepted the idea that they must eventually die. If you were taken alive as a prisoner, you could never face your own family. They'd been sent off by their neighbors with cheers of "Banzai!" How could they now go home? "General attack" meant suicide. Those unable to move were told to die by a hand grenade or by taking cyanide. The women and children had cyanide. Those who didn't jumped off cliffs."

— Yamauchi Takeo

"After the main force had ... [retreated] over the gorge, they blew up the suspension bridge. The thousands who trailed behind were left to die. We were at the end of the line. Soldiers who had struggled along before us littered the sides of the trail. It was a dreadful sight. Some were already skeletons — it was so hot that they soon rotted — or their bodies were swollen and purple. What little they wore was removed by those who had less. Wearable boots were instantly taken, so most of the dead lay barefoot. The worms crawling over the more recently dead gave them a silver sheen. The whole mountain range was wreathed in the stench of death.

— Ogawa Masatsugu