Quote :

"On December 17, 1944, the Japanese army sent a twenty-three year old soldier named Hiroo Onoda to the Philippines to join the Sugi Brigade. He was stationed on the small island of Lubang, approximately seventy-five miles southwest of Manila in the Philippines, and his orders were to lead the Lubang Garrison in guerrilla warfare. As Onoda was departing to begin his mission, his division commander told him, "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." It turns out that Onoda was exceptionally good at following orders, and it would be 29 years before he finally laid down his arms and surrendered. In February of 1945, just a couple months after Onoda arrived on Lubang, the Allied forces attacked the island, and quickly overtook its defenses. As the Allies moved inland, Onoda and the other guerrilla soldiers split into groups and retreated into the dense jungle. Onoda's group consisted of himself and three other men: Corporal Shoichi Shimada, Private Kinshichi Kozuka, and Private Yuichi Akatsu. They survived by rationing their rice supply, eating coconuts and green bananas from the jungle, and occasionally killing one of the locals' cows for meat. It was upon killing one of these cows that one of the soldiers found a note some months later. It was a leaflet left behind by a local resident, and it said, "The war ended on August 15. Come down from the mountains!" The Japanese guerrilla soldiers scrutinized the note, and decided that was an Allied propaganda trick to coax them out of hiding. It was not the only message they encountered; over the years, fliers were dropped from planes, newspapers were left, and letters from relatives with photos. Each attempt was viewed by the soldiers as a clever hoax constructed by the Allies. Lubang IslandsThe Lubang Islands, PhilippinesOnoda and his men lived in the jungle for years, occasionally engaging in skirmishes and carrying out acts of sabotage as part of their guerrilla activities. They were tormented by jungle heat, incessant rain, rats, insects, and the occasional armed search party. Any villagers they sighted were seen as spies, and attacked by the four men, and over the years a number of people were wounded or killed by the rogue soldiers. In September of 1949, over four years after the four men went into hiding, one of Onoda's fellow soldiers decided that he had had enough. Without a word to the others, Private Akatsu snuck away one day, and the Sugi Brigade was reduced to three men. Sometime in 1950 they found a note from Akatsu, which informed the others that he had been greeted by friendly troops when he left the jungle. To the remaining men, it was clear that Akatsu was being coerced into working for the enemy, and was not to be trusted. They continued their guerrilla attacks, but more cautiously. Three years later, in 1953, Corporal Shimada was shot in the leg during a shootout with some fishermen. Onoda and Kozuka helped him back into the jungle, and without any medical supplies, they nursed him back to health over several months. Despite his recovery, Shimada became gloomy. About a year later, the men encountered a search party on a beach at Gontin, and Shimada was fatally wounded in the ensuing skirmish. He was 40 years old. For nineteen years, Onoda and Kozuka continued their guerrilla activities together, living in the dense jungle in make-shift shelters. Every now and then they would kill another cow for meat, which alarmed the villagers and prompted the army to embark on yet another unsuccessful search for the men. The two remaining soldiers operated under the conviction that the Japanese army would eventually retake the island from the Allies, and that their guerrilla tactics would prove invaluable in that effort. Nineteen years after Shimada was killed, on October of 1972, Onoda and Kozuka had snuck out of the jungle to burn some rice which had been collected by farmers, in an attempt to sabotage the "enemy's" food supply. A Filipino police patrol spotted the men, and fired two shots. 51-year-old Kozuka was killed, ending his 27 years of hiding. Onoda escaped back into the jungle, now alone in his misguided mission. News of Kozuka's death traveled quickly to Japan. It was concluded that since Kozuka had survived all those years, then it was likely that Lt. Onoda was still alive, though he had been declared legally dead about thirteen years earlier. More search parties were sent in to find him, however he successfully evaded them each time.Onoda and Suzuki But in February of 1974, after Onoda had been alone in the jungle for a year and a half, a Japanese college student named Norio Suzuki managed to track him down. When Suzuki had left Japan, he told his friends that he was "going to look for Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the abominable snowman, in that order." Onoda and Suzuki became fast friends. Suzuki tried to convince him that the war had ended long ago, but Onoda explained that he would not surrender unless his commander ordered him to do so. Suzuki took photos of the two of them together, and convinced Onoda to meet him again about two weeks later, in a prearranged location. When Onoda went to the meeting place, there was a note waiting from Suzuki. Suzuki had returned to the island with Onoda's one-time superior officer, Major Taniguchi. When Onoda returned to meet with Suzuki and his old commander, he arrived in what was left of his dress uniform, wearing his sword and carrying his still-working Arisaka rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition, and several hand grenades.Lt. Onoda Major Taniguchi, who had long since retired from the military and become a bookseller, read aloud the orders: Japan had lost the war, and all combat activity was to cease immediately. After a moment of quiet anger, Onoda pulled back the bolt on his rifle and unloaded the bullets, and then took off his pack and laid the rifle across it. When the reality of it sunk in, he wept openly. By the time he formally surrendered to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in 1974, Onoda had spent twenty nine of his fifty two years hiding the jungle, fighting a war that had long been over for the rest of the world. He and his guerrilla soldiers had killed some thirty people unnecessarily, and wounded about a hundred others. But they had done so under the belief that they were at war, and consequently President Marcos granted him a full pardon for the crimes he had committed while in hiding. He returned to a hero's welcome in Japan, but found himself unable to adjust to modern life there. He received back pay from the Japanese government for his twenty-nine years on Lubang, but it amounted to very little. He recorded his story as a memoir, entitled "No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War," then moved to Brazil for a calm life of raising cattle on a ranch. In May of 1996, Hiroo Onoda returned to Lubang, and donated $10,000 to the school there. He then married a Japanese woman, and the two of them moved back to Japan to run a nature camp for kids, were Onoda could share what he learned about survival through resourcefulness and ingenuity. Reportedly, Onoda is still alive in Japan today."

This might be old, but I thought this was the place for it.

[Edited on June 15, 2006 at 8:50 PM. Reason : sds]

6/15/2006 8:49:43 PM

He murdered hundreds of Philippino Citizens! He should have been tried and executed! Why the fuck did the Philippino administrators turn him over to the Japanese?

Whether he knew the war was over or not he reasonably should have, therefore it is at least negligent homicide, imprisonment for life.

6/15/2006 9:07:23 PM

link

6/15/2006 10:01:23 PM

It said he murdered 30 people.

I agree with the pardon though. It seems the guy has made the better of his remaining life, and he really thought they were at war.

6/15/2006 10:02:08 PM

Weird. I just finished his autobiography last week. As a history/psychology major it was fascinating.

Actually a pretty interesting story. They saw numerous fliers that had been dropped for them. Some included personal messages from family members and even included a picture of their familes. They were able to ignore them when they didn't recognize the houses behind their family, assuming that the pictures were allied propaganda. Of course they didn't know that they were new houses built after the US destroyed all major Japanese cities.

They also saw various newspapers but also ignored parts regarding the aftermath of the war, explaining it as misinformation inserted into an otherwise legitimate newspaper by allied secret service agents. They even ignored numerous search parties lead by the Japanese government.

At one point Onoda's brother came to Lubang and called to him over a loudspeaker. Onoda saw him and noted that his voice and appearance were exactly like his brothers, but told himself that it was a look-a-like that the Allies were using to bait him into surrendering.

Oddly enough, the psychological aspect reminded me exactly of salisburyboy.

6/15/2006 11:06:36 PM

http://www.damninteresting.com/

Very interesting site.

Has abunch of interesting factual stories/events.

6/15/2006 11:28:52 PM

...Well shit!

6/15/2006 11:48:57 PM

one part of the wolf?

6/15/2006 11:51:31 PM

my favorite duran duran song is "Hungry like the World"

ps, Damn Interesting is a great site

BigMan157 introduced me to it

6/16/2006 12:00:43 AM

Quote :

"I agree with the pardon though. It seems the guy has made the better of his remaining life, and he really thought they were at war."

A large percentage of murderers that get away with it never kill again. Does this mean these people too should be pardoned?

You cannot ignore the "vengeance" aspect of criminal precedings.

6/16/2006 12:53:37 AM

^ we must destroy the dirty japs

6/16/2006 1:03:09 AM

^^ If this guy gets prosecuted, than any soldier in any war that we can find should get prosecuted. What if other countries started calling for the arrests of our troops?

War, as ridiculous and absurd as it is, has certain rules.

6/16/2006 1:06:21 AM

he's not alone either, many isolated japanese troops held out for a few years, i believe he was just the one to do so for the longest. The japanese had an insane zealousy during WW2, so it is no suprise to me that many of them did so following the end of the war.

6/16/2006 2:54:28 AM

don't want to set a bad precedent of prosecuting soldiers for doing that they were told to do

6/16/2006 3:13:22 AM

^^^ If a U.S. soldier in Iraq refused visits from his commander, his sister, numerous newspapers, repeated notification, and still believed the war was on and went ahead and killed 30 unarmed Iraqi civilians then yes, he should be prosecuted.

Even if you believe his acts of war should be excused surely the fact that his murderous rampage killed almost only unarmed civilians dictates that he should be tried for warcrimes.

6/16/2006 8:26:39 AM

^ Onoda was told specifically not to make a move until he heard from his one commanding officer and that the war may take 100 years.

The people that he killed were armed members of filipino search parties that fired upon his group. For the most part they hid in the mountains on the large southern end of the island and avoided contact at all costs. Onoda himself stated that he would fire about 15 bullets per year, and that most of those were to kill cattle or were fired into the air to scare off villagers when they would make forays into civilization. They weren't preying on civilian filipinos, rather they were trying to scare people away from the south end of Lubang, as they assumed that the large uninhabited end would be the ideal place for japanese troops to land when they retook the island.

6/16/2006 2:22:11 PM

skokiaan:

Quote :

"don't want to set a bad precedent of prosecuting soldiers for doing that they were told to do"

Ever heard of Nuremburg?

6/16/2006 2:33:49 PM

(assuming that their orders did not violate the laws of war)

6/16/2006 2:52:19 PM

Sounds like he's a loyal soldier, but he has way too much faith in allied propaganda. I think after the 9000th clue, the lookaalike brother, the barage of newspapers that were reporting on daily life and not the war, I may come down from my hiding spot and check it out even if I was risking my life.

6/16/2006 3:39:39 PM

^ Yeah, at some point he left 'loyal soldier' and entered salisburyboy country.

I'm not sure if you could prosecute someone whose state of mind was a result of imperial japanese indoctrination and living in the jungle for 30 years.

6/16/2006 3:48:16 PM

According to the History Channel documentary there were several instances that he felt the locals just weren't "getting it" so he would make a show of force which a few times resulted in the killing of a villager. Also, there were several "food and supply" raids where the owners came home to discover their stuff being stollen only to then get shot themselves. Not to mention the dozens of unexplained deaths on the island that he says he didn't do. Of course, it is kinda odd that he claims to have stopped killing so much as soon as his last companion and witness left.

He is a criminal and should be treated as one.

[Edited on June 16, 2006 at 4:21 PM. Reason : .,.,]

6/16/2006 4:18:56 PM

^ LoneSnark is a retard and should be treated as one

6/16/2006 4:28:21 PM

Yeah, this guy's no criminal. Just a confused soldier

6/16/2006 8:59:20 PM

Japanese policy intentionally left soldiers behind on islands to conduct guerilla warfare just like Onoda in the hopes that the tide would turn in Japan's favor and that they would be able to retake the islands.

Heres a list of other holdouts. The last to surrender was in 1980.
http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/list.html

6/16/2006 9:11:19 PM

Quote :

"Weird. I just finished his autobiography last week. As a history/psychology major it was fascinating."

Please to expand upon? What types of psychological disorders did they ascribe to him?

6/17/2006 5:34:49 AM

^ Being Japanese

6/17/2006 6:29:20 AM

As it was an autobiography he didn't try to diagnose any type of disorder that he may have had. I would have been able to get specific about the psychological aspect a few years ago, but the heavy drinking that I have indulged in since graduating has destroyed the few remaining brain cells that I had left.

It was mostly continual self delusionment supported by forced rationalizations of any conflicting information.

6/17/2006 1:44:31 PM