WWII Stories:

    

This is the amazing story behind the men who believed that WWII had never ended in 1945 and consequently spent the next thirty years up until 1974 surviving on a jungle island and continuing the war.  They were known as Holdouts, as they literally held out beyond  the end of the war.

Hiroo Onoda 1922- present

Hiroo Onoda was born in the town of Kainan, Japan in 1922 and at the age of 17 he went to work for a trading company in China. In May of 1942, Onoda was conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army. Unlike the majority of soldiers, he was assigned to a Japanese Commando school that trained men for espionage and guerrilla warfare.

In 1944 the Japanese military sent Intelligence Officer 2nd Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, then aged 22 to Lubang, which is approximately seventy-five miles southwest of Manila in the Philippines.  His orders were to  teach guerrilla tactics to the soldiers garrisoned there and to engage in guerrilla warfare.

Below is a Nambu 8mm caliber, type 94 pistol of the kind Hiroo would have been issued with.  Its was quite compact, easy to conceal and lethal at short range.

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.

In 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. If you are interested, then click image below to buy the book from Amazon.

www.amazon.com

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

Shoichi Yokio stayed in the deep jungles of Guam up until 1972. He  also believed that WWII was still continuing and had no illusions that it was otherwise.

Shoichi was conscripted into the Japanese Imperial army in 1941 and served in Guam during the War.  Most of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on the island were killed by  US troops in 1944. The Japanese Bushido code of never Surrender was practically played to the last man and the last bullet. Shoichi however, went into hiding when he escaped from the US invasion.

Shoichi Yokios home for 28 years...a small cave, just a hole in the rocks ! 

Yokio stayed in the Jungle for 28 years until he was discovered by two Guamese hunters.  He was wearing a pair of burlap pants and a shirt which he said he had made from the bark of a tree. It was explained to him about the end of the war 28 years ago and even though it was hard for him to believe, he accepted it as he had never seen another Japanese soldier in all that time

He was repatriated to Japan a month later, where he started life over in a country and a world he hardly knew, he was dumbfounded and bewildered by the changes that had occurred since he left 28 years ago.

Yokio became a national hero on his return to Japan in 1972 for his dramatic tale of survival and his adherence to the former Imperial Japanese Army's code of never surrender.

His first words upon arriving in Tokyo  "It is with much embarrassment that I return "  were broadcast nationally and  became a popular saying. Yokoi's exploits in the jungle fascinated the Japanese nation, they were intrigued how he survived on a diet of nuts, berries, frogs, snails and rats, and how he made materials from tree bark.  Yokoi was a true survivalist.

He became a  commentator on various television programs, where he discussed his mastery of all survival skills. He also wrote a best-selling book on his experiences.  In 1974 he ran for a seat in Japan's upper house of parliament but unfortunately he was unsuccessful.

82 year old Yokoi

Sadly,  Shoichi Yokio  died in 1997of a heart attack at the age of 82. R.I.P

I present below some facts about when WWII actually started as everyone always beleives WWII started on the 3rd of September 1939...

To Britain, France and Canada, World War Two did indeed start on the 3rd September 1939, after Germany attacked Poland and started their occupation of foreign territory.

It must be noted however, that Canada at that time was not independently liable to declare war on its own, as she was part of the British Commonwealth, therefore any actions were on behalf of Great Britain.

The rest of the World however...

...To the Americans, WWII started on 7th December, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, before then they were neutral.

To Poland, WWII started on 1st September 1939, as Great Britain and France actually delayed their 'pact-guaranteed' war declaration until 3rd September.

To Czechoslovakia WWII started in March 1939, when they were attacked by Germany.

To the Ethiopians, WWII started in 1936, when they were attacked by Italy

To the Chinese WWII started back in 1931, when Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria. 

And for the Russians WWII didn't start until June 1941 when Germany invaded. Code named: Operation Barbarossa. Russia was actually seen as an Ally to Germany before this !