Hiroo was also ordered to destroy the local airfield and pier and gather as much military intelligence as possible, if captured he was to give out disinformation rather than commit suicide.  Trained in secretive commando operations, his mission also included infiltration of  enemy lines, surveillance, sabotage and to survive independently.  He was to continue to do so until new orders were issued, this he did...for the next 30 years!

Below is a type 91 fragmentation hand grenade of the kind that Hiroo would have used during his war in Lubang.

When  U.S. troops invaded the island at the end of the year  all of the Japanese soldiers garrisoned there were either killed or captured. Hiroo Onoda defiantly decided to take to the mountains with three another soldiers  Private 1st Class Kinshichi Kozuka, Private 1st Class Yuichi  Akatsu and Corporal Choichi Shimada.  There they stayed, on the move, living off the land and constantly hiding and evading capture.

World War Two ended when Japan finally and officially surrendered at 09:04 AM on the 2nd of September 1945, now remembered as V J Day...Victory over Japan.

 Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, followed 2 minutes later by Chief of the Army General Staff, General Yoshijiro Umezu signed the instruments of surrender to General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Hiroo and his comrades refused to believe that Japan had surrendered, even when leaflets were dropped explaining the whole new situation.  They merely thought that it was enemy propaganda and a trick to get them to surrender.

Many Japanese and local search parties, the Philippine police and even old comrades could not convince them to come out, as they thought it all to be devious tricks by traitors, spies and the Americans.

When his Hiroo's brother and sister tried to communicate with him, he believed this also to be a trick conjured up by the enemy. They retreated deeper into the jungle and there they stayed. Below is a photo of Hiroo taken in 1974.

They lived on bananas, mangoes and beef from cows they slaughtered, and any other food stuffs that they could requisition from islanders.  They were always on the move, and didn't spend too much time in any one place on the island.

They made use of several different caves and hideouts, that they would keep on visiting at different times of the year.  Surviving the weather, dangerous insects, food shortages and search parties on a constant basis year after year.  To say that their lives were hard, would be an understatement.

Private 1st Class Yuichi  Akatsu deserted the group in September 1949 to live on his own.  He surrendered 6 months later, having finally become totally demoralized at living in the jungle for 4 ½ years.

Five years later on May 7th 1954 Corporal Choichi Shimanda was killed. The three remaining soldiers had opened fire on a Philippine Army mountain unit, near the beach at Gontin.  Shimanda was killed instantly in the skirmish, getting shot through the head.

Over the next 18 years the remaining two soldiers survived in the jungle, they killed over 30 Filipinos during raids and attacks. They raided villages, stole food and sabotaged vehicles, they were in effect still carrying on with the war as they had no reason to believe that WWII had actually ended.

" There are no rules in war and survival" later stated Onoda.

On October 19th 1972,  Kinshichi Kozuka was killed from two shots fired by Lubang police whilst he and Hiroo were raiding a rice field. A bullet hit him first in the right shoulder then the second bullet hit him in the chest and he slumped to the ground and died.

Hiroo  believed the police were supported and indeed armed by the Americans and so he again disappeared into the jungle.

For nearly two years Hiroo lived and survived alone in the jungles of Lubang, still convinced that World War II was still ongoing.

It wasn't until 1974 that  Hiroo Onoda of the Imperial Japanese Army was finally convinced that the war was over.  He was first told that he should surrender his weapons when he received formal orders from his former commanding army officer Major Taniguchi, who travelled to Lubang to meet with him.  He was told of Onoda's whereabouts by a Japanese back-packer Norio Suzuki,  who met Onoda whilst on expedition in Lubang...see photo below...

Hiroo (on the right) shows the Japanese back packer his sword and bolt action rifle shortly before surrendering.

Hiroo Onoda when he surrendered in 1974

Hiroo Onoda came out of hiding and surrendered on March 10, 1974, with his 7.7mm caliber Model 99 Arisaka rifle in excellent working condition, similar to the rifle as pictured below...

...complete with over 300 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades. Fifteen years after he had been officially declared dead, Hiroo Onoda presented his sword to Ferdinand Marcos, then president of the Philippines...who accepted the sword but strangely he then handed it back to him.

When it had finally sunk in that the war really was over and that Japan had lost he wept openly and wished that he had died in the jungle.  30 years of defending Japans honor was all for nothing.

He returned to Japan but was unable to adjust to modern life and found the new cities and sky scrapers with all the neon lights and bars and disco's totally confusing so instead he went  to live in Brazil. He revisited Lubang in 1996.

Hiroo Onoda's book, "No Surrender - My Thirty-Year War" is a fascinating read.

Link---> www.amazon.com

 Mr Hiroo Onoda is still alive today, at time of writing.