Japan WWII soldier who hid in jungle until 1974 dies

[Second Summer]

TOKYO : A Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippine jungle for three decades, refusing to believe World War II was over until his former commander returned and ordered him to surrender, has died in Tokyo aged 91.

Hiroo Onoda waged a guerilla campaign in Lubang Island near Luzon until he was finally persuaded in 1974 that peace had broken out, ignoring leaflet drops and successive attempts to convince him the Imperial Army had been defeated.

He died in a Tokyo hospital on Thursday of heart failure.

Japan WWII soldier who hid in jungle until 1974 dies (New Straits Times, 17 January 2014)

I can't help being slightly fascinated with this story. I guess I admire the will-power and level of self-discipline the man must have had, although of course it's very tragic that his efforts were spent waging war for such an abhorrent regime.

Edit: Picture from Wikimedia Commons:

Also, there's an article on Wikipedia.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I am envious of his ability to survive out in the wild like that for so long...it is impressive.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I am envious of his ability to survive out in the wild like that for so long...it is impressive.

I mean his survival instinct.

 

[Second Summer]

Apparently, there was one soldier who held out even longer!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teruo_Nakamura

... but he died back in '79, and wasn't nearly as popular, due to his origin and rank.

I mean his survival instinct.

Yes, I can imagine you'd need to have quite an instinct to survive in the jungle, especially if you grew up elsewhere and therefore haven't learned all about it from a young age.

 

[Second Summer]

More on Imperial Japanese soldiers who for various reasons did not surrender immediately after the official Japanese surrender:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_holdout

 

[Second Summer]

NRK (the Norwegian National Broadcaster) has a series of pictures of Onoda in this article.