Hiroo Onoda formally surrendered in the Philippines on March 10, 1974, nearly 29 years after V-J Day.
Onoda was a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army who had been sent to Lubang Island in 1944 to conduct guerrilla operations. He and several companions continued hiding after Japan's 1945 surrender because they believed messages and leaflets announcing the war's end were enemy deception.
Onoda refused to surrender when Japanese adventurer Norio Suzuki found him in February 1974. He was waiting for formal orders from his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi. Taniguchi traveled to Lubang and relieved him of duty, after which Onoda surrendered to Philippine forces. Another Japanese holdout, Teruo Nakamura, was arrested later in 1974.