Japanese solder who served under World War II learned a strict code of honor based on bushido, which was an ancient code of Samurai that placed value on loyalty,
honor, and death rather than to surrender. Being captured or giving up was considered to be more dreadful than death itself. This attitude was very much ingrained in the Imperial Japanese Army and to make a surrender was not only embarrassing but also treasonous.
Soldiers were instructed that Japan would never surrender and that when they died they did so by the commands of the Emperor and this was the utmost form of patriotism. Others were directed, to battle to the last man, where the case might be. By the time the reflection of the world war II came to an end with the Japanese surrendering in August 1945, it was not known by all the soldiers- or wanted to believe it.