In this week’s chapter we look at attempts by the Japanese government to convince Onada that the war was over and his one-man-mission should end. If you missed previous installments you can catch them HERE and HERE.
A great many attempts were made over the years to communicate to Onada and his three fellow-hold-out soldiers (the last of whom stayed hiding with him up until just two years before he was finally rescued).
The first of these occured just a month after Japan surrended in September 1945. Onada found a leaflet that had been dropped on Lubang Island by a plane. It read “The war ended on 15 August. Come down from the mountains!” They distrusted the leaflet and concluded that it was Allied propaganda.
Toward the end of 1945, leaflets were again dropped by air, this time with a surrender order printed on them from General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Fourteenth Area Army. Onoda and his three fellow soldiers studied the leaflet closely to determine whether it was genuine, and decided it was not.
In 1952, letters and family pictures were dropped from a plane urging them to surrender, but the by then three soldiers concluded that this was also a trick.
Onada writes in NO SURRENDER – “My reaction was that the Yankees had outdone themselves this time. I wondered how on Earth they had obtained the photographs. That there was something fishy about the whole thing was beyond doubt, but I could not figure out exactly how the trick had been carried out.”
Onoda had been trained as an intelligence officer, so was naturally suspicious of any communications. One of the search parties that landed on Lubang Island included Hiroo Onada’s own brother, who took to the jungle with a megaphone calling Hiroo’s name.
Onada’s reaction was to think to himself, “That’s really something. They’ve found a prisoner who looks at a distance like my brother, and he’s learned to imitate my brother’s voice perfectly.”
In late 1965, Onada and his (by then) one fellow hold-out had acquired a transistor radio, stolen from one of the local islander’s huts.
Onada writes “What pretended to be a broadcast from Japan or Australia was, to our way of thinking, a tape prepared by the enemy and rebroadcast with suitable changes. We read into the broadcasts the meanings we wanted them to have.”
Next week, in our final instalment, we witness Hiroo Onada finally emerge from the jungle and resume civilian life.
Scenic Writer's Shack 
Even though it sounds crazy, I could see myself responding that way! Like anything they threw at me, I rationalized it away and never believed it. Was he aware of how much time was going by, though? Like, didn’t he think it was unlikely the war was still going on 20 years later? Maybe he explains some of that in the last part.
Fascinating, as always, Glen. Thanks for sharing this story.
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Such is the strength of beliefs, even when confronted with overwhelming evidence from multiple sources to the contrary, people can still cling to those same ways of viewing the world.
Welcome to Philosphers Corner everyone!
People are gonna believe what they’re gonna believe, right? That is until they have some type of epiphany – and when I last checked tectonic-plate shifting ephiphanies aren’t that easy to come by.
Speaking from experience, I would say changing personal beliefs (first of all you have to become aware of what those beliefs are, ’cause as we know, not all of them are of the conscious variety ) is not easy and true change is a slow, gradual process.
Cue old mate Rocko…
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Haha. Great clip. So optimistic! But you’re SO right, Glen. Forget about all the stuff on the surface and just think about the thoughts and emotions lurking in the Marianas trenches of our minds. That’s a pretty scary thought! No wonder monks meditate for 40 years. I’ve tried to meditate, and I can’t even keep that up with any consistency. It’s a constant struggle, the fight against all the stuff inside us!
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No one does ‘glass-half-full’ – ‘rose-tinted-glasses’ optimisim like Hollywood, I reckon! And good on ’em for that ’cause someone’s gotta put an image to the hopes and dreams of us folk.
Meditation? We’re on the same page with that one. I have tried. God, have I tried! (yoga too) But either I’m doing it wrong or the whole experience+cited benefits things is a little overated.
I’ve read so often all you need is discipline and meditation will deliver amazing benefits for you. In my own defense I will say (humbly), discipline – both physical and mental – is not something I’ve generally lacked throughout my life. But try as I might, guided, not guided, music, silence doesn’t matter. Meditation is not currently an arrow in my quiver.
Meditation is kind of sold as a panacea for so many modern problems and like I say I wish I was one of those mindfulness warriors that could sing it’s praises, but I’ve concluded, sadly, I was born without the meditation gene.
Sleep? Well, that’s another thing entirely. I love my sleep!
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