Hiroo Onoda formally surrendered on Lubang Island in the Philippines on March 10, 1974.
Onoda was a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army who had been ordered to conduct guerrilla operations and avoid surrender. He and fellow holdouts remained in the island’s forests after Japan’s 1945 surrender, believing that wartime messages and leaflets were enemy deception.
Japanese adventurer Norio Suzuki located Onoda in February 1974. Onoda still refused to surrender until his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, traveled to Lubang and formally relieved him of duty. Onoda then handed over his weapon and surrendered to Philippine forces.
Onoda was not the final Japanese holdout to surrender; Teruo Nakamura was arrested in Indonesia later in 1974. Shoichi Yokoi had been discovered on Guam in 1972. These cases explain why “last” claims about Japanese holdouts require careful wording.