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Hiroo Onoda, Japanese soldier who long refused to surrender, dies at 91
By Jethro Mullen and Yoko Wakatsuki, CNN
updated 10:03 AM EST, Fri January 17, 2014
Tokyo (CNN) -- Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who refused to stop fighting World War II until the 1970s, has died in Tokyo at the age of 91.
During the war, Onoda was sent to the small island of Lubang in the western Philippines to spy on U.S. forces in the area.
He ended up remaining there, eking out a life in the jungle, until 1974, nearly three decades after Japan surrendered.
Allied forces defeated the Japanese imperial army in the Philippines in 1944, but Onoda evaded capture and stayed on.
For about 30 years, he survived on food he gathered from the jungle or stole from local farmers.
Believed to be a staunch imperial soldier, he refused to accept that Japan had lost the war.
He was eventually persuaded to come out of hiding in the jungle in 1974 after his former commanding officer traveled to Lubang to see him and tell him he was released from his military duties.
In his battered old army uniform, Onoda handed over his sword.
He returned to Japan, where he received a hero's welcome, a figure from a different era emerging into post-war modernity.
But anger remained in the Philippines, where he was blamed for multiple killings.
The Philippines government pardoned him. But when he returned to Lubang in 1996, relatives of people he was accused of killing gathered to demand compensation.
After his return to Japan, he moved to Brazil in 1975 and set up a cattle ranch.
In 1984, he set up an organization, Onoda Shizenjyuku, to train young Japanese in the survival and camping skills he had acquired during his decades in Lubang's jungles.
Hiroyasu Miwa, a staff member of the organization, said he died of pneumonia Thursday afternoon at St. Luke's Hospital in Tokyo. He had been sick since December.
Onoda was born in March 1922 in Wakayama, western Japan, according to his organization. He was raised in a family with six siblings in a village near the ocean.
By Jethro Mullen and Yoko Wakatsuki, CNN
updated 10:03 AM EST, Fri January 17, 2014
Tokyo (CNN) -- Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who refused to stop fighting World War II until the 1970s, has died in Tokyo at the age of 91.
During the war, Onoda was sent to the small island of Lubang in the western Philippines to spy on U.S. forces in the area.
He ended up remaining there, eking out a life in the jungle, until 1974, nearly three decades after Japan surrendered.
Allied forces defeated the Japanese imperial army in the Philippines in 1944, but Onoda evaded capture and stayed on.
For about 30 years, he survived on food he gathered from the jungle or stole from local farmers.
Believed to be a staunch imperial soldier, he refused to accept that Japan had lost the war.
He was eventually persuaded to come out of hiding in the jungle in 1974 after his former commanding officer traveled to Lubang to see him and tell him he was released from his military duties.
In his battered old army uniform, Onoda handed over his sword.
He returned to Japan, where he received a hero's welcome, a figure from a different era emerging into post-war modernity.
But anger remained in the Philippines, where he was blamed for multiple killings.
The Philippines government pardoned him. But when he returned to Lubang in 1996, relatives of people he was accused of killing gathered to demand compensation.
After his return to Japan, he moved to Brazil in 1975 and set up a cattle ranch.
In 1984, he set up an organization, Onoda Shizenjyuku, to train young Japanese in the survival and camping skills he had acquired during his decades in Lubang's jungles.
Hiroyasu Miwa, a staff member of the organization, said he died of pneumonia Thursday afternoon at St. Luke's Hospital in Tokyo. He had been sick since December.
Onoda was born in March 1922 in Wakayama, western Japan, according to his organization. He was raised in a family with six siblings in a village near the ocean.
1945–49
- Second lieutenant Sakae Ōba in 1937 Captain Sakae Ōba, who led his company of 46 men in guerrilla actions against US troops following the Battle of Saipan, did not surrender until December 1, 1945, three months after the war ended.
- Major Sei Igawa (ja:井川省?) volunteered as a Viet Minh staff officer and commander. Igawa was killed in a battle with French troops in 1946.[1][2]
- Navy Lieutenant Hideo Horiuchi (堀内秀雄?) volunteered as an Indonesian volunteer Army Lieutenant Colonel. Horiuchi was arrested by Dutch troops on August 13, 1946, while his wounds were treated in a village after the battle with Dutch troops.
- Lieutenant Ei Yamaguchi and his 33 soldiers emerged on Peleliu in late March 1947, attacking the Marine detachment stationed on the island. Reinforcements were sent in, along with a Japanese admiral who was able to convince them the war was over. They finally surrendered in April 1947.[3]
- On May 12, 1948, the AP reported that two Japanese soldiers surrendered to civilian policemen in Guam.[4]
- Yamakage Kufuku and Matsudo Linsoki, two IJN machine gunners, surrendered on Iwo Jima on January 6, 1949.[5][6]
1950s
- Major Takuo Ishii (石井卓雄?) continued to fight as a Viet Minh adviser, staff officer and commander. He was killed in a battle with French troops on May 20, 1950.[7][8]
- The AP reported on June 27, 1951 that a Japanese petty officer who surrendered on Anatahan Island in the Marianas two weeks before said that there were 18 other holdouts there. A U.S. Navy plane flew over the island indeed spotted 18 Japanese soldiers on a beach waving white flags.[9] However, the Navy remained cautious as the Japanese petty officer had warned that the soldiers were "well-armed and that some of them threatened to kill anyone who tried to give himself up. The leaders profess to believe that the war is still on." The Navy dispatched a seagoing tug, the Cocopa, to the island in hopes of picking up some or all of the soldiers without incident. The Japanese occupation of the island inspired a movie.
- Private 1st Class Yūichi Akatsu continued to fight on Lubang Island from 1944 until surrendering in the Philippine village of Looc on March 1950.[10]
- Corporal Shōichi Shimada (島田庄一?) continued to fight on Lubang until he was killed in a clash with Philippine soldiers in May 1954.[11]
- Lieutenant Kikuo Tanimoto (ja:谷本喜久男?) volunteered as a Viet Minh adviser and commander. Tanimoto returned to Japan in 1954, after Vietnamese Independence and division.
- Seaman Noboru Kinoshita, after his November 1955 capture from the Luzon jungle, hanged himself rather than "return to Japan in defeat."[12]
- In 1956, nine soldiers were discovered and sent home from Mindoro.
- In 1956 and 1958, two Japanese soldiers returned to Japan after a stint in the People's Liberation Army.
1960s
- Private Bunzō Minagawa held out from 1944 until May 1960 on Guam.[13]
- Sergeant Masashi Itō, Minagawa's superior, surrendered days later, May 23, 1960 on Guam.[14]
1970s
- Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda in 1944
- Corporal Shoichi Yokoi, who served under Ito, was captured on Guam in January 1972.[15]
- Private 1st Class Kinshichi Kozuka held out with Lt. Onoda for 28 years until he was killed in a shoot out with Philippine police in October 1972.[16]
- Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, who held out from December 1944 until March 1974 on Lubang Island in the Philippines with Akatsu, Shimada and Kozuka, was relieved of duty by his former commanding officer in March 1974.[11]
- Private Teruo Nakamura, a Taiwan-born soldier (Amis: Attun Palalin) was discovered by the Indonesian Air Force on Morotai, and surrendered to a search patrol on December 18, 1974.[17]
1980s
- The Asahi Shimbun reported in January 1980 that Captain Fumio Nakaharu (中晴文夫) still held out at Mount Halcon in the Philippines. A search team headed by his former comrade-in-arms Isao Miyazawa (宮沢功) believed it had found his hut.[18][19][20] Miyazawa had been looking for Nakahara for many years.[21] However, no evidence that Nakahara lived as late as 1980 has been documented.
- In 1981, a Diet of Japan committee mentioned newspaper reports that holdouts were still living in the forest in Vella Lavella, and said searches had been conducted several times over the decades, but said the information was too scant to take any further action.[22]
- In 1989, two Japanese soldiers who had defected to the Malayan Communist Party around 1945 laid down their arms along with the party, and returned to Japan in 1990. They had become veteran "internationalist" fighters.[23]
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