Hirō Onoda (小野田 寛郎 Onoda Hirō?, March 19, 1922 – January 16, 2014) was an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who fought inWorld War II and was a Japanese holdout who did not surrender in 1945. After Onoda spent nearly 30 years holding out in the Philippines, his former commander traveled from Japan to personally issue orders relieving him from duty in 1974.[1][2] He held the rank of second lieutenantin the Imperial Japanese Army. Onoda was born on March 19, 1922 and joined imperial Japanese Army at the age of 17.
Onoda trained as an intelligence officer in the commando class "Futamata" (二俣分校 futamata-bunkō?) of Nakano School. On December 26, 1944, he was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines. He was ordered to do all he could to hamper enemy attacks on the island, including destroying the airstrip and the pier at the harbor. Onoda's orders also stated that under no circumstances was he to surrender or take his own life.
When he landed on the island, Onoda joined forces with a group of Japanese soldiers who had been sent there previously. The officers in the group outranked Onoda and prevented him from carrying out his assignment, which made it easier for United States and Philippine Commonwealth forces to take the island when they landed on February 28, 1945. Within a short time of the landing, all but Onoda and three other soldiers had either died or surrendered. Onoda, who had been promoted to lieutenant, ordered the men to take to the hills.
Onoda continued his campaign as a Japanese holdout, initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers (Private Yūichi Akatsu, Corporal Shōichi Shimada and Private First ClassKinshichi Kozuka).During his stay, Onoda and his companions carried out guerrilla activities and engaged in several shootouts with the police.
The first time they saw a leaflet announcing that Japan had surrendered was in October 1945; another cell had killed a cow and found a leaflet left behind by islanders which read: "The war ended on August 15. Come down from the mountains!"[8] However, they mistrusted the leaflet. They concluded that the leaflet was Allied propaganda, and also believed that they would not have been fired on if the war had indeed been over. Toward the end of 1945, leaflets were dropped by air with a surrender order printed on them from General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Fourteenth Area Army. They had been in hiding for over a year, and this leaflet was the only evidence they had the war was over. Onoda's group looked very closely at the leaflet to determine whether it was genuine, and decided it was not.
One of the four, Yuichi Akatsu walked away from the others in September 1949 and surrendered to Filipino forces in 1950 after six months on his own. This seemed like a security problem to the others and they became even more careful. In 1952 letters and family pictures were dropped from aircraft urging them to surrender, but the three soldiers concluded that this was a trick. Shimada was shot in the leg during a shoot-out with local fishermen in June 1953, after which Onoda nursed him back to health. On May 7, 1954, Shimada was killed by a shot fired by a search party looking for the men. Kozuka was killed by two shots fired by local police on October 19, 1972, when he and Onoda, as part of their guerrilla activities, were burning rice that had been collected by farmers. Onoda was now alone.
On February 20, 1974, Onoda met a Japanese man, Norio Suzuki, who was traveling around the world, looking for "Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman, in that order". Suzuki found Onoda after four days of searching. Onoda described this moment in a 2010 interview: "This hippie boy Suzuki came to the island to listen to the feelings of a Japanese soldier. Suzuki asked me why I would not come out ..."Onoda and Suzuki became friends, but Onoda still refused to surrender, saying that he was waiting for orders from a superior officer. Suzuki returned to Japan with photographs of himself and Onoda as proof of their encounter, and the Japanese government located Onoda's commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who had since become a bookseller. He flew to Lubang where on March 9, 1974, he finally met with Onoda and fulfilled the promise made in 1944, "Whatever happens, we'll come back for you," by issuing him the following orders:
Onoda was thus properly relieved of duty, and he surrendered. He turned over his sword, his functioning Arisaka Type 99 rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades, as well as the dagger his mother had given him in 1944 to kill himself with if he was captured. Only private Teruo Nakamura, arrested on 18 December 1974 in Indonesia, held out for longer.
Though he had killed people and engaged in shootouts with the police, the circumstances (namely, that he believed that the war was still ongoing) were taken into consideration, and Onoda received a pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos. Information Source: Internet
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| Onoda with Norio Suzuki, 1974 |
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| Onoda, left, accepts a pack of cigarettes from a member of a Japanese team |
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| This picture taken on March 11, 1974, shows former Japanese imperial army soldier Hiroo |
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11 Mar 1974 --- World War
II Japanese straggler Lt. Hiroo Onada surrenders
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| Hiroo Onoda, Japan's Last WWII Straggler, handed over Sword to Philippines president Marcos |
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| Mr. Onoda returned to Japan as a hero, although he and his comrades had killed about 30 Filipinos after World War II |
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| WAY TO THE CAVES Onoda Trail guide Gerry Villaflores shows the way to the caves inhabited by Lt. Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese straggler who hid in the jungles |
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| STRAGGLER'S CAVE One of several caves in the jungle of Lubang Island, where Japanese Lt. Hiroo Onoda hid for 30 years |
Photo Source: Collected from Internet
A japanese hero !
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