In this week’s concluding chapter, we witness the amazing end to Onoda’s 30 years in hiding. If you missed the previous three installments, you can catch up HERE – HERE – and HERE.
A Japanese explorer by the name of Norio Suzuki (1949 – 1986) located Onada in the jungle on Lubang island in 1974. Onada refused to end his wartime mission however until he received official orders from his former commanding officer.
The Japanese government organised for Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, Onada’s former war-time commander and by that time an old man working in a Japanese bookstore, to fly to Lubang and officially relieve Hiroo Onada. It was only then, after 30 years of hiding away in the jungle after WW2 had ended, did Onada ‘surrender’.
Upon his arrival back in Japan, Onada was hailed a hero. 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 the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
In later years, he followed the lead of his brother and moved to Brazil. His wife, who he married in 1976, became head of the Japan Women’s Association (JWA). Hioo Onada lived to the age of 91.
Only one other Japanese soldier held out after the war ended longer than Onada. Private Teruo Nakamura emerged from his hiding place on Morotai Island (Indonesia) only a few months after Hiroo Onada.
And don’t forget…
Ahhhh. The commanding officer. An old man at that point, working in a book store. FINALLY, Hiroo listens. I wonder what was going through his mind then? “Oh, I guess all that stuff WAS real, the leaflets, my brother’s voice shouting for me to come out…” But, oh, well, he was beyond trained, wasn’t he? To the point of even donating money he probably could have used. He was for Japan hook, line, and sinker… except when he moved to Brazil with his wife. I found THAT interesting. Did the book go into why they made that decision, Glen?
NO SURRENDER was published in Japanese in 1974, the year Hiroo ended his 30 years in the jungle, and in English the year after, so his account only goes up to a few days after coming out of hiding.
All the other details regarding his life after that moment are found on the internet, since his fame still lives on in that forum.
But you summed him up very well – ‘beyond trained’!