Hiroo Onoda surrendered on Lubang Island in 1974 after remaining in hiding for nearly three decades.
Onoda was a Japanese Army intelligence officer sent to Lubang in the Philippines in 1944. He was ordered to conduct guerrilla operations and continue resisting rather than surrender. After Japan’s 1945 surrender, Onoda and several companions remained in the island’s forests because they believed reports of the war’s end were Allied deception.
Onoda’s former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, traveled to Lubang and formally relieved him of his duties on March 9, 1974. Onoda then emerged and surrendered to Philippine authorities. He had spent about 29 years continuing his mission after the war had ended.
Onoda is often confused with Shoichi Yokoi, another Japanese holdout who was discovered in Guam in 1972. Teruo Nakamura, who surrendered in Indonesia in 1974, is generally regarded as the last Japanese soldier to surrender, but Onoda became the most famous long-term holdout.