Saturday, December 7, 2013

Hiroo Onoda | The Living Spirit Of Japan

Hiroo Onada

 

Hiroo Onoda

BY JUDIT KAWAGUCHI

JAN 16, 2007
Hiroo Onoda, 84, is a former member of an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence unit, an elite commando during World War II who was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines in 1944 to conduct guerrilla warfare and gather military intelligence. Trained in clandestine operations, his mission was to sneak behind enemy lines, conduct surveillance and survive independently until issued new orders. He did exactly that for the next 30 years. Long after Japan’s surrender in 1945, he continued to serve his country in the jungle, convinced that the Greater East Asia War was still being fought. He lived on mostly bananas and mangoes, evading many Japanese search parties and the local Philippine police, all of whom he believed were enemy spies. In March 1974, at age 52, a Japanese man who had run across Onoda brought his former superior to the island with instructions that relieved him of his military duties. After a brief return to Japan, he moved to Brazil where he became a successful rancher. He came back to Japan in the 1980s and established the Onoda Nature School with the goal of educating children about the value of life. His incredible adventures on Lubang are detailed in his book “No Surrender: My Thirty-year War.”

Hiroo Onada wrote his autobiography "No Surrender: My Thirty Year War"

No Surrender: My thirty Year War

Article excerpts are from The Japanese Times. The article was written originally by JUDIT KAWAGUCHI

[link]
Hiroo Onoda | The Japan Times

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