This is certainly one of the most bizarre stories that I've come across. Have you seen movies like Rambo and thought "The war has been over for like ten years, so why is he fighting? And why are they fighting?" Have you ever wondered about people who never got the memo that the war was over? That's exactly what happened to Hiroo Onoda, more or less.
Before we can begin this strange story, you have to understand the Japanese mentality in 1944. This was a "never give up, never surrender" society. They looked at being a prisoner of war as cowardly and punishable by death; however, some guerilla warfare schools at the time taught that a soldier should stay alive no matter what. They taught that under no circumstances should a soldier take their own life, and they should do anything to win against their enemy. They were taught to be suspicious of everything, especially of enemy tricks. The mentality of the time was that it would take 100 years to beat the Japanese, so they were taught to be willing to fight for the rest of their lives.
Hiroo Onoda was trained in such a place. He was drafted in 1942, and at the end of 1944, he was sent to a little island Lubang, just 75 miles from the Philippines. His orders were to 1.) do anything to frustrate the enemy's actions on the island (which included destroying the airstrip and the pier in the harbor), 2.) not take his own life, and 3.) take as many years as he needed to fulfill his mission. He was sent alone to the island and joined a group of Japanese already in place, but since he was not the senior officer, he was not able to take out the airstrip or the pier. The Americans landed February 28, 1945, and easily took over the island. Onoda was recently promoted to Lieutenant, and the last officer, so he ordered the remaining men to the mountains. The only Japanese soldiers who had not been killed or captured were Onoda and three others (Akatsu, Shimada, and Kozuka).
The four Japanese soldiers basically resorted to survival in the mountains. They raided the villages and soon developed the names "mountain devils" and "mountain bandits". They survived mostly on bananas and berries. Occasionally, they would shoot water buffalo, wild boar, wild chickens, and iguanas. They wouldn't hunt too often not to give away their position. They would frequently move to keep from being discovered.
Akatsu was the first to leave the group. He was tired of the whole thing, so he left in 1949 and surrendered to the Philippine Army. He left a note for Onoda which said he was found by friendly troops and urged them to join him. Akatsu even took an expedition of Philippine soldiers into the mountains to find Onoda's group, but Onoda assumed that Akatsu had switched sides and was working with the enemy. In 1952, a plane flew over and dropped and letters from family and friends to coerce the men out of the mountains, but this was thought to be a very clever attempt to get the men to surrender, so they stayed in hiding.
In 1954, a search party was looking for the men, when Shimada was killed by a stray bullet from the search party, which left only Onoda and Kozuka. A few days later, more flyers were dropped from a plane, while a loudspeaker blared that the war was over. Onoda and Kozuka didn't believe them, so they continued their hiding. That same year, Onoda's own brother spoke on a loudspeaker urging him to come out of hiding and that the war was over. Since they were somewhat far away and could not see the speaker's face, they thought it was another American ploy to get them to surrender.
In 1965, they stole a radio and listened to radio reports from China, but since their minds were stuck 20 years in the past, they didn't believe what they heard about politics or foreign affairs. The only thing that lifted their spirits was that Japan had grown into a major industrial society, which only bolstered their efforts.
In 1972, Onoda and Kozuka were burning rice piles of the islanders. The police were able to arrive and Kozuka was killed, but Onoda escaped back into the wilderness. Search parties, continuous droppings of leaflets, loudspeaker pleadings, and the leaving behind of magazines and newspapers did nothing to draw out Onoda.
Oddly enough, what made Onoda finally retreat out of the jungle was a university dropout student (named Suzuki) who wanted to find Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman. He was camped on the island, and Onoda and Suzuki soon became friends. Suzuki said that he had to leave, but that he would return. On March 9, 1974, Suzuki left a note to Onoda along with two photos he had taken with Onoda, as well as a set of orders. Onoda decided to hike for two days to find Suzuki. When Onoda found Suzuki, he saw a special guest: Major Taniguchi, who had commanded Onoda back in 1944. Taniguchi gave Onoda verbal orders to surrender. He never surrendered officially, but he was relieved of duty.
Onoda returned to Japan and became a media sensation, but he hated the way the world had grown without him. He published his memoirs, then moved to Brazil to a small cattle farm. He married a Japanese woman in 1976, then moved back to Japan in 1984 to start a nature camp for kids. He is still alive today, and lives three months of the year in Brazil.
So, in conclusion, Hiroo Onoda joined World War II in 1942 and was sent to Lubang in 1944. Japan surrendered officially September 2, 1945, with the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri. Onoda continued to believe the war was going on until 1974. So he had a 30 year war. You can read all about his adventures in his memoir: No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War.
Bet you didn't know that!
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