Today is the birthday, in 1922, of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who served as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. One of the last Japanese holdouts, Onoda continued fighting for nearly 29 years after the war’s end in 1945, carrying out guerrilla warfare on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974.
On 26 December 1944, Onoda was sent to lead guerrilla warfare operations on Lubang Island in the Japanese-occupied Philippines. His mission was to destroy the island’s airstrip and the pier at its harbor ahead of the Allied invasion as well as to destroy any enemy planes or boats that attempted to land. His orders explicitly stated that under no circumstances was he to surrender or take his own life. American forces landed on the island on 28 February 1945. After a short period, all but Second Lieutenant Onoda and three other soldiers (Private Yuichi Akatsu, Corporal Shōichi Shimada, and Private First Class Kinshichi Kozuka) had died or surrendered. Onoda led the three men into the island’s mountains.
While in hiding, Onoda and his companions continued their mission, carrying out guerrilla activities, surviving on bananas, coconuts, stolen rice and cattle, and on several occasions engaging in shootouts with locals and police. They successfully evaded American and Filipino search parties and attacked villagers whom they believed to be enemy guerrillas, allegedly killing up to 30 civilians on the island.
Akatsu separated from the group in September 1949, and surrendered to Philippine forces in March 1950 after six months on his own. Shimada was killed in a shootout with a Philippine Army mountain unit that accidentally encountered the soldiers while training on the island. On 19 October 1972, Kozuka was killed in a shootout with local police while conducting a recurring raid in which he and Onoda would burn piles of rice harvested by villagers, which they intended as a signal to fellow Japanese forces that their group was still alive and carrying out its duties on Lubang. Onoda was alone from this point on.
On 20 February 1974, Onoda encountered Norio Suzuki, a Japanese adventurer who was traveling around the world. Suzuki located Onoda after four days of searching on Lubang. Onoda still refused to surrender, telling Suzuki that he was waiting for orders from his commanding officer. He named Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, commander of the Special Intelligence Squadron of the Fourteenth Area Army, who had given Onoda his final instructions.
Suzuki returned to Japan with photographs of Onoda as proof of their encounter, after which the government located Taniguchi, who had become a bookseller following the war. Taniguchi flew to Lubang with Suzuki, and on 9 March met with Onoda in the jungle and ordered him to surrender. Onoda was thus relieved of duty, and on 10 March 1974 surrendered to Philippine forces at Lubang’s radar base. On 11 March, a formal surrender ceremony was held by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos at Malacañang Palace in Manila.
Onoda, who had been declared dead by the Japanese government in 1959, was the subject of widespread attention from the press and public upon his return to Japan in 1974. The Japanese government offered him a large sum of money in back pay, which he refused. When money was pressed on him by well-wishers, he donated it to Yasukuni Shrine. On 16 January 2014, Onoda died of heart failure resulting from pneumonia at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo.
Onoda surrendering his sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on 11 March 1974
It’s time for CATS, of course…
Yesterday was the birthday, in 1844, of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Here is one of his famous compositions played by the amazing Yuja Wang. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alxBofd_eQ
