Hiroo Onoda, who didn't stop fighting WWII until 1974 has died

[Teelie]

Every so often I'd hear about him and his story come up in an "amazing" article about soldiers or refusal to give up. He's probably only well known in Japan, the Philippines and to anyone who has read those kinds of articles.

He finally surrendered in 1974 after his commanding officer who had long since retired and became a bookseller peronally flew out to the rainforest he was in and ordered him to stand down.

I think had he not gotten pneumonia he'd still be around another decade.

Tokyo (CNN) -- Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who refused to stop fighting World War II until the 1970s, has died in Tokyo at the age of 91.

During the war, Onoda was sent to the small island of Lubang in the western Philippines to spy on U.S. forces in the area.

He ended up remaining there, eking out a life in the jungle, until 1974, nearly three decades after Japan surrendered.

Allied forces defeated the Japanese imperial army in the Philippines in 1944, but Onoda evaded capture and stayed on.

For about 30 years, he survived on food he gathered from the jungle or stole from local farmers.

Believed to be a staunch imperial soldier, he refused to accept that Japan had lost the war.

He was eventually persuaded to come out of hiding in the jungle in 1974 after 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Wiki article

 

[Hobgoblin]

I don't know if I can respect this guy or not. Gotta hand it to the old coot for staying by his beliefs and for his survival skills but at that point he wasn't a soldier anymore. He was a murderer.

I don't know if the Philippines did the right thing by pardoning him.

 

[charl_huntress]

Soooo...he was a basically living like The Wolverine in the forest...killing people, and they gave him a heroes welcome instead of a pension and a psyche ward?

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Curious Story.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Soooo...he was a basically living like The Wolverine in the forest...killing people, and they gave him a heroes welcome instead of a pension and a psyche ward?

That is incredibly consistent with Japan's attitude towards its wartime actions.

 

[Quasimod0]

I must say, I have some mixed feelings about this story

 

[Teelie]

In the context of his culture, he's an honorable man. You have to look at context in both the culture and the time. Things we frown on now or would describe one way were very different then.

The circumstances must also be accounted for. He still thought he was fighting a war. That he didn't know it was over should be obvious when he had to be relieved by his former CO.

I'm not saying he was admirable. In some respects he was for his dedication to duty (I would think most soldiers can understand that) but he was also killing farmers and others who had nothing to do with the war, or weren't even born when it was going on.

After his return home he would have earned that respect in their eyes. That's their culture and it's not really fair to judge them for it while defending your own.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Could you imagine a crazy lost German soldier in, say, the Black Forest, who for a decade after WWII, still kept on hunting and killing Jews? Would Germany treat him as a war hero upon his repatriation? Shows you how Japan is completely ****ed up still about its wartime history.

After his return home he would have earned that respect in their eyes. That's their culture and it's not really fair to judge them for it while defending your own.

I admire your balanced, thoughtful perspective. However, Japanese culture, from its history books to the arts, still portrays themselves, at worst, as the honorable victims of World War 2. Like first its the Jews, then the Japanese, in their eyes.

When a culture has such a screwed up take on history, yes, let's criticize those ****ers down to the bone.

 

[chamber-music]

So this guy was the Japanese Rambo.

 

[Teelie]

I'm not defending their attitude, but I am saying that if you can look at their values and not force your own on to them you can better understand their culture. It's one of the things I've learned over the years. If you want to understand the enemy, or a rival, or any foreign culture, you need to understand the why of it.

Theirs is not so cut and dry as what some people think of it. I definitely am not going to defend it. I can respect parts of the whole without respecting the whole.

I don't agree with everything of what Japanese (or many other cultures for that matter including my own) think or behave but some parts of it I can respect. And in this case it's the universal of a soldier dedicated to his duty. Obviously this is an extreme case of it and inside the Japanese culture as it stands today, I really find some of their honorable beliefs deplorable myself. Especially their inability to admit their past criminal actions of soldiers during WWII and the years leading up to it.

They have too much honor in themselves to admit the dishonor they did to the Chinese, and the Philipines, and most of the Asian continent.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Germany's culture used to believe they were the gods of Europe. The world decided to convince them otherwise of that belief.

 

[blksuperman2]

Where are y'all getting that he was killing these farmers? I'm pretty sure he was probably well known in the village near the Jungle and people just left him alone. If he had been killing random people for 30 years I'm pretty sure the Phillipino Government would've interceded. This isn't some Stallone Rambo movie people.

 

[Teelie]

No, he definitely killed some people. Usually it was in his raids on farms to get supplies. Occasionally he would be discovered in the forest and "defended" himself against those people. To himself, he was fighting back as a guerllia fighter. He didn't go out randomly killing people, he did try to avoid contact whenever possible but it was those unfortunate times he was caught out that resulted in deaths.

 

[blksuperman2]

No, he definitely killed some people. Usually it was in his raids on farms to get supplies. Occasionally he would be discovered in the forest and "defended" himself against those people. To himself, he was fighting back as a guerllia fighter. He didn't go out randomly killing people, he did try to avoid contact whenever possible but it was those unfortunate times he was caught out that resulted in deaths.

This is my first time hearing this story. When exactly did these raids happen? If it were in the late 40s early 50s then it's within the realm of plausible, but I seriously doubt this dude was any kind of threat in the late 60s early 70s. He was nearly 50 by then. C'mon, he was probably a laughing stock to the villagers.

 

[Teelie]

I don't remember all the details of his life story. He has an autobiography (putting him in a favorable light obviously) I have not read but I've read enough about him to know he would go into farms and homes to get food or medical supplies and other necessities.

What he was like in the 60's or 70's, I don't know. I do know he was no laughing stock to the villagers though who wanted him dead. Quite literally dead.

 

[blksuperman2]

Just reading the story, If his old C/O knew his whereabouts it's probably because the villagers knew his whereabouts. I just find this whole story beyond belief. Imagine 30yrs of people who have lost loved ones to a crazed old man in the woods. I don't care how highly trained this individual was, he'd be taken out.

 

[chamber-music]

He was the Philippines jungle in the 60's and 70's. It wouldn't be that difficult for him to kill off a few rural farmers without the authorities doing anything.

The Philippines was under dictatorship in the 60's to the 80's and corruption, despotism, political repression and human rights violations were rife.

Filipino troops did have a shoot out that killed one of his compatriots in 72.

 

[Slushy]

So this guy was the Japanese Rambo.

Pretty much. Dude was hardcore.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Put me in the "mixed" camp. Pink Ranger made a very good point with his "Nazi hiding in the Black Forest" analogy.

 

[BestGirl]

This dude couldn't figure out on his own that the war was unlikely to still be going on after thirty years? Not to mention the fact that he and his group were informed several times that the war was over. There's honor, then there's sheer stupidity. If I were Filipina, I'd be irritated with Marcos for pardoning him, and with those Japanese who view him as a national hero.

 

[Thundercrack85]

There were actually several Japanese soldiers who kept fighting into the second half of the 20th century. Not like those Nazi quitters.

 

[Thundercrack85]

In the context of his culture, he's an honorable man. You have to look at context in both the culture and the time. Things we frown on now or would describe one way were very different then.

The circumstances must also be accounted for. He still thought he was fighting a war. That he didn't know it was over should be obvious when he had to be relieved by his former CO.

I'm not saying he was admirable. In some respects he was for his dedication to duty (I would think most soldiers can understand that) but he was also killing farmers and others who had nothing to do with the war, or weren't even born when it was going on.

After his return home he would have earned that respect in their eyes. That's their culture and it's not really fair to judge them for it while defending your own.

Actually considering 99.9999999% of Japanese soldiers accepted the surrender, I'd say he was more insane than anything else. Or possibly stupid.

 

[Teelie]

This dude couldn't figure out on his own that the war was unlikely to still be going on after thirty years? Not to mention the fact that he and his group were informed several times that the war was over. There's honor, then there's sheer stupidity. If I were Filipina, I'd be irritated with Marcos for pardoning him, and with those Japanese who view him as a national hero.

Actually considering 99.9999999% of Japanese soldiers accepted the surrender, I'd say he was more insane than anything else. Or possibly stupid.

Insane maybe, or very dedicated. These soldiers, and the civilians were all but brainwashed into believing they would be wiped out from the world if they lost. Combine that with being isolated for decades and it's no surprise he lost at least some contact with reality.

And there's always the anecdote of veterans who flashback to the war they were in, only in this guy's case the war literally never ended for him.

 

[BestGirl]

But in 1952 family photos and letters urging them to surrender were dropped from a plane yet Onoda still thought he was being tolled. At bare minimum, that should've been a sign that the US had control of Japan. Like I said, there's obedience to orders and then there's outright stupidity. He and his friends fell into the latter category.