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Exposing Some of the Meanest and Pettiest Men in History

Khalid Elhassan January 20, 2021 32 min

Jane Greer - Out of the Past — Jane Greer with Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past. Associated Press

5. A Drama Queen to the End, Lieutenant Onoda Engineered a Dramatic Ending to His Holdout

Hiroo Onoda coming out of the wilderness to turn himself in. Rare Historical Photos

When Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda’s hippie backpacker friend returned to Japan with photographic proof of his encounter with the war’s most famous holdout, the news caused a sensation. The holdout’s new buddy contacted the Japanese government to let them know, and officials in Tokyo tracked down Onoda’s former commanding officer from WWII. Traveling to Lubang, Onoda’s wartime commander tracked down the holdout, and personally informed him that the war was over. He instructed Onoda that he was released from military duty, and ordered him to stand down.

In 1974, clad in his battered and threadbare uniform, Lieutenant Onoda handed in his sword and other weapons in a televised ceremony. Thus, this epic jerk finally ended his private war almost three decades after the conclusion of WWII. He returned to a hero’s welcome in Japan, but admiration for his supposed single-minded devotion to duty was not universal. Back in Lubang, the locals did not have such a positive view of Onoda as a conscientious and honorable man devoted to duty.

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.