Japanese Veteran Hiroo Onoda dies at 91

[parsifal]

Hiroo Inada was the last veteran of the Imperial Japanese Army to surrender, fully 29 years after the official surrender of japan.

In an amazing display of devotion to duty, Onada resisted all attempts to pusuade him to give up until directly ordered to do so by his former commanding officer.

He was an amazing man, and desrving of respect from the entire world.

i wish and his family well

Dead at 91, the Japanese WW2 soldier who refused to surrender for 30 years while hiding in Philippines jungle | Mail Online

 

[Shinpachi]

Ah, he was a very iconic man of IJA.
As an intelligence officer, he refused to die for the nation but to survive for it.
R.I.P. Mr. Onoda

 

[Thorlifter]

I saw this article this morning, but forgot to post it. Thanks for getting it on the site Parsifal

 

[evangilder]

He was truly a remarkable warrior. To survive on his own for that long and never give up is an incredible story.

 

[The Basket]

He was truly a remarkable warrior. To survive on his own for that long and never give up is an incredible story.

Hmmm. Follow orders blindly.
Without thought.
He was a Japanese hero but didn't recognise the Japan he flew back to.

 

[Shinpachi]

Frankly, I am surprised to know he is regarded as a Ninja by some western media.
Graduated junior high school, he was working for a trading company in China as a civilian till around 20 year old when he was enlisted in the army to study at Nakano Spy School because he was good at Chinese and English. He was a rationalistic westernised modern boy. I think he carried out the modern guerrilla warfare faithfully not to be a Ninja.

 

[parsifal]

That does make for a good soldier actually. Doesnt mean that he wasnt resouceful or clever, his ability to stay alive, unassisted for 30 years is testament to that. It just means that if youy gave him an order, you could rely on him to try and do it as best he could.

The failure, if there was one, was the rigidity of the sytem he served. Japan has changed since then

 

[Shinpachi]

He was a Japanese hero but didn't recognise the Japan he flew back to.

I may not recognise the Japan either

 

[vikingBerserker]

Well I have a tremendous amount of respect for the man. RIP

 

[The Basket]

That does make for a good soldier actually. Doesnt mean that he wasnt resouceful or clever, his ability to stay alive, unassisted for 30 years is testament to that. It just means that if youy gave him an order, you could rely on him to try and do it as best he could.

The failure, if there was one, was the rigidity of the sytem he served. Japan has changed since then

Makes him a good robot.
In the report he killed Filipino civilians.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Makes him a soldier following orders. Yes civilians were killed, but he reasonably thought the war was still on (keeping in mind the way the IJA were trained) and he was not killing them just to kill them.

 

[The Basket]

Makes him a soldier following orders. Yes civilians were killed, but he reasonably thought the war was still on (keeping in mind the way the IJA were trained) and he was not killing them just to kill them.

Killing civilians is reasonable. Okey dokey then.
Anyhoo he was not good soldier. Soldier thinks and uses initiative. He may be a good Japanese soldier.

 

[GrauGeist]

Makes him a good robot.
In the report he killed Filipino civilians.

In the report, it stated that he killed "30 people evading capture"

It did NOT say he roamed about the countryside murdering schoolkids or whatever media-sensational label would fit there.

He was a soldier still fighting a war he did not know had ceased. It states he was evading capture, so it's indicating he was most likely being hunted by authorities. And as unhappy as the Phillipinos were with the Japanese during and immediately following the occupation, I am sure any Japanese soldiers left in the countryside after Japan's surrender did not fare well, either.

It is also possible that the majority of the 30 deaths most likely occurred shortly, or within a few years, after the surrender of Japan, when the Phillipinos were flushing the Japanese out of the jungles and highlands.

 

[Shinpachi]

Makes him a good robot.
In the report he killed Filipino civilians.

I feel deep regrets and sorry for the Filipino victims.
No one should kill people even in the war.

I have understood you hate Japanese but, if possible, wish you to understand or see us a little more positively.
Onoda did his job as a soldier and also had chances to be killed anytime if he was careless.
He was only lucky to survive.

I don't worship him as Japan abandoned its militarism 69 years ago but pay respects as a man.

 

[parsifal]

Hi Shinpachi

Is it Onada or Onoda. Or is there no complete western conversion?

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks for your care, parsifal
It is Onoda.

I think Hiroo Onoda's talent as a military man came from his mother Tamae, a former school teacher.
When her son re-landed at the Haneda Airport in 1974, she met her son with these words "Hiroo, you are great!"
Watching TV, I thought ordinary mother would not say such "great" in public if she could imagine, more or less, there were victims for her son's homing. Onoda would have been a good boy for his mother.

 

[vikingBerserker]

To think your child had been dead for the past 29 years only to find out he was alive. I could not imagine the joy she felt when she heard.

 

[Shinpachi]

My direct impression at the time was - it was not necessarily the army that created Hiroo Onoda but his mother.
Onoda once said "When enlisted, my mother handed me a set of short sword saying 'Kill yourself with this if captured'".
I understood they had been in such era.

Onoda continued "When I came back home, I returned the sword to her".

 

[ccheese]

Hiroo Onoda, an Imperial Japanese Army officer who remained at his jungle post on an island in the Philippines for 29 years, refusing to believe that World War II was over, and returned to a hero's welcome in the all but unrecognized Japan of 1974, died Thursday in Tokyo. He was 91.

RIP

Charles

 

[Gnomey]