to Lieutenant Colonel Howard G. Kirgis, and his men surrendered their arms and colors. They were the last organized resistance of Japanese forces on Saipan. Post-war After the Japanese government confirmed that Ōba was alive on Saipan, his "posthumous" promotion was rescinded. Following his release from Allied custody, he was repatriated. Once back in Japan, Ōba was reunited with his wife and met his son for the first time; the child had been born in 1937, just after his father had left for China. Ōba was hired by the Maruei Department Store Company in 1952, where he was employed as a representative and spokesman for the board of directors until 1992. From 1967 until 1979, Ōba served on the city council in the town of Gamagori, in Aichi Prefecture. Don Jones, a former U.S. Marine stationed on Saipan and once part of a group ambushed by Ōba's men, was intrigued by the story of the Japanese holdouts and sought out Ōba after the war. With Ōba's cooperation, Jones wrote a book about his experiences on Saipan (detailed below). Jones became a lifelong friend of the Ōba family, and went so far as to locate the retired LTC Kirgis, to whom Ōba surrendered in 1945, and asked if he could return the sword that Ōba had handed over when he surrendered. Kirgis agreed, and Jones took the sword to Japan where he presented it to his grateful friend. The heirloom sword remains in the possession of the Ōba family. Ōba Sakae died on 8 June 1992, at the age of 78. His remains were interred in the Ōba family grave at Kou'un Temple in Gamagori. Literature and film The collaborative effort between Ōba and Don Jones resulted in a novelized account that was first translated into Japanese and published in 1982. It became a popular success, and the English version was published in 1986 under the title Oba, The Last Samurai: Saipan 1944–1945. In May 2010, Sakae Ōba's second son, Hisamitsu, discovered more than 1,200 pages of letters and postcards written between his parents Sakae and Mineko, most dated between 1937 and 1941, though some are dated as late as 1944. Hisamitsu showed the letters to his cousin, Keiichiro Hirano, a novelist and the 1998 recipient of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. Hirano was deeply moved by what he read in the wartime correspondence, and helped find a local publisher. They offered