Story highlights Hiroo Onoda wouldn't accept Japan's World War II defeat until 1974

He stayed in the jungle on the Philippines island where he had been deployed

His former commanding officer had to travel to the island to persuade him to give up

Onoda died of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital Thursday, a collegue says

A Japanese soldier who hunkered down in the jungles of the Philippines for nearly three decades, refusing to believe that World War II had ended, has died in Tokyo. Hiroo Onoda was 91 years old.

In 1944, Onoda was sent to the small island of Lubang in the western Philippines to spy on U.S. forces in the area. Allied forces defeated the Japanese imperial army in the Philippines in the latter stages of the war, but Onoda, a lieutenant, evaded capture. While most of the Japanese troops on the island withdrew or surrendered in the face of oncoming American forces, Onoda and a few fellow holdouts hid in the jungles, dismissing messages saying the war was over.

For 29 years, he survived on food gathered from the jungle or stolen from local farmers.

After losing his comrades to various circumstances, Onoda was eventually persuaded to come out of hiding in 1974.

His former commanding officer traveled to Lubang to see him and tell him he was released from his military duties.

In his battered old army uniform, Onoda handed over his sword, nearly 30 years after Japan surrendered..

Every Japanese soldier was prepared for death , but as an intelligence officer I was ordered to conduct guerrilla warfare and not to die," Onoda told CNN affiliate, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "I had to follow my orders as I was a soldier."

Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Hiroo Onoda, center, salutes after handing over his military sword on Lubang Island in the Philippines in March 1974. Onoda, a former intelligence officer in the Japanese army, had remained on the island for nearly 30 years, refusing to believe his country had surrendered in World War II. He died at a Tokyo hospital on Thursday, January 16. He was 91. Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Onoda returned to Japan, where he received a hero's welcome, a figure from a different era emerging into postwar modernity. Here, he visits the Press Club in Tokyo in February 1975 for a luncheon that journalists gave in his honor. Hide Caption 2 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Onoda holds an interview with the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in September 2013 in Tokyo. Hide Caption 3 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Onoda lays a wreath at the Philippine-Japan Friendship Shrine at Tilik on Lubang Island in the Philippines in May 1996. Onoda made his first visit to the island since coming out of hiding from the jungle there in 1974. Hide Caption 4 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Police escort Onoda shortly upon his arrival in Manila in May 1996. He was a controversial figure in the Philippines, where anger remained over the Japanese occupation. The Philippine government pardoned him, but relatives of people he was accused of killing gathered to demand compensation when he returned to Lubang. Hide Caption 5 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Onoda on horseback in Brazil in 1981. After his return to Japan, he moved to the South American country in 1975 and set up a cattle ranch. Hide Caption 6 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Onoda dances with a Playboy waitress at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1975 while on a tour of the United States. Hide Caption 7 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, left, greets Onoda at Malacanang Palace in Manila under the watchful eye of first lady Imelda Marcos in March 1974. Nearly three decades after World War II's end, Onoda was persuaded to come out of hiding after his former commanding officer traveled to Lubang and told him he was released from his military duties. Hide Caption 8 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – The former intelligence officer returns to Japan, landing at Tokyo International Airport in March 1974. He was 52 years old. Hide Caption 9 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: soldier who refused to surrender – In March 1974, Onoda, center, walks from the jungle where he had survived since World War II on Lubang Island. Hide Caption 10 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Onoda, left, accepts a pack of cigarettes from a member of a Japanese team sent in 1974 to persuade him the war had ended. Hide Caption 11 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Somewhere in the jungles of the Philippines in the late '50s, where Onoda was hiding after the war's end. He survived on food he gathered from the wild or stole from local farmers. Hide Caption 12 of 13 Photos: Photos: Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII Hiroo Onoda: Japanese holdout from WWII – Onoda as a lieutenant during World War II. Hide Caption 13 of 13

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He returned to Japan, where he received a hero's welcome, a figure from a different era emerging into post-war modernity.

But anger remained in the Philippines, where he was blamed for multiple killings.

The Philippines government pardoned him. But when he returned to Lubang in 1996, relatives of people he was accused of killing gathered to demand compensation.

After his return to Japan, he moved to Brazil in 1975 and set up a cattle ranch.

"Japan's philosophy and ideas changed dramatically after World War II," Onoda told ABC. "That philosophy clashed with mine so I went to live in Brazil."

In 1984, he set up an organization, Onoda Shizenjyuku, to train young Japanese in the survival and camping skills he had acquired during his decades in Lubang's jungles.

Here is a sample:

-- "Men should never compete with women. If they do, the guys will always lose. That is because women have a lot more endurance. My mother said that, and she was so right."

-- "If you have some thorns in your back, somebody needs to pull them out for you. We need buddies. The sense of belonging is born in the family and later includes friends, neighbors, community and country. That is why the idea of a nation is really important."

-- "Life is not fair and people are not equal. Some people eat better than others."

-- "Once you have burned your tongue on hot miso soup, you even blow on the cold sushi. This is how the Japanese government now behaves toward the U.S. and other nations."

Onoda was born in March 1922 in Wakayama, western Japan, according to his organization. He was raised in a family with six siblings in a village near the ocean.

Hiroyasu Miwa, a staff member of the organization that Onodo started in 1984, said Onodo died of pneumonia Thursday afternoon at St. Luke's Hospital in Tokyo. He had been sick since December.

Ever the faithful soldier, Onoda did not regret the time he had lost.

"I became an officer and I received an order," Onodo told ABC. "If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame. I am very competitive."