Japanese Soldier Who Refused to Surrender Dies
January 21, 2014
Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese military officer who refused to surrender with the rest of his country’s forces at the end of World War II (1939-1945), has died at the age of 91. Onoda was one of hundreds of soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army who loyally remained at their posts in Asian jungles because they believed that Allied announcements that the war had ended were part of a plot to capture or kill them. After finally turning himself over to authorities in 1974, Onoda returned to Japan, where he received a hero’s welcome.
A military intelligence officer, Onoda was sent to the Philippine island of Lubang in December 1944. Several months before, American General Douglas MacArthur, who had been forced from the islands in 1942, returned in force. By then, Japanese commanders had evacuated many of their troops. But many thousands, including Onoda, were ordered to remain at their posts. “It may take three years, it may take five years,” Onoda’s commanding officer told him, “but whatever happens, we’ll come back for you.” Like other Japanese soldiers, Onoda believed it was better to die rather than surrender. Onoda and three enlisted soldiers then set up a camp, from which to continue the war. They lived a perilous existence, relying on wild plants and stolen food, battling mosquitoes and tropical heat, and occasionally skirmishing with Philipine villagers.
In 1959, the Japanese government declared Onoda dead. (One of the other holdouts had surrendered in 1950; two were later killed by Filippino forces.) In 1974, Onoda was found by a Japanese student who had traveled to Lubang to search for him. Citing his orders to remain on his post, Onoda still refused to leave. Finally, the Japanese government dispatched a delegation to meet with Onoda. Included among them were his brother and his former commander, who officially relieved him of duty.
Onoda was welcomed home by his aging parents as well as by large crowds who praised him for his devotion to duty. In an editorial, a leading Japanese newspaper commented, “To this soldier, duty took precedence over personal sediments. Onoda has shown us that there is much more in life than just material pursuits. There is the spiritual aspect, something we may have forgotten.” In an interview with ABC in 2010, Onoda said, “I became an officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame.”
After the celebrations, Onoda produced his memoirs, No Surrender: My Thirty-year War, and tried to resume his life. But he felt uncomfortable in a greatly changed Japan and soon moved to a Japanese colony in Brazil. In 1984, he returned to Japan, where he founded schools to teach survival skills to children. Afterward, he lived in both Japan and Brazil. In 1996, he traveled to Lubang at the invitation of the governor of Lubang. While the Philippine government had pardoned Onoda for crimes commited while he thought he was still at war, many Filipinos continued to harbor hatred of the Japanese for their widely perceived cruelty during the war. The Japanese were responsible for the deaths of at least 90,000 Filipino civilians during the war.