He kept killing villagers right up until just before he finally surrendered.
He was never charged with the throat slitings & shootings of civillians because his lawyers argued he was still at war.

He was such a hard case that on 2 occasions when former comrades went in to his hideout along with Japanese TV crews, he saw them but wouldn't acknowledge them. A few years later one former officer he knew located him & tried to tell him about how the world had changed but this little tough nut said he was fighting for the emperor and only the emperor could stop him.

He only surrendered (& finally stopped killing the locals) when the Emperor commanded him to surrender.

Back in Japan he became a celebrity hero to the right wing.

Doug M