Hiroo Onoda surrendered in the Philippines in 1974 after decades as a Japanese holdout.
Onoda was a Japanese Army intelligence officer sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines in December 1944. He was ordered to conduct guerrilla operations and not surrender, and he continued hiding in the island’s forests after Japan’s 1945 surrender.
Leaflets and other messages telling him the war had ended did not convince Onoda. He believed they were Allied attempts to deceive him. Onoda finally surrendered on March 9, 1974, after his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, traveled to Lubang and formally relieved him of his orders.
Onoda was not the last Japanese soldier found after the war; Teruo Nakamura surrendered in Indonesia in 1974 before Onoda. Shoichi Yokoi had surrendered in Guam in 1972. These cases show that Japan’s formal surrender did not immediately end resistance by every isolated serviceman.