TOKYO - Nearly three decades after the end of World War II, one man finally returned to Japan. He was Hiroo Onoda, known as the last Japanese soldier, who had remained hidden in the jungles of the Philippines for 29 years after the war ended.
Onoda had been dispatched as a member of a special intelligence unit known as the “Beppan,” tasked with unconventional warfare. Even after Japan’s surrender, he continued to carry out his mission, convinced that the war had not yet ended. His long isolation, the training that shaped his beliefs, and the hidden circumstances surrounding his eventual return were later revealed through testimony from those involved.
In October 1972, a former Japanese soldier was discovered in a firefight with Philippine police on Lubang Island, resulting in one death. Another man escaped, later identified as Onoda. The Japanese government quickly organized a search mission involving officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, members of Onoda’s family, and the Philippine military. A large-scale task force was formed to locate him.
One of the interpreters involved in the search later recalled that the team believed Onoda might already be wounded or dead and expected the search to end quickly. Teams entered dense jungle terrain, called out from ships offshore, and scattered leaflets from the air urging him to surrender. Despite these efforts, Onoda did not emerge.
The reason lay in the nature of his mission. Onoda had been trained at the Nakano School, a secret military institution established in Tokyo during the war to train intelligence operatives. Graduates were taught guerrilla tactics, sabotage, and survival skills, and were instructed above all to stay alive and never surrender. Unlike conventional soldiers trained to fight to the death, they were ordered to continue their missions indefinitely unless directly commanded otherwise.
Former classmates recalled that Onoda took his training seriously, spending long hours studying and preparing for clandestine operations. He was taught that survival itself was a form of duty and that orders could only be revoked by a superior officer. When he was sent to Lubang Island in 1944, he was explicitly told never to surrender and never to take his own life.
After Japan’s defeat, leaflets and announcements declaring the war’s end reached the island, but Onoda believed they were enemy propaganda. According to later testimony, he suspected that any attempt to lure him out was a trap designed to kill him. Even when his elderly father and relatives called out to him during search operations, he remained hidden, convinced that surrender would mean execution.
Search efforts were conducted three times over the years, involving more than 100 people and costing roughly 90 million yen, but all failed. The breakthrough came not from government action but from a young Japanese traveler named Norio Suzuki, who decided to find Onoda on his own. In 1974, Suzuki ventured alone into the jungle and eventually encountered him.
At first, Onoda aimed his rifle at Suzuki, prepared to shoot. Suzuki calmly told him he was Japanese and said the war had long been over. Onoda replied that he would only surrender if he received formal orders from his former commanding officer. Suzuki returned to Japan, located Onoda’s former superior, and brought him to Lubang Island.
When the commander read out the official order relieving Onoda of his mission, Onoda finally accepted it. He emerged from the jungle wearing a self-repaired uniform, his rifle still in working condition, nearly 30 years after the war had ended. He was 51 years old.
After his return, another truth came to light. During his decades in hiding, Onoda and other holdouts had been involved in incidents that resulted in the deaths of about 30 local residents and injuries to more than 100 others. The Japanese government feared public backlash in the Philippines and considered compensation.
However, by that time Japan had already paid 550 million dollars in postwar reparations to the Philippines. Restarting compensation talks risked diplomatic complications. Instead, the Japanese government proposed a 300 million yen payment in the form of private assistance. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos declined to accept the money as compensation, stating that he respected Onoda’s sense of duty as a soldier and did not wish the issue to be reduced to money.
The funds were instead used for educational and cultural projects, including Japanese language education and student exchanges, aimed at strengthening ties between the two countries.
After returning to Japan, Onoda struggled to adapt to postwar society. The country he returned to had changed beyond recognition. The following year, he moved to Brazil, where his brother lived, and began raising cattle. Later in life, he returned to Japan periodically and devoted himself to youth education, teaching survival skills and the value of perseverance in nature.
Hiroo Onoda died in 2014 at the age of 91. His life remains one of the most extraordinary and controversial stories of Japan’s postwar era, symbolizing both unwavering loyalty and the tragic consequences of a war that lingered long after it had officially ended.
Source: TBS
