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| Above, Hiroo Onoda at the time of his surrender in 1974. |
Japan Today reported:
TOKYO —A Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippine jungle for three decades, refusing to believe World War II was over until his former commander returned and ordered him to surrender, has died in Tokyo aged 91.
Hiroo Onoda waged a guerrilla campaign in Lubang Island near Luzon until he was finally persuaded in 1974 that peace had broken out, ignoring leaflet drops and successive attempts to convince him the Imperial Army had been defeated.
He died in a Tokyo hospital on Thursday of heart failure.I remember when this story first broke back in 1974. I found it quite interesting that a Japanese soldier hid in the jungle for nearly 30 years believing that World War II still hadn't ended. It was big news back then.
To read the full article, go here.
1 comment:
I had Mr. Onodas' book a long time ago. Made for an interesting read.
This reminds me when two Japanese soldiers surfaced during an amnesty in Thailand back in the '90s. Seems they ended up eventually training members of that countrys' communist insurgency.
When asked why they kept "fighting on", they answered something to the effect of "We're soldiers, that's what we do".
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