Dead at 91, the Japanese WW2 soldier who refused to surrender for 30 years while hiding in Philippines jungle



Hiroo Onoda was the last Japanese imperial soldier to emerge from hiding

He finally surrendered in 1974 on Lubang island in the Philippines

Onoda's imperial army uniform, cap and sword were still in good condition

A Japanese soldier who refused to surrender after the Second World War ended and spent 29 years hiding in the jungle while continuing a guerilla war has died aged 91.

Hiroo Onoda remained on an island in the Philippines until 1974 because he did not believe the war was over.

He became the last Japanese soldier to surrender – but only after his former commander, who in 1945 had told him to stay behind and spy on American troops, was flown from Japan to order him to give up.

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Onoda (centre) salutes after handing over a military sword on Lubang Island in 1974

Hiroo Onoda holds a picture of himself (left), taken when he came out of hiding from the jungle. On the right is a shot of Onoda in 1974, wearing his 30-year-old imperial army uniform, cap and sword, saluting to the Philippine Air Force on arrival at a radar site on Lubang Island, Philippines, after he'd come out of hiding in the jungle



His extraordinary determination to carry on made Mr Onoda a hero in his homeland, although he was said to have killed 30 people while evading capture. His story was turned into a film and a book.

He had come out of hiding, erect but emaciated, on Lubang island on his 52nd birthday.

During his formal surrender to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Mr Onoda saluted the Japanese flag and symbolically handed over his samurai sword while still wearing an army uniform that had been patched many times over.

His generation was taught absolute loyalty to Japan and its emperor. Soldiers in the Imperial Army observed a code that said death was preferable to surrender.

Mr Onoda, a lieutenant in army intelligence, had been sent to Lubang, 90 miles south-west of the Philippine capital Manila, in December 1944.

Onoda (second left) walking from the jungle where he had hidden since World War II, on Lubang island in the Philippines

Most of his comrades surrendered when US troops landed on the island less than three months later but he refused to give up and remained in the jungle with three other soldiers.

He later recalled: ‘Every Japanese soldier was prepared for death, but as an intelligence officer I was ordered to conduct guerilla warfare and not to die.

‘I became an officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame. I am very competitive.’

At least four attempts were made to find him, during which family members appealed to him over loudspeakers and flights dropped leaflets urging him to surrender.

Onoda, wearing his 30-year-old imperial army uniform, cap and sword, walks down a slope as he heads for a helicopter landing site on Lubang Island for a flight to Manila, having finally accepted that hostilities had ended

This picture taken on March 11, 1974, shows Onoda (right) offering his military sword to former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (left) to express his surrender at the Malacanan Palace in Manila

As he struggled to feed himself, Mr Onoda’s mission became one of survival. He stole rice and bananas from villagers, and shot their cows to make dried beef, triggering occasional skirmishes.

Three other soldiers were with him at the end of the war. One emerged from the jungle in 1950 and the other two died, one in a 1972 clash with local troops.

The turning point came on February 20, 1974, when Mr Onoda met a young globetrotter, Norio Suzuki, who had ventured to Lubang in pursuit of the veteran soldier.

Mr Suzuki quietly pitched camp in jungle clearings and waited. Mr Onoda eventually made contact with a simple ‘Oi’, and they began to talk.



Onoda (centre) waving upon his return home, at Tokyo international airport, on March 12, 1974

Mr Suzuki returned to Japan and contacted the government, which called in the soldier’s superior, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, to bring about a surrender.

The Philippine government pardoned Mr Onoda although many in Lubang never forgave him for the 30 people he killed during his campaign on the island.

Mr Onoda struggled to adapt to life on his return to Japan and he emigrated to Brazil in 1975 to become a farmer. He finally settled in his homeland in 1984 and opened nature camps for children.

He did not consider his 30 years in the jungle to have been a waste of time.

