A Decision to Continue History’s Bloodiest Dispute Because of a Refusal to Face Reality
Onoda and his men erected bamboo huts, and to survive, hunted and gathered in Lubang’s jungle, stole rice and other food from local farmers, and killed the occasional cow for meat. Tormented by heat and mosquitoes, rats and rain, Onoda’s band patched their increasingly threadbare uniforms, and maintained their weapons. Throughout the long holdout, Onoda and his tiny band came across various leaflets that announced the war’s end. They dismissed them as enemy propaganda. When they encountered a leaflet upon which had been printed the official surrender order from their commanding general, they examined it closely to determine whether it was genuine. They decided that it must be a forgery. Even when they recovered airdropped letters and pictures from their own families that urged them to surrender, Onoda’s band convinced themselves that it was a trick.
As the years flew by, the tiny four man contingent steadily dwindled, as Onoda lost comrades to a variety of causes. In 1949, one of them simply left the group, wandered alone around Lubang for six months, and eventually surrendered to authorities. Another was killed by a search party in 1954. Onoda’s last companion was shot dead by police in 1972, who came upon the duo as they attempted to burn the rice stores of local farmers. Onoda was thus finally alone. Yet he continued to fight a one man war, faithful to his last received orders. In 1974, a Japanese hippie backpacker found Onoda and befriended him. He managed to convince the holdout that the war had ended decades earlier, but Onoda still refused to surrender, absent orders from a superior officer.
