A Simple Command Left This Soldier Fighting for 3 Decades
It was March 13, 1974, when Hiroo Onoda arrived in Haneda airport in Tokyo receiving warm welcome from the crowd. 1974 marked the 30th years since Onoda was stationed in Lubang Island in the Philippines. While the entire country of Japan was progressing, this man was fighting the war that no one else was fighting for 3 decades; stuck alone in 1944. It’s already unbelievable that this man fought a lonely war for 30 years but what’s more baffling is that a single command from his superior was what kept him fighting without surrender.
"Do not surrender or take your life at any cost. Stay for three or five years. I will definitely send a back up. In the meantime, if at least one soldier is still alive, endure eating fruits from palm trees. Again, surrender will not be forgiven."This single command from then his commander Shizuo Yokoyama was the world to Onoda during the 30 year fight and it kept him going without surrender despite constant persuasions to surrender.
Life Before the War
Born in 1922 in the small village of Kainan in Wakayama prefecture, Onoda worked for a trading company upon his middle school graduation, being stationed in Wuhan, China for a year.
