Which former commander formally relieved Hiroo Onoda of duty before his 1974 surrender?

Major Yoshimi Taniguchi formally relieved Hiroo Onoda of duty before Onoda surrendered in 1974.

Onoda had been ordered to continue guerrilla operations on Lubang Island and refused to accept later messages that Japan had surrendered. When adventurer Norio Suzuki found him in February 1974, Onoda said he was waiting for instructions from his former commanding officer.

The Japanese government located Taniguchi, who had become a bookseller after the war. Taniguchi traveled to Lubang and issued the order that relieved Onoda from duty. Onoda then surrendered to Philippine forces at the island’s radar base on 10 March 1974.

Tomoyuki Yamashita is sometimes associated with the story because surrender orders from him were dropped over Lubang in late 1945. Onoda’s group rejected those orders as deceptive. Taniguchi’s personal order, rather than the earlier leaflets, was the event Onoda accepted as ending his military obligation.