Japan WWII soldier who hid in jungle until 1974 dies

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Interesting..

Tokyo — A Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippine jungle for three decades, refusing to believe World War II was over until his former commander returned and ordered him to surrender, has died in Tokyo aged 91.

Hiroo Onoda waged a guerilla campaign in Lubang Island near Luzon until he was finally persuaded in 1974 that peace had broken out, ignoring leaflet drops and successive attempts to convince him the Imperial Army had been defeated.

He died in a Tokyo hospital on Thursday of heart failure.

Onoda was the last of several dozen so-called holdouts scattered around Asia, men who symbolised the astonishingly dogged perseverance of those called upon to fight for their emperor.

Their number included a soldier arrested in the jungles of Guam in 1972.

Trained as an information officer and guerrilla tactics coach, Onoda was dispatched to Lubang in 1944 and ordered never to surrender, never to resort to suicidal attacks and to hold firm until reinforcements arrived.

He and three other soldiers continued to obey that order long after Japan's 1945 defeat.

Their existence became widely known in 1950, when one of their number emerged and returned to Japan.

The others continued to survey military facilities in the area, attacking local residents and occasionally fighting with Philippine forces, although one of them died soon afterwards.

Tokyo declared them dead after nine years of fruitless search.

However, in 1972, Onoda and the other surviving soldier got involved in a shoot-out with Philippine troops. His comrade died, but Onoda managed to escape.

The incident caused a sensation in Japan, which took his family members to Lubang in the hope of persuading him that hostilities were over.

Onoda later explained he had believed attempts to coax him out were the work of a puppet regime installed in Tokyo by the United States.

He read about his home country in newspapers that searchers deliberately scattered in the jungle for him to find, but dismissed their content as propaganda.

The regular overflight by US planes during the long years of the Vietnam war also convinced him that the battle he had joined was still being played out across Asia.

It was not until 1974, when his old commanding officer visited him in his jungle hideout to rescind the original order, that Onoda's war eventually ended.

Asked at a press conference in Japan after his return what he had been thinking about for the last 30 years, he told reporters: "Carrying out my orders."

But the Japan that Onoda returned to was much changed. The country he had left, and the one he had believed he was still fighting for, was in the grip of a militarist government, bent on realising what it thought was its divine right to dominate the region.

Crippled by years of increasingly unsuccessful war, its economy was in ruins and its people were hungry.

But the Japan of 1974 was in the throes of a decades-long economic boom and in thrall to Western culture. It was also avowedly pacifist.

Onoda had difficultly adapting to the new reality and, in 1975, emigrated to Brazil to start a cattle ranch, although he continued to travel back and forth.

In 1984, still very much a celebrity, he established a youth camp, where he taught young Japanese some of the survival techniques he had used during his 30 years in hiding, when he lived on wild cows and bananas.

He returned to Lubang in 1996 on a visit, reportedly at the invitation of the local government, despite his having been involved in the killing of dozens of Filipinos during his three-decade battle.

He made a donation to the local community, which was reportedly used to set up a scholarship.

Late into his life, he enjoyed good health and boasted of a fine memory, honed by the need to remember the intelligence he had gathered.

Until recently, Onoda had been active in speaking engagements across Japan and in 2013 appeared on national broadcaster NHK.

"I lived through an era called a war. What people say varies from era to era," he told NHK last May.

"I think we should not be swayed by the climate of the time, but think calmly," he said.

[Insult to Rocks]

This kind of fanatic devotion has always frightened me. I'm usually not one for speculation, but I always have to wonder what would have happened had the U.S invaded Japan.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

At least he didn't praise Jesus Christ, his personal savior for granting him the wisdom.. :)

[The Skeletal Atheist]

This kind of fanatic devotion has always frightened me. I'm usually not one for speculation, but I always have to wonder what would have happened had the U.S invaded Japan.

From the interpertations I heard Japan was pretty much ready to surrender before the US dropped the bomb, but the main thing holding them back were a couple of war-hungry hardliners in the government. If the US invaded the home island it would have likely given the hardliners enough sway to fight down to the last man, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives would have been lost. Whether or not the atom bomb was needed to end the war is another issue altogether, but every interpretation I have read seems to agree that invading the home island would have been just about the worst idea.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

There have been a few arguments and threads on that very subject. Some say the US committed the worse war crimes ever, but had Germany or Japan developed nuclear weapons first does anyone doubt the outcome?

[The Skeletal Atheist]

There have been a few arguments and threads on that very subject. Some say the US committed the worse war crimes ever, but had Germany or Japan developed nuclear weapons first does anyone doubt the outcome?

Germany was working on one, but they got defeated before they could fully develop one. Japan MAY have been working on one, I never found a clear answer for that one.

[Insult to Rocks]

As far as I know, Japan never had any workable atomic bomb plans. They were honestly the most unprepared Axis power in terms of economics and industry. That unpreparedness was part of the reason that they went to war, and part of the reason which the leaders of Japan propagated the religious zealotry that caused the Japanese to fight the way they did.  The problem with the atomic bomb "controversy" is that most people who argue about it don't understand historical context. It doesn't matter whether what we know 70 years after the fact, the U.S. at that time had no real reason to believe that Japan would capitulate, and every reason to believe that invasion would be absolutely disastrous. They made the right decision with the knowledge that they had at the time.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Nuclear weapons good or bad have certainly changed the way nations go to war. It's been quite some time since the last global war unless you want to count the "global war on terror" which isn't anything remotely like WWII..

[The Skeletal Atheist]

Nuclear weapons good or bad have certainly changed the way nations go to war. It's been quite some time since the last global war unless you want to count the "global war on terror" which isn't anything remotely like WWII..

No war was really anything like WW2 was it? The numbers are fucking staggering. I guess the one good thing that came out of the developement of nuclear weapons is the idea of MAD. No one wants to pull the trigger when they're also going to die. That whole idea pretty much prevented, while also making quite possible, the idea of a WW3.

[Hydra009]

There were actually quite a few Japanese military holdouts and it's pretty amazing how long they kept it up.  I can't even play Risk for more than a few hours before calling it quits, lol.

[Insult to Rocks]

The key to winning Risk is Australia. The Japanese never got to Australia, and they lost the war. Coincidence? I think not.

[Plu]

This kind of fanatic devotion has always frightened me.

Yeah, this. It's fucking scary what people are willing to do if you brainwash them properly. Add to that how motivated most people in power are to brainwash everyone they can get their hands on, and you can do the math.

[Shiranu]

They made the right decision with the knowledge that they had at the time.

Not to make a huge argument on the thread over this, but why drop two? I think they got the message when 90,000 to 160,000 people died in the first city and it was turned into nothing but a steaming pile of rubble and radiation. And why drop it on a civilian city and not closer to a military base (like Nagasaki)?

The intentional targeting of 200,000 civilians with weapons of mass destruction that cause extreme agony is NEVER the right decision. If it is, then you can argue that Hitler's treatment of the Jews was just "strategic" to scare a potential enemy from ever engaging in the war against him. The Jews were a threat, it was the right decision with the knowledge he had at time to make them "disappear".

War crimes are never acceptable. Just because the United States has never taken responsibility for the fact it has intentionally murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians in its time does not mean it's not a crime.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

Eh, that's the shitty thing about total war. Everyone is a target, even civilians. Not saying war crimes are acceptable (though I think the term is ridiculous, war is a crime in and of itself), but in the context of World War 2 everyone was pretty shitty when it came to the whole "do not target civilians" deal. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't even that destructive in terms of human life compared to the massive Allied firebombing campaign.

[stromboli]

Some years ago there was a documentary about how the Japanese got to the point of surrendering. It was very involved, but the crux of it was that the Japanese military was led by a fanatical group of death by suicide types, and only a few senior officers were looking to end the war. Finally, after some serious effort, they got Hirohito to agree. They even had to smuggle him to a radio station that was not under military control to make the announcement to the people. Some of the senior officers committed Seppuku and that brought about the cessation of war.

The debate will rage forever whether the A-bombs were a good idea or not, but in fact the U.S. faced an invasion that could potentially mean the deaths of millions. The Japanese were fanatical about defending their country, and fanatical about following their emperor. So the potential was certainly there. I don't know if it was right or not, but I'm not judging without knowing all the facts and possibilities.