Photos from the Second World War show us, first of all, German and Soviet prisoners of war, as well as captured soldiers of the armies of Great Britain and the United States, the same post will show rare photographs of Japanese military personnel who were captured by the USSR or the United States.
Japanese pilot captured during the fighting at Khalkhin Gol. 1939
The Japanese, who fell into Soviet captivity during the fighting at Khalkhin Gol. The Soviet commander in the foreground has military rank major. Soviet military personnel are wearing cotton Panama hats for hot areas, which have survived to this day with minimal changes. Red stars 7.5 cm in diameter are sewn onto panama caps in front, enamel stars are attached in the center. 1939
Japanese soldiers taken prisoner after the capture of the island of Betio, part of the Tarawa Atoll. From the Japanese garrison, numbering more than 5,000 people, including 1,200 Korean workers, from 17 to 35 Japanese soldiers, as well as more than a hundred civilian personnel, surrendered, according to various sources. November 1943.
Crew members of the American battleship New Jersey watch a Japanese prisoner of war being bathed. During World War II, in the Pacific theater of war, Americans washed, shorn, treated with anti-lice and dressed them in American military uniforms without insignia. There is a version that the prisoner of war in the photo is a downed kamikaze pilot. 1945
US Marines remove a Japanese captive soldier from a US submarine that has returned from patrol.
Captured Japanese. Manchuria.
A Japanese soldier lay for 36 hours with a grenade in his hand, pretending to be dead. Having received from him a promise not to resist, the American treats him to a cigarette. Location: Iwo Jima, Japan. Shooting time: February 1945.
US Marine, First (Senior) Lieutenant Hart H. Spiegal, using sign language, is trying to start a conversation with two undersized Japanese soldiers captured on the island of Okinawa. The one on the left is 18 years old, the other is 20 years old. Location: Okinawa, Japan.
Japanese prisoners are preparing for lifting a small submarine No. 53 (Type B Ko-Huoteki, Kō-hyōteki) in Simpson Bay on Rabaul (New Guinea). Main characteristics: displacement - 47 tons, length - 23.9 m, width - 1.8 m, height - 3. Maximum speed - 23 knots (underwater), 19 knots - surface. Cruising range - 100 miles. Crew - 2 people. Armament - 2 450 mm torpedoes and a 140 kg explosive charge.
Japanese Lieutenant General Yamashita Tomoyuki (Tomoyuki Yamashita, 1885-1946) arrives in Manila under escort of US military police. In the background on the right is the general's personal translator, a graduate of Harvard University, Masakato Hamamoto. Location: Manila, Philippines.
Japanese prisoners of war on the island of Guam, bowing their heads, listen to the announcement of Emperor Hirohito about unconditional surrender Japan.
A Japanese prisoner of war in a camp on Guam after the news of Japan's unconditional surrender.
Japanese prisoners receive lunch at the Bilibid camp in Manila in the Philippines.
The surrender of the Japanese garrison of the island of Matua to the Soviet troops. Location: Matua Island, Kuril Islands. Date of shooting: 08/25/1945. Ceremony of surrendering the military personnel of the 41st separate infantry regiment, which was part of the garrison of the island of Matua. Japanese officer - regiment commander, Colonel Ueda.
Captain III rank Denisov interrogates captured Japanese officers. Naval Base Kataoka, Shumshu Island. Location: Shumshu Island, Kuril Islands.
Taking under guard the units of the Red Army of Japanese military depots and property after the surrender of the Kwantung Army. Taking under guard Japanese warehouses in the zone of operations of the 57th Rifle Corps of the 53rd Army of the Trans-Baikal Front in the vicinity of the Chinese city of Fuxin. Immediately after the signing of the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 and the end of hostilities, it was decided to take under protection Soviet troops numerous military warehouses with food, weapons and other property located in China. Location: China.
From 1945 to 1956, about five thousand Japanese prisoners of war participated in the construction of the Farhad hydroelectric power station (HES-16), a hydroelectric power station on the Syr Darya River. Location: Shirin, Uzbekistan, USSR.
Two Japanese prisoners who returned from the USSR pass by a group of people who were meeting them.
A group of former Japanese prisoners walking along the road after returning from the USSR.
A group of former Japanese prisoners on the pier after returning home from the USSR.
On January 16, 2014, one of the most famous soldiers of the Japanese army died at the age of 92. We are talking about the junior lieutenant of military intelligence Hiroo Onoda. He went down in history due to the fact that for nearly 29 years he continued to wage his war on the Philippine island of Lubang, refusing to believe in the surrender of Japan and considering these messages to be informational propaganda from the United States. Hiroo Onoda surrendered only on March 10, 1974, after his immediate former commander, Major Tangauti, arrived on the island, who gave him the order to surrender.
In nearly 30 years of his guerrilla activity, Onoda carried out more than a dozen attacks on American and Philippine military installations, as well as local police stations. They killed more than 30 military and civilians, and about 100 more people were injured. The authorities of Japan and the Philippines had to carry out a rather complicated operation in order to stop the activities of Hiroo Onoda, who did not want to believe that the war was over and Japan had been defeated in it. Taking into account the uniqueness of the case and urgent requests from official Tokyo, Onoda was pardoned by the Philippine government (he was threatened with the death penalty) and was able to return to his homeland.
Hiroo Onoda was born on March 19, 1922 in the small village of Kamekawa and led a very ordinary life until the start of World War II. In December 1942, he was drafted into the imperial army. He began his service in regular infantry units, managing to rise to the rank of corporal. From January to August 1944, he was trained in the city of Kurum on the basis of the First Army School for the training of command personnel. At the school, he rose to the rank of senior sergeant and was assigned to continue his studies at the General Staff of Japan, but abandoned it, choosing a different fate for himself. He decided to pursue a career as a combat officer and enrolled in an intelligence school.
It is worth noting that until 1942, Hiroo Onoda managed to work in China, where he learned English and the local dialect. The young man, brought up in the old Japanese traditions, according to which the emperor was equated with a deity, and serving him was akin to a feat, could not stay away from the fighting. In August 1944, he entered the Nakan Army School, which trained scouts. In the school, in addition to martial arts and tactics guerrilla war They also taught philosophy and history. Without completing his studies, Onoda was sent to the Philippines in December 1944 as commander of a special detachment for sabotage behind enemy lines.
Hiroo Onoda with his brother 1944
In January 1945, he received the rank of second lieutenant and was sent to the Philippine island of Lubang. At the same time, from his immediate commander, he received an order to continue the fight under any circumstances, as long as at least one soldier is alive and a promise that, no matter what happens, maybe in 3 years, maybe in 5 years, but he will definitely will return. Upon arrival at Lubang Island, he immediately suggested that the Japanese command prepare a defense in depth for the island, but the proposals of the junior officer were not heard. On February 28, American soldiers landed on Lubang, easily defeating the local garrison. Hiroo Onoda, together with his three-man detachment - Corporal Shoichi Shimada, Private Senior Kinshichi Kozuka and Private First Class Yuichi Akatsu - was forced to take refuge in the mountains and begin partisan activities behind enemy lines.
Lubang Island was relatively small in area (about 125 square kilometers - slightly less than Southern District Moscow), but at the same time it was covered with dense tropical forest and indented by a mountain system. Onoda and his subordinates successfully hid in numerous caves and jungle shelters, eating what they could find. From time to time they organized raids on local peasant farms, where they managed to shoot a cow or profit from bananas and coconuts.
At the very end of 1945, a leaflet fell into the hands of a sabotage detachment, which contained an order from the commander of the 14th Army, General Tomoyuki Yamashita, to surrender, but the junior lieutenant on Lubang took it as American propaganda. In the same way, he treated all the information that he managed to obtain in subsequent years. However, not all members of the detachment endured hardships. Private Yuichi Akatsu, unable to endure the hardships of life in the jungle, surrendered to the Philippine police in 1950 and in the summer next year was able to return to Japan. Thanks to him, in the Land of the Rising Sun, they learned that Onoda and two of his subordinates were still alive.
The case of Second Lieutenant Onoda was not the only one. For this reason, in 1950, a special commission was formed in Japan to rescue Japanese military personnel who remained abroad. However, the commission could not begin active work, as the political situation in the Philippines was very unstable. For the same reason, the Philippine authorities did not take proper measures to search for the Japanese officer and his group "entrenched" in Lubang, they had more pressing problems.
On May 7, 1954, the lieutenant's detachment collided with the local police in the mountains, during the shootout, Corporal Shoichi Shimada, who covered the retreat of his friends, was killed. After this incident, the Philippine government gave permission to the members of the Japanese commission to start searching for their soldiers. Based on the testimony of Yuichi Akatsu, the commission conducted searches throughout May 1954, all of 1958, and the period from May to December 1959. However, the Japanese failed to find Onoda. 10 years later, on May 31, 1969, Hiroo Onoda was officially declared dead, the Japanese government introduced him to the Order of the Rising Sun, 6th degree.
However, on September 19, 1972, a Japanese soldier was shot dead by the police in Lubang, who was trying to requisition rice from the population. The one who was shot was Kinshichi Kozuka, the last of Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda's subordinates. Taking this into account, on October 22, a delegation from the Japanese Ministry of Defense was sent to the island, which consisted of relatives of the deceased and Onoda, as well as members of the intelligence commission to rescue Japanese soldiers. But this time, the search ended in nothing.
During his 30-year stay in the Lubang jungle, Hiroo Onoda managed to adapt very well to their conditions. He led a nomadic life, not staying long in one place. The lieutenant collected information about the enemy, events taking place in the world, and also carried out a number of attacks on Philippine police and military personnel. He ate dried meat from shot cows or buffaloes, as well as the fruits of local plants, mainly coconuts.
During the attacks on one of the enemy bases, the scouts were able to get a radio receiver, which Onoda managed to convert to receive decimeter waves, thanks to which he began to receive information about everything that happened in modern world. He also had access to magazines and newspapers that were left in the jungle by members of various Japanese search missions. At the same time, no reports were able to shake his faith - neither about the post-war restoration of the country, nor about the Olympics held in Tokyo, nor about the first manned flight into space. He even perceived the Vietnam War as part of the successful military operations of the Imperial Japanese Army against the Americans. Onodo was sincerely convinced that the American puppet government, traitors, was operating on the islands, while the real government of the country was able to gain a foothold in Manchuria. It is also necessary to note the fact that even at the Onode Intelligence School they were told that the enemy would resort to mass disinformation about the possible end of the war, for this reason he gave a distorted interpretation to many political events.
Hiroo Onoda spent his last two years in Lubang all alone. Until, in February 1974, he was accidentally met by an adventurer, a young Japanese hippie student, Norio Suzuki. Suzuki went on a journey around the world, intending to find many different phenomena, such as Bigfoot or Second Lieutenant Onoda. Somehow it didn’t work out with Bigfoot, but he really managed to find a saboteur. He managed to get in touch with him and even make friends. Most likely, by this time, he had already resigned himself to defeat in the depths of his soul.
Despite this, the junior lieutenant refused to surrender, he was ready to lay down his arms only after receiving the appropriate order from the higher command. As a result, in March 1974, the immediate head of Hiroo Onoda during the war, Major Taniguchi, was sent to the island, who brought an order on behalf of the Japanese emperor to cease hostilities. In the worn and patched military uniform, which Onoda managed to save for 30 years, as well as with personal weapons - a serviceable type 99 Arisaka rifle, five hundred cartridges for it, several hand grenades and a samurai sword - he surrendered to the arriving delegation. This ended the war for Hiroo Onoda.
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In post-war Japan, the war hero felt out of place. At this time, the Western way of life in its Americanized version became widespread in the country. In addition, pacifist and left-wing ideas were widespread in the country, not all sections of Japanese society perceived him as a hero, and the left and centrist press began to persecute him. The retired saboteur preferred to move to Brazil in 1975, where at that time a rather large Japanese community lived, preserving traditional values. In Brazil, he married and in a fairly short time managed to establish a successful ranch, taking up cattle breeding. It is worth noting that as a congratulation on his return to his homeland, the country's cabinet gave the officer 1 million yen, which he chose to donate to Yasukuni Shrine, located in Tokyo. This shrine honors the souls of Japanese soldiers who died for their country in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Hiroo Onoda hands over his sword to the President of the Philippines
He returned to Japan again only in 1984, while until the end of his life he tried to spend at least 3 months a year in Brazil. In Japan, a former saboteur organized public organization called "School of Nature". Its main goal was to educate the younger generation. Onoda was worried about the reports of the criminalization and degradation of Japanese youth, so he decided to study based on his personal experience gained in the Lubang jungle. He was engaged in disseminating knowledge about how, thanks to ingenuity and resourcefulness, he managed to survive in the jungle. He saw the socialization of the younger generation through the knowledge of nature as the main task of the "School of Nature".
Starting from 1984, the school, led by Onoda, annually held summer camps not only for children, but also for their parents throughout the country, she organized assistance to disabled children, organized various scientific conferences that touched on the problems of raising children. In 1996, Onoda revisited Lubang Island, where he made a $10,000 donation to a local school. For successful work with Japanese youth in November 1999, Hiroo Onoda was awarded the social education award from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports of the country.
Hiroo Onoda was rightfully considered almost the last real custodian of the samurai spirit, who not only survived, but remained faithful to the oath to the end. He was engaged in sabotage activities until he received the order to stop. Shortly before his death, in an interview with the American television channel ABC, he stated: “Every Japanese soldier was ready to die, but I was an intelligence officer and I had orders to fight a guerrilla war at any cost. If I could not carry out this order, I would be painfully ashamed.
On January 16, 2014, Junior Lieutenant of the Imperial Japanese Army Hiroo Onoda died in a Tokyo hospital at the age of 92.
His name is not without reason consonant with the word "hero" (albeit in the English version). True, Onoda was a hero of a special kind. For him the second World War ended only in 1974, when he surrendered to the Filipino military on a small island, where he had been a guerrilla for nearly 30 years.
According to Lenta.ru, over these decades, Onoda managed to kill almost three dozen people and injure about a hundred, civilians and military. According to Philippine law, he was given the death penalty, but the authorities took into account the special circumstances and the request of the Japanese Foreign Ministry and allowed him to return to his homeland. There, the compatriot was received without much enthusiasm: the country was dominated by leftist and liberal ideas, and Onoda served as too obvious a reminder of the recent militaristic past and the crushing defeat that I wanted to quickly forget.
In December 1942, 20-year-old Hiroo Onoda was drafted into the army. By this time, he managed to work in China, where he studied the local dialect and English. Brought up in the old traditions, in which the emperor was equal to a deity, and serving him was considered a feat, Onoda himself chose his fate, asking to be sent to a reconnaissance school. There he was taught not only guerrilla warfare and martial arts, but also history and philosophy.
While Onoda was studying, things at the front in Japan were getting worse and worse. The empire no longer advanced, but with difficulty kept the defense, losing one captured territory after another. In October 1944, the Allies launched an operation to liberate the Philippines. Onoda was sent to conduct sabotage in the frontline zone in order to prevent the successful offensive of the Americans. The place of its deployment was the island of Lubang, which covered the entrance to Manila Bay, and therefore occupied a strategic position.
Onoda's proposals for the preparation of defense in depth were not taken into account by the higher command, which understood that it was time to prepare for the evacuation. However, his immediate superior, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, ordered him to continue fighting. Finally, Onoda heard from him: "Maybe in three years, maybe in five years, but no matter what happens, we will come for you." On February 28, 1945, the Americans landed on Lubang.
Onoda went into the jungle along with three more fighters: he was accompanied by privates Yuichi Akatsu and Kinsiti Konzuka, as well as corporal Shoichi Shimada. Lubang Island is small in area (only 125 square kilometers - a little less Southern District Moscow), but is indented by mountains and covered with dense tropical forest. Onoda and his comrades hid in caves, eating what they found in the jungle. Periodically, they raided peasant farms, where they managed to profit from coconuts and bananas, or even shoot a cow.
All this time, the Japanese did not stop sabotage activities. They killed officials, police officers and local residents, whom they considered enemy collaborators, even attacked the radar base. During one of these raids, the Japanese managed to capture a radio receiver, thanks to which they learned about events taking place in the world. In addition, a specially created commission in Tokyo to search for missing servicemen several times dropped leaflets, newspapers and other materials from an airplane into the area where Onoda's group was hiding, designed to convince the soldiers that the war had long ended.
At the end of 1945, a leaflet with an order from the commander of the 14th Front, General Tomoyuki Yamashita, to surrender fell into the hands of saboteurs. However, Onoda regarded it as enemy propaganda. He also treated the information received in subsequent years. No news could shake his faith - neither about the post-war restoration of Japan, nor about the Tokyo Olympics, nor about manned space flight. The officer was sure that the real government was strengthened in Manchuria, and the islands were ruled by American puppets - traitors, whose orders a real soldier should not obey.
Despite the sabotage and assassinations, the Philippine authorities did not actively search for the Japanese. They also had other concerns: the communist guerrilla in the northern islands and the Muslim underground in the south. However, two of Onoda's associates, Shimada and Kozuka, were killed in shootouts with police in 1954 and 1972, respectively. Akatsu separated from the rest of the group in September 1949, and six months later surrendered to the Filipinos and subsequently returned to his homeland.
The last two years after the death of Kozuki Onoda spent in complete solitude, which in February 1974 was violated by the 25-year-old hippie and adventurer Norio Suzuki. The young man went to travel the world in search of various phenomena - such as Lieutenant Onoda, panda and Bigfoot. The saboteur was in the first place in his list, and Suzuki flew to Lubang. He quickly managed to get in touch with Onoda and become friends with him.
The officer seemed to resign himself to defeat, but stated that he was not ready to stop resistance without an order from his superiors. The Japanese authorities sought out Taniguchi, and in March 1974 he brought an order on behalf of the emperor to Onoda to stop hostilities. The junior lieutenant surrendered in the presence of the then President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, to whom he handed his sword as a sign of surrender. Onoda's uniform was, although fairly worn, but still serviceable. When he surrendered, he also handed over a rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition for it, and several hand grenades. The sword was later returned to him as a sign of pardon.
In Japan, Onoda felt out of place, as the Western way of life in its Americanized form spread throughout the country. Although right-wing politicians offered him to become a member of parliament, the retired commando preferred to move to Brazil, where there was a large Japanese community that preserved traditional values. There he married, settled on a ranch, and became a successful rancher.
In 1984, Onoda took up social activities. He returned to Japan and set up a summer camp for young people called the School of Nature. There he taught those who wished to survive in extreme conditions, which he acquired in the Philippine jungle. AT last years Onoda lived in two countries - sometimes in Japan, then in Brazil. He lectured at universities and published several books on the history of World War II. The most famous of these is Onoda's autobiography, Never Surrender: My Thirty Years' War, for which he received a fee of $160,000.
With Onoda's death, another chapter of world history ended. He was the latest of dozens, if not hundreds, of Japanese troops who, after their country's surrender, refused to surrender. The reasons for this were different for everyone. Some simply could not accept defeat, others were guided by loyalty to the oath given to the emperor. There were those who simply did not know about the end of the war. The exact number of such soldiers, who in Japanese were called "zanryu", which means "remaining", remained unknown. Many of them perished in the remote Pacific islands from starvation and disease, or were eaten by the natives.
But Onoda's case is unique not only because for him World War II ended in 1974. Throughout this time he continued to lead fighting. For example, until 1972, Private Shoichi Yokoi simply hid from the Americans in a pit on the island of Guam. And Teruo Nakamuro lived in the jungle of the Indonesian island of Morotai until December 1974. In 1989, the Malayan communists stopped their armed struggle with the government. Together with them, two former Japanese soldiers laid down their arms, who said that after the war in the jungle of this country, up to 200 soldiers of the imperial army waged a guerrilla war. But the fate of the rest remained unknown.
Onoda was considered almost the last guardian of the samurai spirit, who not only survived, but remained faithful to the oath to the end, that is, destroyed the enemies of the empire until he was ordered to stop. It is hardly ethical to evaluate his actions from the positions of today and today's morality. Onoda is a fragment of the past and a reminder to the future that war is not only honor and duty, but also blood and dirt.
In September 1945, Japan announced its surrender, ending World War II. But for some, the war is not over.
Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda was 22 years old when he was sent to the Philippines as a commander of a special squad for conducting sabotage operations behind enemy lines. He arrived on Lubang in December 1944, and the allied troops landed on the island in February 1945. Soon only Onoda and three of his colleagues were among the survivors, who retreated into the mountains to continue the guerrilla war.
The group survived on bananas, coconut milk and stolen cattle, engaging in occasional gunfights with local police.
In late 1945, the Japanese read air-dropped leaflets that the war was over. But they refused to surrender, deciding that this was enemy propaganda.
1944 Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda.
Every Japanese soldier was ready to die. As an intelligence officer, I was ordered to fight a guerrilla war and not die. I was a soldier and had to follow orders.
Hiroo Onoda
One of Hiroo Onoda's comrades surrendered in 1950, another was killed in a confrontation with a search party in 1954. His last comrade, senior private Kinshichi Kozuka, was shot dead by police in 1972 while he and Onoda were destroying rice stocks at a local farm.
Onoda was left alone and turned into a legendary figure on the island of Lubang and beyond.
The story of the mysterious Japanese soldier intrigued a young traveler named Norio Suzuki, who went in search of "Lieutenant Onoda, pandas, and Bigfoot".
Norio Suzuki told Onoda about Japan's long-standing surrender and prosperity, trying to persuade him to return to his homeland. But Onoda firmly replied that he could not give up and leave the duty station without the order of a higher officer.
February 1974 Norio Suzuki and Onoda with their rifle on Lubang Island.
Suzuki returned to Japan and, with the help of the government, sought out Commander Onoda. It turned out to be a former Major of the Imperial Army Yoshimi Taniguchi, already an elderly man who works in a bookstore.
Taniguchi flew to Lubang and on March 9, 1974 formally ordered Onoda to lay down his arms.
March 11, 1974 Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda emerges from the jungle on Lubang Island, sword in hand, after 29 years of guerrilla warfare.
March 11, 1974.
Three days later, Onoda surrendered his samurai sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and received a pardon for his deeds over the previous decades (he and his comrades had killed about 30 people during the guerrilla war).
Onoda returned to Japan, where he received a hero's welcome, but decided to move to Brazil and became a rancher. Ten years later, he returned to Japan and founded the public organization "School of Nature" to educate a healthy young generation.
As for the adventurer Norio Suzuki, shortly after finding Onoda, he found pandas in the wild. But in 1986, Suzuki died in an avalanche in the Himalayas while continuing his search for Bigfoot.
Onoda passed away in 2014 at the age of 92. A few of his photos:
March 11, 1974 Onoda hands over his sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos as a sign of surrender at Malacañang Palace in Manila.
March 12, 1974 Arrival of Onoda in Tokyo.
In the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the reforms carried out, Japan made a powerful economic breakthrough. Nevertheless, the country's authorities faced serious problems - a lack of resources and a growing population of the island state. To solve them, according to Tokyo, expansion to neighboring countries could. As a result of the wars late XIX- At the beginning of the 20th century, Korea, the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan and Manchuria passed under the control of Japan.
In 1940-1942, the Japanese military attacked the possessions of the United States, Great Britain and other European powers. The Land of the Rising Sun invaded Indo-China, Burma, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. The Japanese attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands and captured a large part of Indonesia. Then they invaded New Guinea and the islands of Oceania, but already in 1943 they lost the strategic initiative. In 1944, the Anglo-American troops launched a large-scale counteroffensive, pushing the Japanese in the Pacific Islands, Indochina and the Philippines.
- Japanese military in Hebei during the Second Sino-Japanese War
- JAPAN PHOTO LIBRARY
emperor soldier
Hiroo Onoda was born on March 19, 1922 in the village of Kamekawa, located in Wakayama Prefecture. His father was a journalist and deputy of the local council, his mother was a teacher. AT school years Onoda was fond of the martial art of kendo - sword fencing. After graduating from school, he got a job at the Tajima trading company and moved to the Chinese city of Hankou. learned Chinese and English languages. However, Onoda did not have time to make a career, because at the end of 1942 he was drafted into the army. He began his service in the infantry.
In 1944, Onoda underwent command personnel training, receiving the rank of senior sergeant after graduation. Soon young man sent to study at the Futamata department of the Nakano army school, which trained commanders of reconnaissance and sabotage units.
Due to the sharp deterioration of the situation at the front, Onoda did not have time to complete the full course of study. He was assigned to the Information Department of the Headquarters of the 14th Army and sent to the Philippines. In practice, the young commander was supposed to lead a sabotage unit operating in the rear of the Anglo-American troops.
Lieutenant General armed forces Japan Shizuo Yokoyama ordered the saboteurs to continue to carry out their tasks at any cost, even if they have to act without contact with the main forces for several years.
- Hiroo Onoda in his youth
- Gettyimages.ru
- Keystone/Hulton Archive
The command awarded Onoda the rank of junior lieutenant, after which he was sent to the Philippine island of Lubang, where the morale of the Japanese military was not too high. The scout tried to restore order at the new duty station, but did not have time - on February 28, 1945, the American military landed on the island. Most of the Japanese garrison was either destroyed or surrendered. And Onoda, with three soldiers, went into the jungle and proceeded to what he was being prepared for - guerrilla warfare.
Thirty Years' War
On September 2, 1945, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Chief of the General Staff General Yoshijiro Umezu signed an act of Japan's unconditional surrender aboard the American battleship Missouri.
The Americans scattered leaflets over the Philippine jungle with information about the end of the war and orders from the Japanese command to lay down their arms. But Onoda was told about military disinformation while still in school, and he considered what was happening a provocation. In 1950, one of the fighters in his group, Yuichi Akatsu, surrendered to Philippine law enforcement and soon returned to Japan. So in Tokyo they learned that the detachment that was considered destroyed still exists.
Similar news came from other countries previously occupied by Japanese troops. In Japan, a special state commission was created for the return of military personnel to their homeland. But her work was hard, as the imperial soldiers were hiding deep in the jungle.
In 1954, Onoda's detachment entered into battle with the Philippine police. Corporal Shoichi Shimada, who covered the withdrawal of the group, died. The Japanese commission tried to establish contact with the rest of the intelligence officers, but did not find them. As a result, in 1969 they were declared dead and posthumously awarded the Order of the Rising Sun.
However, three years later, Onoda "resurrected". In 1972, saboteurs tried to blow up a Philippine police patrol on a mine, and when the explosive device did not work, they opened fire on law enforcement officers. During the skirmish, Onoda's last subordinate, Kinshichi Kozuka, was killed. Japan again sent a search party to the Philippines, but the second lieutenant seemed to have disappeared into the jungle.
Onoda later recounted how he learned the art of survival in the Philippine jungle. So, he distinguished the disturbing sounds made by birds. As soon as someone else approached one of the shelters, Onoda immediately left. He also hid from American soldiers and Filipino special forces.
The scout most of the time ate the fruits of wild fruit trees and caught rats with snares. Once a year, he slaughtered the cows that belonged to local farmers to dry meat and get fat for lubricating weapons.
From time to time Onoda found newspapers and magazines, from which he received fragmentary information about the events taking place in the world. At the same time, the intelligence officer did not believe reports that Japan was defeated in World War II. Onoda believed that the government in Tokyo was collaborationist, and that the real authorities were in Manchuria and continued to resist. He regarded the Korean and Vietnamese wars as the next battles of the Second World War and thought that in both cases Japanese troops were fighting the Americans.
A Farewell to Arms
In 1974, the Japanese traveler and adventurer Norio Suzuki went to the Philippines. He decided to find out the fate of the famous Japanese saboteur. As a result, he managed to talk with his compatriot and take a picture of him.
Information about Onoda, received from Suzuki, became a real sensation in Japan. The country's authorities found Onoda's former direct commander, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who worked in a bookstore after the war, and brought him to Lubang.
On March 9, 1974, Taniguchi gave the intelligence officer an order from the commander of a special group of the General Staff of the 14th Army to stop military operations and the need to get in touch with the US army or its allies. The next day, Onoda came to the American radar station in Lubang, where he handed over a rifle, cartridges, grenades, a samurai sword and a dagger.
- Hiroo Onoda surrenders to Philippine authorities
- JIJI PRESS
The Philippine government is in a difficult position. During the almost thirty years of guerrilla warfare, Onoda, together with his subordinates, carried out many raids, the victims of which were Filipino and American soldiers, as well as local residents. The scout and his associates killed about 30 people, almost 100 were wounded. According to the laws of the Philippines, the officer faced the death penalty. However, President Ferdinand Marcos, after negotiations with the Japanese Foreign Ministry, released Onoda from responsibility, returned his personal weapons to him, and even praised his loyalty to military duty.
On March 12, 1974, the scout returned to Japan, where he found himself in the center of everyone's attention. However, the public reacted ambiguously: for some, the saboteur was a national hero, and for others, a war criminal. The officer refused to receive the emperor, saying that he was not worthy of such an honor, since he had not accomplished any feat.
The Cabinet of Ministers gave Onoda 1 million yen ($3.4 thousand) in honor of the return, a significant amount was also collected for him by numerous fans. However, the scout donated all this money to the Yasukuni Shinto shrine, which worships the souls of warriors who died for Japan.
- Hiroo Onoda
- Gettyimages.ru
- Keystone
At home, Onoda dealt with the socialization of youth through the knowledge of nature. For his pedagogical achievements, he was awarded the Prize of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports of Japan, and was also awarded the Medal of Honor for services to society. The scout died on January 16, 2014 in Tokyo.
The spirit of collectivism
Onoda became the most famous Japanese military man who continued to resist after the surrender of official Tokyo, but he was far from the only one. So, until December 1945, Japanese troops resisted the Americans on the island of Saipan. In 1947, Lieutenant Ei Yamaguchi, at the head of a detachment of 33 soldiers, attacked the American base on the island of Peleliu in Palau and surrendered only at the command of his former boss. In 1950, Major Takuo Ishii was killed in a battle with French troops in Indochina. In addition, a number of Japanese officers, after the defeat of the imperial army, went over to the side of the national revolutionary groups that fought the Americans, the Dutch and the French.