We've all heard these stories before about Japanese soldiers holding out for years.

[matei]

Interesting info regarding Hiroo Ononda and Shoichi Yokoi and how they actually survived all that time here.

I wonder if I would be able to do it? To be honest I hope I never find out!

 

[Story]

Holdout mentality

Diaries show Japanese military leader's resolve during WWII
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/13/asia/13japanbriefs.php

Tojo, who oversaw Japan's military campaign during World War II, wanted to keep fighting even after atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and accused proponents of surrender of being "frightened," a newly released diary reveals.

Excerpts from about 20 pages Tojo wrote late in the war and the National Archives of Japan held were published for the first time in newspapers on Tuesday.

Tojo, executed in 1948 after the Allies convicted him of war crimes, was prime minister for much of the war.

The notes buttress evidence that he fiercely opposed surrender despite the hopelessness of Japan's war effort.

"We now have to see our country surrender to the enemy without demonstrating our power up to 120 percent," Tojo wrote on Aug. 13, 1945, two days before Japan gave up. "We are now on a course for a humiliating peace, or rather a humiliating surrender."

 

[DutchIndo]

I remember when Onoda came out that was in the early 70s. I think I have the article somewhere that I clipped back then.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Interesting info regarding Hiroo Ononda and Shoichi Yokoi and how they actually survived all that time here.

I wonder if I would be able to do it? To be honest I hope I never find out!

Reminds me of "Castaway" with Tom Hanks.

 

[Jedburgh OSS]

There's a book about this incident...

It's titled "No Surrender; My Thirty-Year War" by Hiroo Onoda and some author. My local library has it, and amazon.com has several copies. He finally came out in 1974 after his commanding officer was brought to him and ordered him to surrender. There was an episode of the old Six Million Dollar Man TV show in which Steve Austin (Lee Majors) ran across a holdout like this, obviously ripping off the then current news story. Funny thing was the Japanese uniform the actor was wearing was like it just came from the quartermaster and not dirty or raggedy. Steve even took a photo of him with a Polaroid to show him the advances in technology in the last thirty years. Glad this posting resurfaced. I remember when this was in the news. If it happened today the man would have to be at least in his early 80s.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

It's titled "No Surrender; My Thirty-Year War" by Hiroo Onoda and some author. My local library has it, and amazon.com has several copies. He finally came out in 1974 after his commanding officer was brought to him and ordered him to surrender. There was an episode of the old Six Million Dollar Man TV show in which Steve Austin (Lee Majors) ran across a holdout like this, obviously ripping off the then current news story. Funny thing was the Japanese uniform the actor was wearing was like it just came from the quartermaster and not dirty or raggedy. Steve even took a photo of him with a Polaroid to show him the advances in technology in the last thirty years. Glad this posting resurfaced. I remember when this was in the news. If it happened today the man would have to be at least in his early 80s.

Sounds like a must read book. Truly a compelling story, and to think there just may even be another Japanese soldier in some remote corner of the world still holding out.

 

[Moby]

I have a copy of Hiroo Onodas book, "No Surrender, My 30 year war.". Very interesting reading. He and 3 other soldiers evaded capture for years on the Phillipine island of Lubang. During the 30 years 2 of his comrades voluntarily surrendered and one was shot and killed by the Phillipine police in 1968.

They never stayed in one place and set up a patrol route which circled the island. They patrolled this route for 30 years, occasionally shooting at the locals to make them afraid to enter the jungle.

During the 30 years Onoda and his men found newspapers and stole several radios. They interpreted the news as actually being coded messages from the Japanese government which they believed was in hiding. These interpreted coded messages encouraged them to continue the war.

Onoda was finally alone after his last comrade was killed. His brother was brought to the island to convince him that the war was over by leaving notes where Onoda would find them, but Onoda believed that his brother was giving him coded messages also. His brother mentioned Onoda's commanding officer but mistated his rank. Onoda interpreted this as intentional and a way to tell him that he was being forced by the enemy to lie to him.

Finally, Onoda's actual commanding officer was brought to the island with new orders on paper commanding Onoda to surrender. Onoda considered suicide but decided not to. He also thought that just maybe if he surrendered he could continue the war under cover with his commanding officer. Simply amazing!!

 

[Chas]

I have read that book as well, and it's an amazing story.

I was quite amused by the observation that when he was returned to Japan, the doctors who checked him out declared that he was in better shape physically than most people half his age.

Must have been all that exercise.lol

 

[Dudleydoright]

Hiding

I remember reading that there was a group of Japanese soldiers hinding on Iwo Jima until 1949. That may or may not be a long time but when you consider that Iwo is only 8 square miles. AND that it was crawling with US servicemen AND what condition underground must have been like in terms of heat (the island is volcanic) and environment (21,000 Japanese casualties - many of who committed suicide in the tunnel). A serious sense of duty and stamina indeed.

DDR

 

[52Styleline]

LaMedicine

I enjoyed reading your thoughtful posts. My Uncle was a survivor of Bataan and was treated horribly by his captors, yet he did not hold a grudge against the people of Japan. He moved beyond what was done to him and lived a long and loving life. Many years ago, I visited the Pearl Harbor memorial and saw an older Japanese man and his wife standing quietly reading the names of the sailors who died in the raid. On the boat back to the mainland, I spoke with the gentleman who told me he had served on one of the carriers making the raid. He said he had come to ask forgiveness of the men who died on that day. I was very touched by this veteran's sincerity.

There are cruel people in every military, and because the Army of the Empire of Japan was controlled by men who believed in the Bushido Code, they taught their troops contempt for enemy who surrendered and this was reflected in the way the Japanese Army treated defeated military and civilian individuals under their control.

The Bushido Code also resulted in refusal to surrender by members of the Army of the Empire of Japan. Being a Navy veteran myself, I see the Japanese Navy differently than the Army of that period. In the Battle of Samar, when a group of US Destroyers held off the Imperal Navy, with most of the US Destroyers being demolished in the process, the men of the Imperial Navy manned the rails of their battleships and saluted the US Seamen struggling to survive in the water. Of course, they didn't try to save any of them, but it was war after all.

 

[BigHairyFinn]

That is nuts! I had heard mention of snipers and other soldiers not knowing the war was over. I thought it might have been a year or two,...perhaps as much as five years.....but TWENTY SEVEN YEARS?!?!?

Well it is as always that truth is weirder than fiction. The idea is absurd to some people - the Laurel and Hardy film "Block-Heads" from 1938 has that as a starting scene - Laurel is left into the trench in WWI and continues to patrol for 20 years not knowing the war is over.

But I think its not exactly always a cse of "not knowing" but "not wanting to go to face the consequences"...

The 87-year-old Yoshio Yamakawa and the 83-year-old Sudzuki Nakauti were serving in the 30th infantry division of the Imperial Army, which landed on the Philippine Island of Mindanao in 1944. The unit suffered considerable losses as a result of US-led massive bombings. The Japanese infantry unit was ordered to start a guerrilla warfare in the jungle. The remainder of the division were later evacuated to Japan, although some of its servicemen did not have enough time to appear at the assembly point and became deserters against their own will.

The found lieutenant and the lance-corporal are reportedly very scared of the court martial in case they are sent back to their fatherland.

I don't know how widely this was published, but a man emerged into a village... was it in Ukraine or Belarus a few years ago. He'd been hiding in the home attic since the war after deserting the Red Army. After his mother had died he was forced out. He was still convinced he'd be court-martialled and shot never realizing the USSR was no more.

 

[Stanley Doble]

You must realize these men were under orders. When the Japanese army retreated from these islands they left behind many men who were ordered to keep fighting to the death, or to hide out and await orders or the return of the Japanese army.

Their commanding officers considered this the best way to slow down the American advance, and did not think anything of sending thousands of men to certain death.

If they fought that hard to defend territory that was not theirs, what would they have done to defend their home islands?

Military experts expected 1,000,000 casualties in the invasion of the home islands. They expected the Japanese to defend it to the death, house by house and inch by inch.

The only thing that saved Japan from total annihilation was the Kendo stroke. The Kendo stroke is the masterpiece of Japanese military strategy. It means to crush your enemy with one giant unexpected blow.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a Kendo stroke. So were the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I don't believe anything else could have convinced the Japanese high command to surrender.

 

[Treetopflyer]

These stories always remind me of a movie I watched when I was a kid. The name of it was "The Last Flight of Noah's Ark " and it's about a B-29 being used as a cargo plane carrying animals 35 years after WWII. It crash lands on an Island that has two Japanese soldiers that still think the war is going on.

 

[Guttersnipe]

You must realize these men were under orders. When the Japanese army retreated from these islands they left behind many men who were ordered to keep fighting to the death, or to hide out and await orders or the return of the Japanese army.

Their commanding officers considered this the best way to slow down the American advance, and did not think anything of sending thousands of men to certain death.

I'm not sure this a accurate summarization of the situation.

As the strategic situation in the Pacific shifted against Imperial Japan, moving men, materials, and supplies from island-to-island became increasingly difficult, and ultimately impossible on a large scale. Specifically, Allied submarine warfare virtually annihilated the Japanese merchant marine fleet and mass airlifts were not feasible due to a lack of transport aircraft. For example, in 1945, faced with the invasion of the home islands, the Japanese Army still had 1 million well equipped, highly motivated veteran troops in mainland China, but there was no way to transport them home to defend Japan!

Thus, Japanese garrisons often ended up isolated and surround, with no hope of resupply or evacuation. While these tactical situations were hopeless, the Japanese military high command (and probably the soldiers too) believed that overall strategic situation was not. They believed that the cumulative effect of every little last-ditch, to-the-death defense would ultimately bleed the Allies white. And but for the atomic bomb, this strategy might have worked...

 

[Treetopflyer]

I'm not sure this a accurate summarization of the situation.

As the strategic situation in the Pacific shifted against Imperial Japan, moving men, materials, and supplies from island-to-island became increasingly difficult, and ultimately impossible on a large scale. Specifically, Allied submarine warfare virtually annihilated the Japanese merchant marine fleet and mass airlifts were not feasible due to a lack of transport aircraft. For example, in 1945, faced with the invasion of the home islands, the Japanese Army still had 1 million well equipped, highly motivated veteran troops in mainland China, but there was no way to transport them home to defend Japan!

Thus, Japanese garrisons often ended up isolated and surround, with no hope of resupply or evacuation. While these tactical situations were hopeless, the Japanese military high command (and probably the soldiers too) believed that overall strategic situation was not. They believed that the cumulative effect of every little last-ditch, to-the-death defense would ultimately bleed the Allies white. And but for the atomic bomb, this strategy might have worked...

I would agree with you on this. I would also add that the civilians were also ready to fight to the death, not just the military. They were willing to die for their emperor, and he was considered a god.

 

[Stearmen]

When you see the footage of Japanese women on Okinawa, throw their babies over the cliff, then jumping after them to certain death, you can see why the allies were afraid of an invasion! After seeing that footage, I am sure it was an easy decision President Truman to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

 

[Lincsong]

I understand that there were Spanish soldiers from the Spanish-American War who also holed up in the Phillippines for years, also thinking that the war had not ended. Ironically, there was a film made in Spain in 1946 about this topic, while at the time there were Japanese Soldiers in the Phillippines doing exactly what Spanish Soldiers had done 48 years prior.

 

[Otter]

These stories always remind me of a movie I watched when I was a kid. The name of it was "The Last Flight of Noah's Ark " and it's about a B-29 being used as a cargo plane carrying animals 35 years after WWII. It crash lands on an Island that has two Japanese soldiers that still think the war is going on.

IIRC they used multiple B-29's in that film including the one that is now in Kermit Weeks collection in Florida. http://www.fantasyofflight.com/
I saw it about 2 years ago, it is in the restoration area. If you are in the area it is well worth a visit. Even if you are just passing, drop in and use their diner, Art Deco and one of the best burgers I have ever had, reasonable price too. I had better stop advertising now!

 

[Stanley Doble]

I'm not sure this a accurate summarization of the situation.

As the strategic situation in the Pacific shifted against Imperial Japan, moving men, materials, and supplies from island-to-island became increasingly difficult, and ultimately impossible on a large scale. Specifically, Allied submarine warfare virtually annihilated the Japanese merchant marine fleet and mass airlifts were not feasible due to a lack of transport aircraft. For example, in 1945, faced with the invasion of the home islands, the Japanese Army still had 1 million well equipped, highly motivated veteran troops in mainland China, but there was no way to transport them home to defend Japan!

Thus, Japanese garrisons often ended up isolated and surround, with no hope of resupply or evacuation. While these tactical situations were hopeless, the Japanese military high command (and probably the soldiers too) believed that overall strategic situation was not. They believed that the cumulative effect of every little last-ditch, to-the-death defense would ultimately bleed the Allies white. And but for the atomic bomb, this strategy might have worked...

That's right. The Japanese soldiers themselves confirm that they were ordered not to surrender, to hide out and wait for the return of the Japanese army. We have the testimony of the soldiers themselves to that. Ones who hid out for years rather than surrender.

The idea that Japan would surrender was unthinkable. It took the atomic bomb to change their mind.

 

[gman41]

At some point this goes from honor to just plain crazy. Had this happened to any other Asian fighters or is this just something that Japanesse culture was known for.