Lubang Island Hid WW2 Soldier Hiroo Onoda, Refused Surrender For 29 Years

Lubang Island was the hiding spot for a World War 2 Japanese soldier named Hiroo Onoda who, for many years, refused to surrender.

In a related report from The Inquisitr, a WW2 marine’s diary found its way to his girlfriend over 70 years later.

Hiroo Onoda was an Imperial Japanese Army officer stationed in a jungle post in the Philippines who refused to surrender his post for the sake of the emperor. In 1945, he was given the simple order to stay and fight in the face of an United States invasion force:

“It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens we’ll come back for you.”

So he followed his orders, using his sword and rifle to prey on villagers on Lubang Island he assumed were the enemy forces trying to set up harbor installations and airports.

Meanwhile, Japan surrendered and thousands of the nation’s soldier were scattered throughout the islands of southeast Asia. Some committed ritual suicide, and others were captured or went home, but some loyal soldiers to the emperor decided to disappear into the jungles rather than surrender. Some heard the radio announcements about the surrender, or saw the leaflets dropped from the air, but they believed it was just US propaganda trying to fool them to give up the fight.

For 29 years, Onoda survived by eating bananas, rice, and coconuts that thrived on Lubang Island, which is located 93 miles southwest of Manila. They built permanent homes for themselves out of bamboo and survived the overwhelming heat and tropical storms for decades.

They patched up their uniforms and somehow kept their rifles functioning while awaiting further orders. Onoda was trained in guerrilla tactics, so he and three enlisted men with him managed to evade US forces and then stage attacks for years to come. Around 30 people were killed over time, causing Filipono forces to search for these renegades of Lubang Island. Eventually, one of the enlisted men surrendered in 1950. The other two were killed by police, shot dead in 1954 and 1972.

So Onoda was alone, the last remaining holdout of the Japanese Imperial army on Lubang Island. Although he’d been officially declared dead in 1959, a student named Norio Suzuki managed to track the soldier down. The former officer refused to give up, believing he still needed to wait on orders. So Suzuki returned with evidence of the surrender, including Onoda’s brother and former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who officially ordered him to stand down after 29 years.

When Onoda returned home to Japan from Lubang Island he was treated to parades and Tokyo newspapers remembered him this way:

“To this soldier, duty took precedence over personal sentiments. Onoda has shown us that there is much more in life than just material affluence and selfish pursuits. There is the spiritual aspect, something we may have forgotten.”

Onoda was officially pardoned for his crimes undertaken while he still thought WW2 was being fought. He was given a military pension, wrote a book of his memoirs, and learned to dance. But he found the modern world strangely focused on materialism:

“There are so many tall buildings and automobiles in Tokyo. Television might be convenient, but it has no influence on my life here.”

Born in 1922, the ghost of Lubang Island passed away recently. Hiroo Onoda was 91.