LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: They were known as the holdouts, Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender after the end of World War II.

Dozens fought on from their jungle strongholds, refusing to believe that the Japanese empire had been defeated.

One of the last to surrender was Hiroo Onoda who spent 30 years waging his own guerrilla war on an island in the Philippines.

He eventually laid down his arms after his former commanding officer returned to the Philippines in 1974 and ordered him to give up.

North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

MARK WILLACY, REPORTER: He fought for emperor and empire. A soldier who believed defeat would never cast its shadow on the Land Of The Rising Sun.

Hiroo Onoda has come today to the Yasukuni shrine to pray for his comrades who died in the dense jungles and deep waters of the Pacific.

HIROO ONODA, FORMER JAPANESE SOLDIER (TRANSLATION): I was enshrined here at Yasukuni because they thought I, too, was dead. It is said this shrine collects the spirits of the fallen. But because I wasn't dead, my spirit was not collected, I deceived them.

MARK WILLACY: The Yasakuni shrine is believed to house the souls of Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals.

Hiroo Onoda's name is no longer here, but even today he is still called 'Ika Ta Ita Ere' or 'The Living Spirit of the War Dead'.

And just like a ghost, Hiroo Onoda haunted the island of Lubang for decades.

When Lieutenant Onoda of the Japanese Imperial Army walked out of the Philippines jungle and laid down his rifle and sword, the war had been over for 29 years.

HIROO ONODA (TRANSLATION): Every Japanese soldier was prepared for death, but as an intelligence officer I was ordered to conduct guerrilla warfare and not to die. I had to follow my orders as I was a soldier.

MARK WILLACY: And he followed his orders to the letter.

Together with two fellow holdouts, Hiroo Onoda survived on coconut milk, bananas and by stealing and butchering cattle.

For information he would listen to a stolen short-wave radio.

His favourite broadcast: ABC Radio Australia's Japanese language service.

HIROO ONODA (TRANSLATION): Once I listened to an Australian election broadcast and another time I was interested in a cattle story. That helped me to later become a cattle breeder.

MARK WILLACY: For years, Hiroo Onoda would ignore attempts to get him to surrender, dismissing Japanese leaflet drops and search parties as enemy trickery.

HIROO ONODA (TRANSLATION): The leaflets they dropped were filled with mistakes so I judged it was a plot by the Americans.

MARK WILLACY: In the end, it would be a wandering college drop-out who would tempt Lieutenant Onoda out of the jungle.

In 1974 with his two fellow holdouts dead after clashes with Philippines intelligence officers and soldiers, the intelligence officer ran into Norio Suzuki.

HIROO ONODA (TRANSLATION): This hippie boy Suzuki came to the island to listen to the feelings of a Japenese soldier. Suzuki asked me why I would not come out. I said that if the war was over and I received an order telling me to stop fighting I would come out. So Suzuki brought my commanding officer to Lubang and he did just that.

MARK WILLACY: After being pardoned by then Philippines president, Ferdinand Marcos, for his involvement in the killing of some 30 Filipinos, Hiroo Onoda would return triumphantly to his homeland as a symbol of the irrepressible, if not fanatical, Japanese soldier.

But by the mid '70s, Onoda's Japan had changed and the old soldier didn't like what he saw.

HIROO ONODA (TRANSLATION): Japan's philosophy and ideas changed dramatically after World War II. That philosophy clashed with mine so I went to live in Brazil.

MARK WILLACY: In South America he started the cattle ranche he'd dreamed about since listening to ABC Radio in the jungle of Lubang.

But later, he would return to his homeland to teach youngsters survival skills.

Now aged 88 he still travels to schools to pass on his philosophy.

Today, Hiroo Onoda has come to speak to 1,000 teenage students. Whilst some struggle to stay awake, others are receptive to his ideas of discipline, fraternity and honour.

MALE STUDENT 1 (TRANSLATION): When I saw him I could not believe he was 88 years old. I want to become an old man like him.

FEMALE STUDENT 1 (TRANSLATION): Onoda went to the Philippines when he was just 22. He lost two comrades and was fighting alone at the end. I think he is incredibly strong.

MARK WILLACY: He may still be strong, but Hiroo Onoda is now the last of the stragglers. With the 60 or so other Japanese holdouts, surrendering to time and age.

MACHIE ONODA, WIFE (TRANSLATION): He is a loyal soldier. He followed an order. As the last Japanese holdout I think he has an obligation to tell his story.

MARK WILLACY: Hiroo Onoda has come to symbolise the spirit of the Japanese straggler, men who refused to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds, if not logic and reason.

HIROO ONODA (TRANSLATION): I became an officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame. I am very competitive.

MARK WILLACY: His soul may not be enshrined at Yasakuni, but Hiroo Onoda remains a living spirit of wartime Japan, the last of the stragglers.

Mark Willacy, Lateline.