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40 Facts About the Japanese Who Refused to Surrender After WWII Had Ended

Khalid Elhassan January 3, 2019 25 min

Hiroo Onoda - Ishinosuke Uwano — Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who kept fighting for nearly three decades after WWII had ended. Observer

Hiroo Onoda surrendering his sword to Ferdinand Marcos, president of the Philippines. All That is Interesting

8. Onoda Finally Surrendered in 1974

In 1974, a Japanese hippie backpacker stumbled across Onoda, and convinced him that the war had ended decades earlier. He still refused to surrender, however, without orders from a superior officer. The holdout’s new friend contacted the Japanese government, which tracked down his former commanding officer. Traveling to Lubang, Onoda’s wartime commander personally informed him that the war was over, that he was released from military duty, and ordered him to stand down. Clad in his threadbare uniform, lieutenant Onoda handed in his sword and other weapons to representatives of the US and Filipino military, and finally brought his private war to an end, nearly three decades after WWII had ended.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.