There is one old joke: A bearded man with a machine gun enters a Belarusian village in 1970. Having met an elderly woman, he is asking:
Grandma, are there any Germans in the village?
“Dear,” the village woman throws up her hands. - So the war ended 25 years ago!
Yes? — the partisan answers in surprise. “Then why have I been derailing the trains all this time?”
But what for the residents Soviet Union was a peculiar form of humor, for the Japanese it was absolutely true. Soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army continued to fight three decades after their country surrendered in World War II.
Hiroo Onoda in his youth. Photo: Public Domain
The New York Times reported that he died in Tokyo at the age of 92. former military intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, for which the second World War ended 29 years later than for his home country.
Hiroo Onoda was born in the Japanese village of Kamekawa on March 19, 1922, in the family of a journalist and a teacher. In his youth, Hiroo was fond of Japanese kendo and was generally a sporty young man. After graduating from school, he got a job at private company and went to do business in China. There Hiroo mastered English and Chinese, but his business career was interrupted by conscription into the army. A capable guy with knowledge of languages, he was sent to the school for intelligence officers, which, however, Hiroo did not have time to graduate - things were getting worse for Japan at the front. In 1944, Onoda was sent to the Philippines as commander of a special detachment to conduct sabotage operations behind enemy lines.
Parallel reality of a Japanese lieutenant
In January 1945, the saboteur and his subordinates were assigned to the island of Lubang, where he was given the task of engaging in sabotage and reconnaissance activities behind the lines of American troops. The officer was encouraged that his mission would last at least three to five years.
After the regular units of the Japanese army in Lubang were defeated, Second Lieutenant Onoda and his soldiers went to the mountains, where he created a base and switched to guerrilla warfare.
Onoda and his three soldiers were not embarrassed by the American leaflets dropped from planes, which spoke of Japan's surrender, or even the order to lay down their arms signed by the Japanese general - copies of which were also scattered over the jungle of Lubang. Japanese soldiers thought it was just American propaganda.
The guerrilla war of Onoda's four-man squad lasted five years until one of the fighters surrendered to the Philippine police - Yuichi Akatsu. It was he who said that his comrades, who were considered dead in their homeland, were still fighting in Lubang.
The Japanese government equipped a group to search for Onoda's detachment, but this did not yield any results.
In July 1954, Onoda and his soldiers encountered a group of Filipino police officers. Died in battle Seichi Shimada, covering the commander’s retreat. After this, a search party sent from Japan again searched the Lubang jungle, but Onoda was never found.
In 1969, the officer and his only remaining subordinate in Japan were declared dead for the second time, and were posthumously awarded orders.
Meanwhile, Onoda continued to fight. Having established a life in the jungle, he attacked the Philippine military, police, and committed sabotage against the American base located on the island. Over three decades, the saboteur killed 30 people and wounded about 100.
The most interesting thing is that Onoda, during his forays, captured a radio and knew what was happening in the world. However, he stubbornly did not believe that Japan lost World War II. And even Vietnam War the saboteur considered it nothing more than a Japanese counter-offensive in Indochina.
Capitulation by order of the bookseller
In September 1972, Philippine police shot and killed a Japanese soldier who was taking rice from peasants. It turned out to be Kinshichi Kozuka, Onoda's last subordinate.
After this, the Japanese government again sent a mission to the Philippines in order to finally find the saboteur officer. And again this did not bring results.
Chance helped. On February 20, 1974, a young Japanese student traveler stumbled upon Onoda in the jungle. Norio Suzuki. Taken aback by surprise, the young man nevertheless began to explain to the officer what was really happening in the world and began to persuade Onoda to return home.
Onoda seemed to believe it, but his answer shocked the young man: “I cannot leave my combat post without an order from a senior commander.”
The student returned to Japan with photographs of Onoda, which created a real sensation. Japanese authorities have identified Onoda's immediate commander during the war, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who by that time was a humble bookstore worker, was dressed in military uniform and sent to Lubang.
Having received an order by radio from Major Taniguchi, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, in full combat uniform, with weapons and a report on his actions, surrendered to the Philippine authorities on March 10, 1974.
Youth Mentor
According to the laws of the Philippines, Onoda should have been tried as a criminal, but the Japanese government managed to convince the country's authorities that the case of the saboteur officer was special.
He was greeted ambiguously: Onoda spoke with wartime slogans, and the mood in Japanese society had changed greatly. Some even said: Onoda is a born bandit who just liked killing people.
As a result, in 1975, Onoda left for Brazil, where he settled among Japanese emigrants. He returned to his homeland again in 1984, when the excitement around his person had already subsided.
Not only the mood of the Japanese changed, Onoda himself changed. He got used to modern world, relented and decided to educate young people by opening his own survival school. Onoda's experience in survival was such that hardly anyone could compare with him. For his successful work in the field of educating the younger generation, Onoda was even awarded a special award by the Japanese government.
Onoda spent the last part of his life living in two houses - in Japan and Brazil. He wrote several books of memoirs, the most famous of which was No Surrender: My Thirty Years' War.
The Last Soldiers of the Empire
If Hiroo Onoda was destined for a solemn surrender, then for Terou Nakamura everything turned out not so rosy. A native of Taiwan who didn't even speak Japanese, he was drafted into the Imperial Army in 1943 and sent to the Indonesian island of Morotai. At the end of the war, Nakamura's detachment lost contact with Tokyo, and the soldiers themselves were surrounded by the Americans. Nakamura managed not to be captured, and he went into the jungle, where he began to live like a real Robinson.
Nakamura, unlike Onoda, was not a partisan, but simply survived, confident that he would be killed if discovered.
They only came across him in 1974 and spent two months trying to persuade him to surrender. Finally, in December 1974, the soldier surrendered to the Indonesian soldiers.
Nakamura, 55, was in good health and looked great for a man who had spent three decades in the jungle. But a real drama happened in the soldier’s life: for thirty years he dreamed of returning to his beloved wife, but she, considering him dead, married someone else.
They explained to Nakamura that Taiwan is no longer Japanese territory, so he has a choice of where to go: to the country for which he fought for three decades, or to the place where he was born. Nakamura chose Taiwan, where he was deported. The Japanese government paid the soldier compensation, which amounted to 227 US dollars. Unlike Onoda, Nakamura's peaceful life did not work out - he died just five years after the end of his long war.
Story Shoichi Yokoi similar to the story of Nakamura and Onoda. A Japanese corporal who fought on the island of Guam also refused to acknowledge his country's defeat in World War II. Having gone with his comrades into the depths of the Guam jungle, he hid there for many years. In 1964, two of his colleagues died, and he was left alone. The corporal lived as a hermit, eating meat obtained from hunting, which he went out at night. Yokoi was discovered in January 1972, after which he returned to Japan. The 57-year-old corporal, having arrived home, said words that became a symbol of all Japanese soldiers with a similar fate: “I am painfully ashamed that I returned alive.”
Shoichi Yokoi settled in a village in his native Aichi Prefecture, got married and began to live the modest life of a Japanese pensioner. However, he, like Onoda, was often remembered by journalists who invited him to talk shows and even made a documentary about the soldier.
Shoichi Yokoi died in 1997 and was buried next to the grave of his mother, who never saw her son back from the war.
Died in Japan old man. And this news was spread today all over the world news agencies. It's about about a legendary personality. The former junior lieutenant in the Land of the Rising Sun was called the last samurai. After the surrender Imperial Army he refused to lay down his arms and for thirty years he proved that even one in the jungle is a warrior.
In March 1974, footage from Tokyo airport shocked the whole world, but especially the Japanese themselves. The thin 52-year-old man with a mustache was greeted holding portraits of him. All photographs of the young Japanese Army Intelligence Lieutenant Hiro Onoda were taken 29 years earlier, during World War II. Even general secretary Japanese government, speaking today about the death of Onoda, remembered something personal.
“I remember my feelings well. When, after living in the jungle for many years, Mr. Onoda returned to his homeland of Japan, I realized that World War II had finally ended,” said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
At the end of 1944, young Onoda was sent to the Philippine island of Lubang to prepare operations against the advancing Americans. But the US landing destroyed almost its entire garrison. And Hiro Onoda for 30 years, hiding in the jungle, carried out the commander’s order: no hara-kiri, fight the enemy to the end! Only the aging Major Taniguchi was able to lure the indomitable lieutenant out; using a megaphone, he read out the time-yellow order for Japan’s surrender in World War II.
Onoda had with him a rifle in excellent condition, 500 rounds of ammunition and Samurai sword, which, by the way, the commander of the military base returned to the lieutenant, calling him a model of military loyalty. The elusive Onoda had dozens of killed military personnel, but the President of the Philippines pardoned him.
What shocked him most in Tokyo was not even the skyscrapers, but drinking water, flowing from the tap, and food that can be bought in the store. For a long time he slept on the bare floor and, on the advice of a psychotherapist, went to live in Brazil. In extremely rare interviews, Hiro Onoda said that his excellent combat training helped him survive.
“If you feel like a fish in water in the forest, then your enemy is simply doomed. I clearly knew - one by one open area you need to move in a camouflage of dry leaves, on the other - only of fresh ones. The Philippine soldiers were not aware of such subtleties. What I missed most was probably soap. I washed my clothes in running water, using ash as powder, washed my face, but I really wanted to soap myself,” said the former soldier armed forces Japan Hiroo Onoda.
For all 29 years, Onoda fought for survival - the meat of a killed cow was enough for him for a whole year. He ate bananas and drank coconut milk. Twice a day he brushed his teeth with crushed palm bark - and the doctors did not find a single diseased tooth on him. He built himself a house from bamboo and medicated himself with herbs. But he also did not forget to carry out sabotage: he burned rice collected by the Filipinos and exchanged fire with the military.
"I am offended by suggestions that my struggle was pointless. I fought so that my country could be powerful and prosperous. In the imperial army it was not customary to discuss orders. The major said: You must stay until I return for you! I am a soldier, and carried out the order - what’s surprising? When I returned to Tokyo, I saw that Japan was strong and rich, it comforted my heart,” said Hiroo Onoda.
One day, Onoda took the radio from a peasant and, listening to broadcasts from the Tokyo Olympics, was sure that all this was an American provocation against him. He did not believe either the leaflets or the letters from his relatives begging him to surrender. Before meeting the commander, he believed that he was doing his duty. Years later, Onoda taught the boys how to survive in the forest. And he donated 10 thousand dollars to the Philippine school, not far from which he was hiding.
In September 1945, Japan announced its surrender, ending World War II. But for some, the war is not over.
Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda was 22 years old when he was sent to the Philippines as commander of a special detachment to conduct sabotage operations behind enemy lines. He arrived on Lubang in December 1944, and Allied forces landed on the island in February 1945. Soon only Onoda and three of his fellow soldiers were among the survivors, who retreated into the mountains to continue guerrilla warfare.
The group survived on bananas, coconut milk and stolen cattle, occasionally engaging in shootouts with local police.
At the end of 1945, the Japanese read leaflets dropped from the air that the war was over. But they refused to surrender, deciding that this was enemy propaganda.
1944 Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda.
Every Japanese soldier was prepared to die. As an intelligence officer, I was ordered to fight guerrilla warfare and not die. I was a soldier and had to follow orders.
Hiroo Onoda
One of Hiroo Onoda's comrades surrendered in 1950, another died when confronted by a search party in 1954. His last comrade, Private Superior Kinshichi Kozuka, was shot and killed by police in 1972 while he and Onoda were destroying rice supplies at a local farm.
Onoda was left alone and became a legendary figure on Lubang Island and beyond.
The story of a mysterious Japanese soldier intrigues a young traveler named Norio Suzuki, who sets out in search of "Lieutenant Onoda, pandas and Bigfoot."
Norio Suzuki told Onoda about Japan's long-ago surrender and prosperity, trying to persuade him to return to his homeland. But Onoda firmly replied that he could not give up and leave his duty station without an order from a superior officer.
February 1974. Norio Suzuki and Onoda with their rifle on Lubang Island.
Suzuki returned to Japan and, with the help of the government, tracked down Commander Onoda. He turned out to be former Imperial Army Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, already an elderly man working in a bookstore.
Taniguchi flew to Lubang and on March 9, 1974, officially ordered Onoda to lay down his arms.
March 11, 1974. Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, sword in hand, emerges from the jungle on Lubang Island after 29 years of guerrilla warfare.
March 11, 1974.
Three days later, Onoda surrendered his samurai sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and received a pardon for his actions over the previous decades (he and his comrades killed about 30 people during the guerrilla war).
Onoda returned to Japan to a hero's welcome, but decided to move to Brazil and became a cattle rancher. Ten years later he returned to Japan and founded public organization“School of Nature” for raising a healthy young generation.
As for the adventurer Norio Suzuki: shortly after finding Onoda, he found pandas in wildlife. But in 1986, Suzuki died in an avalanche in the Himalayas while continuing his search for Bigfoot.
Onoda died in 2014 at the age of 92. A few of his photos:
March 11, 1974. Onoda hands over his sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos as a sign of surrender at Malacañang Palace in Manila.
March 12, 1974. Onoda's arrival in Tokyo.
“The war is not over for him,” they sometimes say about former soldiers and officers. But this is rather an allegory. But the Japanese Hiroo Onoda was sure that the war was still going on several decades after the end of World War II. How did this happen?
Hiroo Onoda was born on March 19, 1922 in the village of Kamekawa, Wakayama Prefecture. After graduating from school, in April 1939, he got a job at the Tajima trading company, located in Chinese city Hankou. There the young man mastered not only the Chinese language, but also English. But in December 1942 he had to return to Japan - he was called up to military service.
In August 1944, Onoda entered the Nakano Army School, which trained intelligence officers. But complete your studies young man failed - he was urgently sent to the front.
In January 1945, Hiroo Onoda, already with the rank of junior lieutenant, was transferred to the Philippine island of Lubang. He received orders to hold out until the last.
Arriving in Lubang, Onoda suggested that the local command begin preparations for the long-term defense of the island. But his call was ignored. American troops easily defeated the Japanese, and the reconnaissance detachment led by Onoda was forced to flee to the mountains. In the jungle, the military set up a base and began guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. The squad consisted of only four people: Hiroo Onoda himself, Private First Class Yuichi Akatsu, Private First Class Kinshichi Kozuki and Corporal Shoichi Shimada.
In September 1945, shortly after Japan signed the act of surrender, an order from the commander of the 14th Army was dropped from planes into the jungle, ordering them to surrender their weapons and surrender. However, Onoda considered this a provocation on the part of the Americans. His unit continued to fight, hoping that the island was about to return to Japanese control. Since the group of guerrillas had no contact with the Japanese command, the Japanese authorities soon declared them dead.
In 1950, Yuichi Akatsu surrendered to the Philippine police. In 1951, he returned to his homeland, thanks to which it became known that members of Onoda’s squad were still alive.
On May 7, 1954, Onoda's group clashed with the Philippine police in the Lubanga mountains. Shoichi Shimada was killed. By that time, a special commission had been created in Japan to search for Japanese military personnel remaining abroad. For several years, members of the commission searched for Onoda and Kozuki, but to no avail. On May 31, 1969, the Japanese government declared Onoda and Kozuku dead for the second time and posthumously awarded them the Order of the Rising Sun, 6th class.
On September 19, 1972, in the Philippines, police shot and killed a Japanese soldier who was trying to requisition rice from peasants. This soldier turned out to be Kinshichi Kozuka. Onoda was left alone, without comrades, but obviously had no intention of giving up. During the “operations”, which he carried out first with subordinates and then alone, about 30 military and civilians were killed and about 100 seriously wounded.
On February 20, 1974, Japanese student traveler Norio Suzuki accidentally came across Onoda in the jungle. He told the officer about the end of the war and the current situation in Japan and tried to persuade him to return to his homeland, but he refused, citing the fact that he had not received such an order from his immediate superiors.
Suzuki returned to Japan with photographs of Onoda and stories about him. The Japanese government managed to contact one of Onoda's former commanders, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who was now retired and working in a bookstore. March 9, 1974 Taniguchi in military uniform flew to Lubang, got in touch with a former subordinate and gave him the order to stop everything combat operations on the island. On March 10, 1974, Onoda surrendered to the Philippine military. He faced the death penalty for “combat operations,” which were classified by local authorities as robbery and murder. However, thanks to the intervention of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was pardoned and on March 12, 1974, he solemnly returned to his homeland.
In April 1975, Hiroo Onoda moved to Brazil, got married and started farming. But in 1984 he returned to Japan. The former military man was actively involved social work, especially with young people. On November 3, 2005, the Japanese government presented him with the Medal of Honor with a blue ribbon for service to society. Already in old age, he wrote a memoir entitled “My Thirty Years' War in Lubang.” Hiroo Onoda died on January 16, 2014 in Tokyo at the age of almost 92 years.