I want to think that this happened on the island of Tinian. But it could have happened on Iwo Jima, I’m not certain. Tinian was nothing but a “walk, walk, walk” from one end of the island to the other. While at Iwo Jima, Dad was embroiled in battle from the time he got there until the time he was injured. So I don’t know how he would have had time to do this on Iwo Jima. Tinian makes more sense.
But there was a Japanese soldier who surrendered with his hands up to some of the men in Dad’s squad, which was very unusual. Because the Japanese were trained to fight or die. This soldier was turned over to Dad’s charge. He spoke perfect English and it turned out that he was an American citizen. A barber who lived in California. He had gone over to Japan to visit his family and was inadvertently drafted into the Japanese army. His job was to cut hair for the officers. Somehow he wound up on this island. And he surrendered in hopes of finally getting back home to California.
He carried Dad’s heavy radio equipment during the time they spent together. He was a smart man. I bet he did finally get home!