On March 9, 1974, Lieutenant Onoda Hiroo surrendered to the Filipino authorities in Lubang Island, Mindoro. He was one of the last Japanese World War II holdouts who continued to hole up long after the war ended in 1945.
Born in Japan's Wakayama Prefecture on March 19, 1922, he initially worked in a trading company in Wuhan City, China. He joined the Imperial Japanese Army in 1942 at the age of 18, and was selected to attend the Nakano School, the premiere Japanese training center for intelligence officers. There he received training in espionage, guerrilla warfare, and sabotage. In late 1944, he was sent to Lubang Island, where he received orders to conduct sabotage activities against the incoming American forces. By the time that the US Army landed on the island in 1945, he was ordered by his superior, Major Taniguchi Yoshimi, to stay on the island and fight to the bitter end. Taniguchi likewise promised that they would come back for him no matter what happened. Onoda then led three other enlisted personnel in retreating to the mountains.
Although they found leaflets announcing Japan's surrender, they dismissed it as enemy propaganda and continued their resistance. In the jungles of Lubang Island, they built bamboo huts, patched up their uniforms, and kept their rifles in good condition. They also foraged food in the jungle, stole provisions from the local residents, and killed their cattle for meat. In some instances, they attacked the local residents who they thought as guerrillas, killing about 30 of them in their entire hiding. While there were numerous attempts made by the Americans and Filipino search parties to contact them, they managed to evade them all. Eventually, his band dwindled: one surrendered to the Filipino authorities in 1950, while the other two were killed in skirmishes (1954 and 1972) with the local police. As these things happened, in 1959, the Japanese government officially declared Onoda as dead.
However, in 1974, a Japanese student, Suzuki Norio, found him in Lubang Island. He was befriended and convinced by Suzuki to surrender, but he refused, insisting to receive orders from a superior officer. This prompted Suzuki to bring their photos to the Japanese government, who then sent a delegation composed of his former commander, Major Taniguchi (who survived the war), and Onoda's younger brother, Toshiro. Taniguchi then issued the relief orders to Onoda, and afterwards formally surrendered to Major General Jose Rancudo, the Commanding General of the Philippine Air Force. Two days later, wearing his tattered uniform, he was presented to President Ferdinand Marcos, where he personally surrendered his katana. Apart from this, he also surrendered his still-functioning Arisaka Type 99 rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition, some grenades, and a dagger that was given by his mother to be used for seppuku (ritual suicide). Marcos then pardoned him for the crimes he committed during his 29-year hiding.
After his surrender, he returned to Japan and received a hero's welcome. He was also warmly welcomed by his parents, who were still alive at the time of his return. He would later publish his memoir “No Surrender: My-Thirty Year War,” and became a Japanese exemplar of devotion to duty. However, he was unable to adjust to the postwar Japanese society, and in 1975, migrated to Brazil to pursue cattle-raising. Returning to Japan in 1984, he opened the Onoda Nature School, a nature-oriented youth camp. He revisited Lubang Island in 1996, and lived interchangeably between Japan and Brazil until his death in 2014 at the age of 91.
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