Page 3

T R U E   T A L E S

(Thirty-year Soldier)

     Hiroo Onoda was born in the town of Kairan, Japan in 1922. In May of 1942, he was drafted into the Japanese military after the United States entered the war and fighting escalated to a global scale. Trained for guerilla warfare, he was taught to stay alive at all costs.
     In December 1944, Apprentice Officer Hiroo Onoda was sent to the small tropical island of Lubang in the Philippines. His orders were to do anything to hamper enemy attack on the island. This included destroying the Lubang airport and the pier at the harbor. Sent in alone, he was ordered not to die by his own hand, and was told to take as many years as was needed to accomplish his mission.
     Within a short time, all but three of the Japanese soldiers he had met when he came to the island had either died or surrendered. Onoda, now a Lieutenant, ordered the men to take to the hills. The war ended shortly thereafter, but the four soldiers did not know it, so they continued to move from one place to another in the mountains wherever they could find fruit, wild boars, chicken, and iguanas.
     Eventually one of the four soldiers, Pfc. Yuichi Akatsu, got fed up and surrendered to the The first of the four to go was Private First Class Yuichi Akatsu. He got fed up and surrendered to the Philippine Army in 1950, and left a note informing the remaining three that he had been greeted by friendly troops. He even led a group of soldiers in search of the men. But Onoda and his men quickly concluded that Akatsu was working with the enemy so they retreated to the other side of the mountain.
     In 1952, letters and photographs of family and friends were dropped all over the island from an airplane, but the soldiers concluded that it was another enemy trick. In June of 1953, Corporal Shimada was shot in the leg during a shootout with some fishermen. Onoda nursed him back to health, but on May 7, 1954, Shimada was killed instantly from a shot fired by another search party sent in to find the men.
     Ten days later, more leaflets were dropped, and a loudspeaker blurted out “ Onoda, Kozuka, the war has ended.” Clearly this was another American, and they intended to get even with the enemy for Shimada’s death. One day, Onoda’s own brother stood by at the microphone and pleaded for them to give up. Unable to see his face, Onoda concluded that this was still another trick using an imposter that sounded like his brother.
     Onoda had been told that the war could take years and that Japan would never surrender until every last Japanese citizen had been killed. So clearly, the war must still be going on. Now known by the islanders as "mountain bandits" and "mountain devils," the two soldiers stole supplies and food from them, often killing some of them in skirmishes. In late 1965, Onoda and Kozuka "requisitioned" a transistor radio and listened to reports from Peking, but refused to believe anything they heard regarding military or foreign relations.
     Each year, continuing their military assignment, Onoda and Kozuka burned piles of rice collected by the farmers. On October 19, 1972, they decided to burn one last small rice pile, a mistake that gave the police ample time to get there. Kozuka was shot and killed. Onoda took to the woods again, resolving to kill the enemy. The search parties, loudspeaker announcements, and the dropping of leaflets, magazines, and newspapers intensified, but Onoda resisted their pleas. For another year, he lived on his own, expecting to die on the island.
     Finally, on February 20, 1974, Onoda encountered a young Japanese university dropout named Suzuki living alone and searching for a panda, the Abominable Snowman and Lieutenant Onoda, The two soon became friends, but Onoda said that he was waiting for orders from one of his commanders. Suzuki left, promising to return, and on March 9, 1974, Onoda went to an agreed-upon place and found a note from Suzuki enclosing two photos and copies of two army orders.
     The next day, Onoda met with Suzuki and Onoda's one-time superior commander, Major Taniguchi, who ordered him to surrender his sword. Hiroo Onoda’s thirty-year war was over, and he returned to Japan to receive a hero’s welcome. He was a media sensation, hounded by the curious public everywhere he went. However, he did not like the "new" Japan so, after publishing his memoirs, he took his new- found fortune and moved to Brazil to raise cattle. He later married a Japanese woman and moved back to Japan to run a nature camp for kids.