Which Japanese soldier surrendered on Lubang Island in 1974?

Hiroo Onoda was the Japanese soldier who surrendered on Lubang Island in 1974.

Onoda was an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer sent to the Philippine island of Lubang in 1944. He was ordered to conduct guerrilla operations and resist Allied forces. After Japan’s surrender, he and several fellow soldiers remained in hiding because they believed the war had not truly ended or that surrender instructions were enemy propaganda.

Leaflets, newspapers, photographs, and messages were sent to the island over the following decades, but Onoda considered them deceptive. His companions gradually died, surrendered, or were killed, leaving him alone by 1972.

Onoda finally emerged on 9 March 1974 after his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, traveled to Lubang and formally relieved him of duty. He handed over his sword and military equipment to Philippine authorities. Onoda is often confused with Shoichi Yokoi, another Japanese holdout who surrendered on Guam in 1972.