The War is Over — Again

The Lonely Odyssey of Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda

March 9, 1974.

On Lubang Island, a remote outpost in the Philippines, Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese Imperial Army gave himself up to a Japanese delegation after hiding out in a jungle cave for over 29 years.

Onoda claimed he never knew World War Two had ended. After all his comrades had surrendered or been killed, he said it remained his duty to stand a solitary post and follow the last standing order he received back in 1944 — harass the enemy whenever possible and never surrender.

After the cave was discovered it took the arrival of his brother and his former commanding officer to finally convince the 52-year-old to come out and lay down his sword.

Onoda said he lived mostly on bananas, coconuts, and pilfered rice from nearby villages — on occasion shooting local farmers who he thought were still aiding the enemy.

Pardoned for any acts he committed on Lubang, he became, for a while, a media celebrity in Japan. Everyone wanted to know about the soldier that time forgot.

But his disillusionment with the fast-paced world and entitled ways of his countrymen grew such that in 1980 he quietly packed up and moved to Brazil.

There he lived out the rest of his days, once again in anonymous seclusion.