Hiroo Onoda surrendered on Lubang Island in 1974, nearly three decades after Japan’s defeat.
Onoda was a Japanese Army intelligence officer sent to Lubang in the Philippines in 1944. He was ordered to conduct guerrilla operations and not surrender. After Japan’s 1945 surrender, he continued hiding with other soldiers because he believed reports of the war’s end were enemy deception.
Three members of his group eventually died or left the island, but Onoda remained in the jungle. He finally surrendered on March 9, 1974, after his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, traveled to Lubang and formally relieved him of his duties.
Onoda’s case was unusual but not unique. Other Japanese holdouts also remained in remote areas after 1945, showing that the end of the war did not immediately reach every isolated soldier.