LT. Hiroo Onoda, Last Japanese Soldier to Surrender, has Died

"Hiroo Onoda, an Imperial Japanese Army officer who remained at his jungle post on an island in the Philippines for 29 years, refusing to believe that World War II was over, and returned to a hero’s welcome in the all but unrecognizable Japan of 1974, died Thursday at a Tokyo hospital, the Japanese government said. He was 91.

"Caught in a time warp, Mr. Onoda, a second lieutenant, was one of the war’s last holdouts: a soldier who believed the emperor was a deity and the war a sacred mission; who survived on bananas and coconuts and sometimes killed villagers he assumed were enemies; who finally went home to the lotus land of paper and wood that turned out to be a futuristic world of skyscrapers, television, jet planes, pollution and atomic destruction."



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/world/asia/hiroo-onoda-imperial-japanese-army-officer-dies-at-91.html?hp


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25772192

Dave

 

From the BBC:

"Mr Onoda was one of the last Japanese soldiers to surrender at the end of World War II.

"Private Teruo Nakamura, a soldier from Taiwan who served in the Japanese army, was found growing crops alone on the Indonesian island of Morotai in December 1974.

"Mr Nakamura was repatriated to Taiwan where he died in 1979."

Dave

 

May he rest in peace

 

Remember seeing this at the time. RIP Sir.

 

gotta admit it takes a lot to keep going on for 29 yrs all alone, R.I.P. Lt.Onoda

 

Are we sure he's really dead and this isn't some sort of trick?

 

RIP to the villagers he killed after ww2 also.

 

Well said Urgh,

Would anyone have been praising a German soldier surrendering in the 70's after killing civilians. He was a murderer pure and simple, he knew the war was over but carried on killing. They should have strung him up for murder.

 

Offering condolences for Lt. Onoda, as with Rochus Misch, simply defies my comprehension. But I had an uncle killed by the Japanese and another killed by the Germans.


Dave

 

His actions during the period of 1945-1974 are inexcusable. But he appears to have improved his life later on and started a charity that was a summer camp for young people who wanted to learn about life in the wilderness.