Who were they ? Well, Japanese WW2 soldiers, of course. *troll face*
But some details confound me : they were -are – (ghosts of) Japanese WW2 soldiers, in combat uniforms … and they woudln’t have their weapons ? Strange.
So the Japanese soldier just stood there when you ordered him to do so, moved backwards to “avoid” prodding … is there any story of a Japanese unit having fought in that area ? Maybe they were training. Maybe the soldier you interrogated thought you were member of an allied force or, on the contrary, tried to tell you that, since you were not from an armed force of a country allied to Japan, you’d never get an answer from him … *shrugs* who knows ?