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One Man’s War - The Incredible Story of Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda

On January 16th, 2014 died the former Second Lieutenant of Japanese Imperial Army Hiroo Onoda who continued to fight his war on an island of Lubang, Philippines for nearly 30 years even after Japan surrendered in 1945.

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On December 17th, 1944 Onoda was assigned to lead a small squad in a guerrilla war against Americans on Lubang. When news of the surrender of Japan came, Onoda and his soldiers took it to be a part of enemy propaganda and carried on fighting — this time against Philippines forces.

Hiroo Onoda walks out of the Philippine jungle to surrender in 1974. | image credit

Years passed, Japan’s economy was developing rapidly, Japanese electronics swiftly conquering global markets, and Onoda and his three comrades in arms kept fighting in the jungle believing that the war continued. Once a month they laid an ambush for military vehicles and shot down the enemy soldiers, but in 1950 one of the Japanese privates lost his nerve and surrendered to the local police. Four years later Corporal Shōichi Shimada was killed by the police officers on one of the beaches. In October 1972 Second Lieutenant Onoda placed the last landmine they had on the road not far from a small village to blow up a police guard patrol, but the landmine was rusty and didn’t detonate, so Onoda and Kozuka had to attack the patrol on their own. Private Kozuka was killed during the attack, and Onoda ended up fighting alone.

Hiroo Onoda 1974 | image credit

The death of the Japanese soldier 27 after the surrender of Japan shocked the Japanese public. Search missions were sent to Burma, Malaysia and Philippines to find the Imperial soldiers lost in the jungles, but, surprisingly enough, the first person who did manage to find Onoda and talk to him was young Japanese student and traveler named Norio Suzuki. Determined to find Onoda, he came to Lubang with this goal and was lucky enough to meet the Second Lieutenant. Their meeting took place on February, 20th, 1974. Onoda turned 52 just a day before…

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After talking to the young man and finding out that he spent half of his life in a war that was over long ago (and apparently, finally believing it), Hiroo Onoda still refused to lay down his arms and surrender. As he told the puzzled Suzuki that there was only one person who assigned him on this mission, and therefore only one person could countermand the order — his commanding officer Major Yoshimi Taniguchi.

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Suzuki went back to Japan and took great effort to find the former Major Taniguchi. This wasn’t an easy thing to do, but after a while Suzuki’s search was crowned with success: it turned out that the former Major lived in a quiet place and had a modest bookselling business.

On March 7th, 1974 Onoda has found a message in his secret mail drop saying that Major was found and that he will soon arrive to Lubang in person. Here’s an extract from Onoda’s book “No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War” describing his feelings after Major Taniguchi faced him and read out the order to surrender: *“I suddenly felt that my backpack got heavier on my shoulders. Major Taniguchi folded the order slowly and I finally realized that there could be no mistake, that everything I have heard was simple truth. We’ve really lost the war! How could we get so weak? The world got dark before my eyes and I felt anger boiling up inside me. I felt I was a fool to spend so many years here, years of tension, precautions and deprivation. What have I been doing here all this time? Gradually, my anger subsided and now I could clearly see: my thirty-year war has abruptly come to an end.”*

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30 Filipinos were killed and over 100 injured during this 30-year war. Onoda was in for a death penalty for his military activity in Lubang, but received pardon from the Philippines President and was able to go back to Japan.

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It’s interesting to note that Onoda’s case isn’t that unique. Shoichi Yokoi was found in Guam in January, 1972. He was 58 and spent 28 years in underground resistance. Captain Fumio Nakahira surrendered in 1980, after spending 36 years in the mountains of Mindoro, Philippines. Two Japanese military officers were found in the jungles of Mindanao in 2005, after which the Japanese ambassador in Manila made a statement saying that he did not rule out the possibility that tens of Japanese soldiers could still be hiding in the Philippines jungles.

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/17/hiroo-onoda-japanese-soldier-dies
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/world/asia/hiroo-onoda-imperial-japanese-army-officer-dies-at-91.html?_r=0
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/17/world/asia/japan-philippines-ww2-soldier-dies/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2541104/Japanese-soldier-Hiroo-Onoda-refused-surrender-WWII-spent-29-years-jungle-died-aged-91.html
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/onoda.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25772192
http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/soldiersurr.htm

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