On September 2, 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. But one soldier kept fighting 29 years after the conflict ended, out of stubbornness and delusion.
Hiroo Onoda was born on March 19, 1922, in the village of Kamekawa. According to Onoda, he was always stubborn and defiant, even as a child.
He was part of a long line of warriors. He had samurai ancestors, and his father was a sergeant in the Japanese cavalry. He died in the Second Sino-Japanese War in China.
When Onoda turned 18, he enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army. He trained as an intelligence officer at the Nakano School, which taught unconventional military techniques. In December 1944, he was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines to help hold off American and Philippine troops.
His task was to hide in the woods and engage in guerrilla attacks, preventing the Allies from making further progress in the region and giving the Imperial Japanese Army more time to regroup.
However, upon his arrival on the island, the higher-ranking officers wouldn’t let him carry out his assignment. They chose to face the invading troops directly.
As a result, Japanese forces were quickly defeated when American troops landed on the island on February 28, 1945. Onoda got three fellow soldiers to go off to the woods with him to fight using guerrilla tactics.
He continued doing this for the next 29 years. He and his men lived off of coconuts, stolen rice, and meat from cattle that were slaughtered during farm raids.
The war between Japan and the United States ended in August 1945. Onoda noticed that the fighting seemed to have died down, but he did not suspect that his country had surrendered.
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The U.S. attempted to make sure the news of Japan’s surrender reached the guerrilla units by airdropping informational leaflets.
The first time he came across a leaflet was in October 1945, but he quickly brushed it off as propaganda, which was something he learned about in training.
More leaflets printed with a surrender order from General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Fourteenth Area Army rained down toward the end of 1945, but Onoda and his men determined that it was fake.
By 1949, one of Onoda’s men realized that the war was over. He left his unit and lived alone for six months before surrendering to the Philippine Army in March 1950.
The U.S. contacted the families of the people still fighting and had them write letters urging the soldiers to return home. But Onoda just assumed that they were under pressure from the authorities and had to obey to survive.
In 1954, a Philippine search party shot and killed one of Onoda’s men. Then, in 1972, his last ally was killed by police while they were burning a rice silo.
By then, the Japanese public was intrigued by Hiroo Onoda’s story. A Japanese adventurer went to see Onoda in 1974 and asked him why he would not stop fighting.
Onoda replied that he would not leave the island until a superior officer relieved him. When the Japanese government heard of his conditions, they flew Major Yoshimi Taniguchi out to Lubang Island.
Finally, Onoda stepped out of the jungle on March 9, 1974. He was 52 years old. His commander ordered him to lay down his rifle, his ceremonial sword and dagger.
In an act of surrender, he offered his sword to the president of the Philippines and was pardoned for his crimes. He then returned to Japan and was greeted as a hero.
He moved to Brazil in 1975, started a family, and became a successful rancher. Eventually, he returned to Japan to create a children’s nature camp.
On January 6, 2014, Hiroo Onoda died of heart failure in Tokyo at the age of 91.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
