Japan WW2 soldier who refused to surrender Hiroo Onoda dies

[jake]

A Japanese soldier who refused to surrender after World War Two ended and spent 29 years in the jungle has died aged 91 in Tokyo.

Hiroo Onoda remained in the jungle on Lubang Island near Luzon, in the Philippines, until 1974 because he did not believe that the war had ended.

He was finally persuaded to emerge after his ageing former commanding officer was flown in to see him.

Correspondents say he was greeted as a hero on his return to Japan.

As WW2 neared its end, Mr Onoda, then a lieutenant, became cut off on Lubang as US troops came north.

The young soldier had orders not to surrender - a command he obeyed for nearly three decades.

"Every Japanese soldier was prepared for death, but as an intelligence officer I was ordered to conduct guerrilla warfare and not to die," he told ABC in an interview in 2010.

"I became an officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame. I am very competitive," he added.
File photo: former Japanese imperial army soldier Hiroo Onoda (second left) walking from the jungle where he had hidden since World War II, on Lubang island in the Philippines, 11 March 1974 Mr Onoda refused to surrender until his former commanding officer rescinded his orders

While on Lubang Island, Mr Onoda surveyed military facilities and engaged in sporadic clashes with local residents.

Three other soldiers were with him at the end of the war. One emerged from the jungle in 1950 and the other two died, one in a 1972 clash with local troops.

Mr Onoda ignored several attempts to get him to surrender.

He later said that he dismissed search parties sent to him, and leaflets dropped by Japan, as ploys.

"The leaflets they dropped were filled with mistakes so I judged it was a plot by the Americans," he told ABC.
Survival training

Finally in March 1974 his former commanding officer travelled to the Philippines to rescind his original orders in person.

Mr Onoda saluted the Japanese flag and handed over his Samurai sword while still wearing a tattered army uniform.

The Philippine government granted him a pardon, although many in Lubang never forgave him for the 30 people he killed during his campaign on the island, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Tokyo.
File photo: former Japanese imperial army soldier Hiroo Onoda (right) offering his military sword to former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (left) to express his surrender at the Malacanan Palace in Manila, Philippines, 11 March 1974 Mr Onoda surrendered to the Philippine president in March 1974

Following his surrender, Mr Onoda ran a ranch in Brazil, and opened a series of survival training schools in Japan.

Mr Onoda was one of the last Japanese soldiers to surrender at the end of World War II.

Private Teruo Nakamura, a soldier from Taiwan who served in the Japanese army, was found growing crops alone on the Indonesian island of Morotai in December 1974.

Mr Nakamura was repatriated to Taiwan where he died in 1979.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25772192

_____________________________________________________________________________________________-Surrender wasn't an option!

[jake]

SHOICHI YOKOI
On January 24, 1972, two residents of the village of Talofofo in the southern part of Guam were out hunting along the Talofofo River when they heard a sound in the tall reeds. They thought it was an animal or maybe a child in the bushes, but out came a very old and wild appearing Japanese man carrying a shrimp trap. The hunters were started at first, and after a few confused words, they subdued 56-year-old Shoichi Yokoi and took him back to their corrugated metal home in the jungle, about an hour's walk away. Eventually, the police were summoned, and the story of Shoichi Yokoi's saga became known. During WWII, Yokoi had been transferred from Manchuria to Guam, and he served as a sergeant in the supply corps. When the Americans came, he and nine other men hid in the jungle. Their numbers gradually dwindled to three, and they shared a cave for a while. He knew from a leaflet he found in 1952 that the war was over but never gave himself up because "we Japanese soldiers were told to prefer death to the disgrace of getting captured alive." Eight years before he was found, the other two men died, leaving him alone. How did Yokoi handle the basics necessities of life? Food? Water? Clothing? Shelter? Tools? Let's explore, one by one, how he managed to provide these necessities in a situation where he had no hope (or desire) of returning to "civilization."

http://www.primitiveways.com/jungle_30_years.html

[Terpe]

He allegedly killed quite a number of Filipino's and carried out burning of rice fields....

[KeithD]

WWII has finished? Someone had better tell Tony Blair :icon_lol:

[fred]

He allegedly killed quite a number of Filipino's and carried out burning of rice fields....

I believe that there were many locals that were opposed to his release.. He killed 30 I think.



"The locals on Lubang came to call them the "Devils in the Mountains"

One day in 1959 Onoda heard what seemed like the voice of his own brother over the loudspeaker. The voice was pleading with him to give himself up. He crept to the clearing and took a look. He saw a man who appeared to look like his brother speaking into the microphone. Clever Americans. They have now really outdid themselves this time. They have gone to the trouble of finding someone to impersonate my own brother. Years later Onoda would learn that the man really was his brother. This is proof I suppose that it is impossible to convince someone of the obvious once they have their mind made up to the contrary.

Years went by. In 1965 Onoda and Kozuka stole a transistor radio from a local resident. They were able to listen to Japanese radio broadcasts. But again they either didn't understand what they were hearing, or they twisted it to fit their own preconceived notion that the war was still going on.

During the late 1960's and early 1970's Onoda and Kozuka got in the habit of setting the locals' rice fields ablaze as a way to signal their presence on Lubang to any Japanese forces that were close enough to see it. But in October 1972 the Filipino police set a trap and arrived at the scene before Onoda and Kozuka could make their getaway. In the ensuing gunfight Kozuka was shot dead. Now there was just one soldier left, Onoda himself.

http://www.tomandcathymarking.com/reviews/no_surrender.htm