Strange People, True Stories: Hiroo Onoda's Thirty-Year Long Four Year War

The internet is a place where the odd stories survive and thrive. In commemoration of the end of World War II this week, we'd like to look back on a man that didn't get the message until 29 years later, in 1974: Japanese Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda.

Hiroo was assigned to conduct sabotage operations in the Philippines, but almost as soon as he arrived to the tropical islands, the country was overrun by encroaching allied forces. Hiroo took up shelter in the jungles with two others, evading capture and continuing to burn crops and destroy ports.

When leaflets were dropped in October 1945 stating that the war was over, Hiroo denounced the surrender as a hoax. When more leaflets were dropped with fascimiles of the surrender terms signed by the commanding Japanese General, Hiroo again denounced the papers as a hoax. One of his colleagues abandoned Hiroo and never returned, reconfirming Hiroo's suspicions that there was no surrender. The other died.

When locals asked him to put down his weapon, shootouts erupted.

Enter Norio Suzuki, a Japanese college drop-out, who was traveling the world in search of "Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman, in that order." Suzuki found Hiroo, and asked him to return to Japan. Hiroo explained to Suzuki that he would only accept surrender if it came from a superior officer, as was laid out in his general orders. Without anything more than a photograph, Suzuki returned to Japan with photographs of the encounter and approached the Japanese government.

Learning of Onoda's demands, the Japanese government found Hiroo's old commander -- now a bookseller -- and sent him to the Philippines to find Hiroo and order his surrender. Which he did. In 1974, 29 years after the war ended, Hiroo formally surrendered in his uniform and sword.

Strange People, True Story.

More about Hiroo is available on old reliable: wikipedia