The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: SPQR on January 18, 2014, 10:10:27 am
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By: Richard G. Latture
An Imperial Japanese Army officer who hid on a Philippine island refusing to surrender until 29 years after World War II ended died on Friday at age 91. Lt. Hiroo Onada had waged a guerilla campaign against villagers on the island of Lubang, ignoring pleas from Japanese officials and family members to lay down his arms. It took a March 9, 1974, face-to-face meeting with his former commander, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, at a remote location on the island to convince Onada that the war was over.
Onada had been trained as an intelligence officer and guerrilla tactics coach before arriving on Lubang in 1944 with orders never to surrender, never to resort to suicide attacks, and to hold out until reinforcements arrived. He and three soldiers diligently obeyed the commands after Japan officially surrendered to the Allies on Sept. 2, 1945.
The four men kept busy surveying military facilities, attacking local residents, and sometimes clashing with Philippine troops. For food, they trapped game and birds, stole rice and fruit, and occasionally killed villagers’ cows and made dried beef.
One of the men emerged and returned to Japan in 1950, and another, Corporal Shoichi Shimada, was shot in killed by a search party in May 1954. The last of Onada’s comrades, Private First Class Kinshichi Kozuka, died in October 1972 as a result of a shootout with local troops. Less than two years later, after cautiously arriving for his meeting with Taniguchi, who had since become a bookseller, the lieutenant received orders from his old commander to “cease all combat activities and operations immediately.”
In his memoir, No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War (Naval Institute Press, 1999), Onada recalled that he was skeptical to the end: “I stood still, waiting for what was to follow. I felt sure Major Taniguchi would come up to me and whisper, ‘That was so much talk. I will tell you your real orders later.’ . . . Major Taniguchi slowly folded up the order and for the first time I realized that no subterfuge was involved. This was no trick—everything I had heard was real. . . . We really lost the war! How could they have been so sloppy? Suddenly everything went black.”
Wearing his 30-year-old uniform, Onada surrendered to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos before setting off for Japan, where he received a hero’s welcome. He was one of the last of many so-called Japanese “holdouts,” servicemen scattered around the Pacific who refused to surrender and came to symbolize Japan’s wartime perseverance and devotion to Emperor Hirohito.
Later in life Onada lived in Brazil, where he raised cattle, and since 1984 he had organized Onada Nature School, which provided nature and life education in Japan.
In a 1995 interview with the Associated Press, he said: “I don’t consider those 30 years a waste of time. Without that experience I wouldn’t have my life today.”
http://news.usni.org/2014/01/17/japanese-soldier-surrendered-29-years-world-war-ii-dies-91?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=japanese-soldier-surrendered-29-years-world-war-ii-dies-91
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I remember they did a news piece on this on television
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to Hell with denim, what was that uniform woven from?
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I remember this very well. I was in the Philippines at the time and at first thought it was some kind of joke.
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to Hell with denim, what was that uniform woven from?
http://www.reenactor.net/ija/1a-une_early-war.html
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I'm not sure whether to admire the guy's devotion to duty or to wonder whether he isn't some kind of nut job.
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I'm not sure whether to admire the guy's devotion to duty or to wonder whether he isn't some kind of nut job.
Maybe his wife looked like Godzilla!
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to Hell with denim, what was that uniform woven from?
coconut fiber
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coconut fiber
I'm guessing somewhat a bit less scratchy than Russian toilet paper?
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coconut fiber
In 1941-42 the infantryman wore the Model 98 uniform, introduced in 1938. This was made in both khaki-brown cloth for winter and lighter cotton for summer and tropical use.
http://www.reenactor.net/ija/1a-une_early-war.html
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In 1941-42 the infantryman wore the Model 98 uniform, introduced in 1938. This was made in both khaki-brown cloth for winter and lighter cotton for summer and tropical use.
http://www.reenactor.net/ija/1a-une_early-war.html
maybe a different Japanese holdout but here
(http://philpetty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Hiroo-Onoda.jpg) or might be this guy i was talking about
http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/profiles/yokoi.html
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maybe a different Japanese holdout but here
(http://philpetty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Hiroo-Onoda.jpg) or might be this guy i was talking about
http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/profiles/yokoi.html
I remember one of these these in the National Enquirer from the mid-70s. I've had Levi's for 10 years but nothing like this.
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maybe a different Japanese holdout but here
(http://philpetty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Hiroo-Onoda.jpg) or might be this guy i was talking about
http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/profiles/yokoi.html
The uniforms are similar