Today I found out about a Japanese soldier who continued fighting World War II a full 29 years after the Japanese surrendered, because he didn’t know the war was over.
Hiroo Onoda is a Japanese citizen that originally worked at a Chinese trading company. When he was 20 years old, he was called to join the Japanese army. He promptly quit his job and headed off to training in Japan. At a certain point in his training, he was chosen to be trained at Nakano School as an Imperial Army Intelligence Officer. In this specialized military intelligence training, he was specifically taught methods of gathering intelligence and how to conduct guerrilla warfare. He was being groomed to go in behind enemy lines and be left with small pockets of soldiers to make life miserable for Japan’s enemies and gather intelligence in the process.
On December 26th, 1944, Onoda was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines. His orders from his commanding officers, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, were simple:
You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand. It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we’ll come back for you. Until then, so long as you have one soldier, you are to continue to lead him. You may have to live on coconuts. If that’s the case, live on coconuts! Under no circumstances are you [to] give up your life voluntarily.
Onoda then linked up with Japanese soldiers already on the island and shortly thereafter the island was overrun by enemy troops when other officers that were already on the island refused to help fulfill part of the orders that Onoda was given to destroy the harbor and airfield among other things. This in turn made it easier for the Allied forces to conquer the island, landing on February 28th, 1945. Shortly after the island was conquered the remaining Japanese soldiers split up into small groups of 3 or 4 and headed into the jungle.
Most of these small groups were quickly killed off. Onoda’s group though consisting of himself, Yuichi Akatsu, Siochi Shimada, and Kinshichi Kozuka, were not. They continued to use guerrilla warfare tactics to harry the enemy troops as best they could while strictly rationing supplies including food, ammo, etc. Supplementing their small rice rations with bananas, coconuts, and other food from the jungle as well as doing raids on local farms when they could manage it.
In October 1945, after another cell had killed a cow from a local farm for food, they came across a leaflet from the local islanders to them saying “The war ended August 15th. Come down from the mountains!” The few remaining cells discussed this leaflet extensively, but eventually decided that it was Allied propaganda trying to get them to give themselves up. They felt that there was no way that Japan could have lost so quickly since the time when they were deployed. Indeed, this would seem strange to anyone who had no knowledge of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Also, another one of the cells had been fired upon just a few days before; they felt that this wouldn’t have happened if the war was over.
Eventually, near the end of the same year local islanders, fed up with being shot at and raided, got a Boeing B-17 to drop leaflets all over the jungle. These leaflets had the order to surrender printed on them from General Yamashita. The few remaining cells once again scrutinized these leaflets to try to determine their authenticity. In the end, the wording on the leaflet pertaining to the method with which they would be sent back to Japan seemed fishy to them; largely because the wording made it seem as if Japan had lost, something they couldn’t fathom and which was a big problem in their willingness to accept the war had ended. If Japan had won, they would come and get them. Japan couldn’t lose, so the war must still be going. So they once again believed it was the Allies becoming more tired of their successful guerrilla tactics and trying to get them to surrender.
When this didn’t work, more leaflets were dropped with newspapers from Japan; photographs and letters from the soldiers families; delegates were sent from Japan and went through the jungle speaking over loudspeakers begging the soldiers to give themselves up. In every case the cells encountered, there was always something suspicious in their minds about the way it was done to cause them to believe it was an elaborate hoax by the Allied troops.
Years passed in the jungle with these four soldiers continuing to perform their sworn duty of harrying the enemy at every opportunity and gather intelligence as best they could. At a certain point, when most everybody they saw was dressed in civilian clothing, they began thinking that this too was a ruse from the Allied forces to lull the Japanese guerrilla soldiers into a false sense of confidence. They considered the fact that every time they fired on these “civilians” shortly thereafter search parties would arrive hunting them. Over time they had gradually let their solitude twist their minds into thinking everyone was an enemy, even their own fellow Japanese who would occasionally come and try to find them and get them to come home. These of course in their minds were Japanese prisoners forced to come lure them away from the safety of the jungle.
Eventually, after about 5 years in the jungle, Akatsu decided he would surrender, but didn’t tell the other three soldiers. So, in 1949 he slipped away from the others and after 6 months alone in the jungle was able to successfully surrender to what he thought were Allied troops. Because of this event, Onoda’s cell became even more cautious and went into deeper hiding and took fewer risks as they viewed Akatsu leaving as a security threat. “What if he was captured”, they thought.
About 5 years later, another of the small group, Shimada was killed in a skirmish on the beach at Gontin. Now there were only two, Onoda and Kozuka.
For about 17 more years the two lived in the jungle, gathering intelligence as best they could and attacking the “enemy troops” when they could risk it. They were still convinced that eventually Japan would dispatch more troops and they would then train these troops in guerrilla warfare and use the intelligence they had gathered to re-take the island. After all, their orders were to stay put and do as they had done until their commanding officer came and got them and their commanding officers had promised to do so no matter what.
Now in October 1972, after 27 years of hiding Kozuka was killed during a fight with a Filipino patrol. The Japanese had long thought he had already died, they didn’t think he could have survived so long in the jungle. But now when they had his body, they began thinking perhaps Onoda was also still alive, even though he had also long since been declared dead.
The Japanese then sent a search party to try to find Onoda in the jungle. Unfortunately, he was too good at hiding with 27 years of practice. They could not find him. Onoda continued his mission.
Finally in 1974 a college student, Nario Suzuki, decided to travel the world. Among his list of things to do on his journey was to find “Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman”. He traveled to the island and trekked through the jungle searching for signs of Onoda. Shockingly, where literally thousands of others through the last 29 years had failed, Suzuki succeeded. He found Onoda’s dwelling place and Onoda himself.
He then proceeded to try to convince Onoda to come home with him. Onoda refused. His commanding officers had said they would return for him no matter what. He would not surrender nor believe the war was over until they returned and ordered him to do so. At this point, he would not have been allowed to simply go home; he would be required to surrender and throw himself on the mercy of the enemy. Over the years he had been too successful at using the guerrilla tactics he had mastered. Killing 30 Filipinos and injuring over 100 others as well as destroying various crops and the like for almost 30 years.
Suzuki then traveled back to Japan with the news he’d found Onoda; Major Taniguchi, now retired and working at a book store, was then brought back to the island and to Onoda to tell him that Japan had lost the war and he was to give up his weapons and surrender to the Filipinos.
As you might expect, after living in the jungle doing what he thought was his duty helping Japan, now only turning out to be wasting 29 years of his life, and worse killing and injuring innocent civilians, this came as a crushing blow to Onoda.
We really lost the war! How could they have been so sloppy?
Suddenly everything went black. A storm raged inside me. I felt like a fool for having been so tense and cautious on the way here. Worse than that, what had I been doing for all these years?
Gradually the storm subsided, and for the first time I really understood: my thirty years as a guerrilla fighter for the Japanese army were abruptly finished. This was the end.
I pulled back the bolt on my rifle and unloaded the bullets. . . .
I eased off the pack that I always carried with me and laid the gun on top of it. Would I really have no more use for this rifle that I had polished and cared for like a baby all these years? Or Kozuka’s rifle, which I had hidden in a crevice in the rocks? Had the war really ended thirty years ago? If it had, what had Shimada and Kozuka died for? If what was happening was true, wouldn’t it have been better if I had died with them?
On March 10th, 1975 at the age of 52, Onoda in full uniform that was somehow still immaculately kept, marched out of the jungle and surrendered his samurai sword to the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos, very unpopularly in the Philippines, but immensely popular in Japan, pardoned Onoda for his crimes, given that Onoda had thought he was still at war the entire time.
Now in the end, we might look at Onoda as a fool and worse, a murder of innocent people. In the end, he was both of those things, there is no denying it. But at the same time, not everyone who lives by strict convictions and puts their all into achieving what they believe to be the right thing, ends up having what they strive towards turn out well or end up being a good thing. This is one of those cases where someone did something remarkable, showing extreme dedication to his country and his duty, as well as fortitude unmatched by many in history.
Had circumstances been different and the war really had waged on so long; soldiers and people from both sides of the fight would have respected him for his courage and dedication. In that respect he was more of a hero. However, the world wasn’t the way he thought and in the end, in retrospect, he was more a fool than anything else. But at the same time, we can’t ignore that this was a man who did something great with respect to doing something that few others could have done; had circumstances been as he thought, what he did was something to be admired. He faced (what he thought) was death around every corner and lived in an extreme situation for 30 years, fighting for his country. That should be respected. It’s a rare person who could do something like that and never quite or surrender; never take the easy way out as most of us do all the time when faced with adversity that is orders of magnitude less than what Onoda faced for almost 30 years in the jungle.
Bonus Onoda Factoids:
- When Onoda returned to Japan, he was seen as a hero. He was also given his pay for the last 30 years. Life was much different in Japan now than he remembered, and not at all to his liking. Many of the traditional Japanese virtues he cherished such as patriotism were nearly non-existent in the culture; indeed in his view Japan now cow-towed to the rest of the world and had lost its pride and sense of itself. So he moved to Brazil and used his pay to buy himself a ranch there and eventually married.
- Onoda released an autobiography: No Surrender, My Thirty-Year War in which he details his life as a guerrilla fighter.
- After reading about a Japanese teenager who had murdered his own parents in 1980, Onoda became even more distressed at the state of his country and young people in Japan. He then returned to Japan in 1984, establishing a nature school for young people where he could teach them various survival techniques and teach them to be more independent and better Japanese citizens.
- In May 1996, he returned to the Philippines to the island he had lived for 30 years donating $10,000 to local schools; as you might imagine, he is not too popular with the locals there, despite the donation.
Bonus Onoda Quotes:
- Men should never give up. I never do. I would hate to lose.
- Men should never compete with women. If they do, the guys will always lose. That is because women have a lot more endurance. My mother said that, and she was so right.
- One must always be civic-minded. Every minute of every day, for 30 years, I served my country. I have never even wondered if that was good or bad for me as an individual.
- Parents should raise more independent children. When I was living in Brazil in the 1980s, I read that a 19-year-old Japanese man killed his parents after failing the university entrance exam. I was stunned. Why had he killed his parents instead of moving out? I guess he didn’t have enough confidence. I thought this was a sign that Japanese were getting too weak. I decided to move back to Japan to establish a nature school to give children more power.
- Parents should remember that they are supposed to die before their children. Nobody will help them later on, so the greatest gift parents can give their children is independence.
- Never complain. When I did, my mother said that if I didn’t like my life, I could just give up and die. She reminded me that when I was inside her, I told her that I wanted to be born, so she delivered me, breastfed me and changed my diapers. She said that I had to be brave.
Sources:
Wow, that was the single awesome thing I found out today. I really admire Japan and how it was back then. Never surrender. EPIC.
Why in the hell would you admire Japan during WWII??? The Japanese military murdered thousands of Chinese civilians and Allied servicemen that had been taken prisoner. You ever hear of something called “The Rape of Nanking(sp)”?
Not so nice a bunch of people back then.
to mike the allied forces wernt angles them selfs.. so it was ok for america to drop 2 atomic bombs on civilians then????.
Their patriotism and dedication was definitely admirable, even if some of their actions were not.
If they didn’t drop the bombs, there would have been more casualties on both sides. Its just basic logic. Also, more people died in the firebombing that preceded the atomic bombs, many of which where civilians. People who usually go crazy about the atomic bombs have a very superficial view of history during that period.
Mike and Michelle,
You are both mindless lockstep liberals who have bought the revisionist history taught by schools over the past 30 years.
Michelle,
Japan committed millions of rapes, murders, etc during and before WWII, The rape of Nanking and the Bataan Deathmarch to name a few. Read real histroy from those that experienced WWII and you will discover that Japan was a vicious and disgusting enemy during WWII. The USA and Allies never committed the scores of atrocities the Japanese did. So i dont know why you admire murderous nations.
Mike,
The Allied forces were the angels that saved the world. So with your logic I guess you think the horrors of the Nazis were acceptable too. War is hell, get over the fact that the US won; and you feel guilty because you could never have the courage that the greatest generation did. If you are so ashamed of our proud American peacemaking heritage, LEAVE. I bet there are plenty in the middle east that would be happy to have you.
The firebombings of Dresden and other Nazi cities killed more civilians than the 2 atom bombs did. The Japanese civilians were NOT innocent civilians during WWII. When the US occupied the mainland, they discovered stockpiles of weapons stored in elementary schools. Every civilian was expected to fight the Allies on Japanese soil. Meaning, the civilian populice was an extension of the military. But, with your liberal ideology, I guess you would have been more pleased with 2,000,000 American casualities and millions more Japanese dead with a land invasion of Japan in the Fall of 1945.
LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER. Enough said…
I am really admire Onoda and his dedication
The dedication and patriotism of this man is amazing.
In war, there are hero’s on both sides. He is war hero.
They should have hung him in the Philipines. Japan was brutal during WW2. They never ratified the Geneva Convention wartime POW rules/guidelines etc. There butality came back to haunt them as historians estimate that at least 500,000 children were killed during WW2 bombing raids of the Japaneses mainland. what goes around comes around.
He represents everything I loath about a human.
Just a brainwashed manipulated tool.
As a survivalist, he was very good. But as an intelligence officer, not at all.
Pfoss.
Now. Today there is an endless wave of surviving Nazi, Imperial, chinese, British, Russian And many more War vets alive. They have seen the world isnt like that today. Imagine, You lived under a corrupt leader, you are giving orderes about Never surrender and as he said. Until we pick you up or an official letter. Imagine not having radios. You are left long from home on a small island. Thinking wthere were thousands of Enemy troops. And in the end. Higher ranked couldnt give a shit more about them. He sure did show loyalty to his country. But in the end. Wasent one of his soldier buddies surrendering? What happend to him. Or were they all killed except Onoda.
He was just… Twenty 29 years later when he realized it.
Woudlnt you feel bad to hang a Nazi today from back then. As they say.
Blame the leaders. Blame the persons he get is into the war. But never blame the soldiers. Because they fighting what they think is right.
The story of japanes soldiers abandoned and still fighting “the war” isn’t new to me, but I thought of it as some kind of myth, until this article.
I admire the man for his loyalty. Whatever the ideology he was fighting for.
@Nicklas: blaming the leaders is too easy. If there is a blame, it is on the shoulders of the people that allowed these leaders to become leaders.
This past spring I was substitute teaching at a Phoenix, Arizona high school. We had no lesson plan, so I was just talking to the class full of seniors, getting ready to graduate. We got on the subject of serial killers, which led me to compare Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito to having the mindset of serial killers but it’s really more like mass murderers. Two girls shouted me down, defending Hirohito and Japan. The class got into a debate and I asked the girls where did they learn their history? They were not backing down from their Anti-American views and accused Americans of killing innocent Japanese and accusing me of being racist against all Asians. Considering there is over 50 countries and cultures in Asia, I’m not which Asians I am racist against. I actually thought the issue was dead but on the way home I received a call from the young, never been anywhere or done anything for this country vice principal, telling me the two girls filed a complaint stating I was a racist and they were somewhat traumatized. Well, I am a 60 year old Vietnam Infantry Veteran, that almost died from injuries suffered the day before my 19th birthday. My father and uncles all fought for America in the Pacific Islands but I was told I could never earn any money at that school because I was banned from subbing there.Not for telling lies, what I said was true, but because these two 17-18 year old girls were too young to hear the truth! How about that? Only in America!One more incident report and I will be fired from the school district. Arizona is ranked 49th in education in America, can you imagine that?
Chris–epic!
Mike–that’s terrible. Teens are often overconfident which can lead to some horrible things. Being overconfident while uneducated is even worse.
Amazing article,this man is a true hero,unlike the other japanese back then.
Trent:
Lol, US won the world war?
You really believe in captain america?
I Heard This Story Several Years Ago, But Your Full Account Is Very Enlightening And It Shows What A Person Can Do When They Have A Sense Of Purpose And A Belief In Themselves.
Regardless Of What He Did, We Can All Learn From Is Story About Honor And Respect – Something Many Today Have totally Forgotten.
A fantastic example of how the strict, semi-respectable disciplinary culture of the Japanese can degrade to the equivalent of brainwashing. What a mindless tool that guy was.
You never hear about the rape and murder the Allied forces did. War is written by the victor.
For those who justify the dropping of the atomic bombs by saying that prevented the killing of more people, please, dont make me laugh… if you really wanted to prevent more killing why didnt you just surrender? doing that would have ended the war without any more casualties, huh? but no, you wanted to end the war and WIN it too, so dont be hypocrite. You yanks are the worst murders in HUMAN HISTORY and the only villains in EVERY war you have been in.
Extreme ignorance and blind obedience; what a swell guy!
After reading through all these comments it saddens me to see how easily we judge this man from the comfort our beds, houses, cars, offices, where ever we read this article. By stripping away the names of countries and governments and just actually reading the story for what it is about, a mans strong belief in something, the story becomes clear. Onoda believed in something to the very core of his being. How many people now a days can actually say that they know something for sure. We are a society plagued with doubt and insecurities. Its easy to give up, much more difficult to continue on a path you didn’t even choose yourself.
I’m not saying that I forgive Onoda for his actions or that he was a very good at gathering intelligence information. I’m just saying read the story the man has to tell and don’t judge him, but rather listen to his message for what it is…a message.
This man was a great soldier but he should not have been an intelligence officer.
“No Surrender” is an excellent book. I recommend it highly
Stumbled across this on Veterans Day 2011. I am a 21 year veteran myself, and although my 21 years weren’t spent isolated and clueless on an Island, Military men and women all over are often asked to do things that most people that have commented here would never understand. And if they did understand they wouldn’t do them, because they would come up with reasons or excuses why they shouldn’t be done that way, or it is to hard…..etc
To Mike: Keep telling it like it is, and hopefully when the teens that you talked to get older they will realize….hopefully…
To the Japanese cross between Chuck Norris, Rambo, and Jack Bauer: Mission Accomplished. To move back to Japan after learning that the kids are weak, and spoiled, and try and do something about it…. Above and beyond the call of duty.
To all Veterans Past and Future: Happy Veterans Day, Thank you your service. You are welcome for mine.
Paul
Japan was most certainly not admirable during world war 2. They killed our grandparents parents and great grandparents brothers.
@Rex: In fairness, we Americans killed many of them too (who were brothers / parents / etc). And, given that at that time America’s entrance into the war was pretty well inevitable with the President pushing so hard for it, their preemptive strike was smart. Save bad timing on their part, they’d have destroyed enough of the U.S.’s naval arsenal in the Pacific to basically have free reign. The U.S. also ended it by killing thousands of their civilians, so we also were also did things that weren’t “admirable”. In that respect, though there was good reason for the U.S. to do what we did too. So, basically, war sucks, few behave admirably in it, and we should all stop doing that. We’re all human after all.
Wow! You people are idiots. Soldiers obey orders and do horrible things. No denying it. Glorifying mindless obedience gets us to Nuremberg and “just following orders”. Condemning America and its conduct in wars is basic stupidity, Viet Nam era bash the U.S.A. liberal guilt nonsense. War is hell. Had we let the germans of the Japanese win their war they would have come after us and enslaved all of us. Instead we won the war, denazified germany, stopped the spread of militarism in Japan and mostly made the world a better place. Those of you who wish to can condemn as American imperialism. Which would you rather have had – America leading the world or germany or Japan or even Britain or France doing it? You don’t have to love everything America has done to see that we’re all a lot better off with the U.S.A. in the driver’s seat instead of the others. If you don’t like it here, if you don’t like what we have here, move and see if you can persuade an Assad or a Saddam Hussein if they can soften their approach and be kind to small animals and nuns. You fools have managed to elect an obama and he’s getting us to where you want to be. Fasten your safety belts because we’ve another chamberlain, an appeaser, running the free world. Wow are we in trouble. Come on November 2012. Come on Republicans/Tea Party, get us out of this mess.
A pity Onoda didn’t read Thurber’s fable ‘The Patient Bloodhound’, published in 1940 before the war with Japan. The moral at the end of the tale is:
The Paths Of Glory At Least Lead To The Grave, But The Paths Of Duty May Not Get You Any Where.
Thirty Filipino civilians would have lived if he had heeded the message.
It might be the case about the Nazi’s but you know what? we had camp’s to. My grandpa was a soldier in one and he has photo’s that tell that is the truth. and also this story show’s in time of stress and loyalty and hardship there are people who still are good nature and will do anything. Also this just inspires me when i’,m old enough to join my country. and guess what i can come up with this at 13.