Japanese holdouts fought for decades after WWII, read transcript. watch video report..

Lateline - 12/11/2010: Japanese holdouts fought for decades after WWII
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Japanese man Hiroo Onoda continued to fight his own gorilla war for 29 years after World War II, refusing to believe the fight was over.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: They were known as the holdouts, Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender after the end of World War II.

Dozens fought on from their jungle strongholds, refusing to believe that the Japanese empire had been defeated.

One of the last to surrender was Hiroo Onoda who spent 30 years waging his own guerrilla war on an island in the Philippines.

He eventually laid down his arms after his former commanding officer returned to the Philippines in 1974 and ordered him to give up.

North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

 

He's died aged 91.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25772192

 

I'm not too bothered he didn't hold out in life any longer. This unrepentant loon continued to murder long after his murderous comrades went home.

 

I wonder if they got back pay?

 

And he was celebrated as a hero. It's shameful. Was he loyal to a fault, yes. Was he tapped in the head, absolutely.

 

The Taiwanese holdout who surrendered in 1978 did (after some 'public outrage'), so I would assume that the Lt. did as well.

 

i think you ought to be more understanding. onoda was a special case. most of the other stragglers knew the war was over and they turned native for reasons like shame, or fear of negative opinion. onoda, on the other hand, waged a guerilla war up to the 70s because those were his expressed orders: to hold out until he was relieved, even if he had to live on coconuts. he was trained in urban and guerilla warfare. he thought the war was still on. he saw news papers that japan was rich and prosperous, so he deduced that the fighting had shifted elsewhere. his old CO had to personally come to the island to read to him his orders to surrender.

 

japan after the surrender was sorely lacking in one thing: a genuine war hero, and onoda happened to fit the bill. no japanese soldier, especially those captured, came home expecting to be treated a hero. they were all afraid that the populace would not forgive them for the defeat. but all received warm welcomes. unlike most of the other hold outs, onoda was an officer; of proper bearing. and unlike the others who went to ground, he continued to follow dead orders. the government offered him back pay but he declined. he was, however, given a pension.

 

Sorry I don't buy it. The wacko murdered villagers well after Japan surrendered, there is no honor for this man.

 

Excuses, he knew the war was lost when he went there and his own Officers blocked him from completeing his mission, leaflets were dropped throughout the period saying the war was over and he must have had a damn good idea. Nazi's were strung up for killing less than 30 civilians during the war but he was not punished for killing after the war was over. Japan did not need a hero, it needed to accept responsibility for it's crimes. To a greater degree I do not think they have.

 

i frankly don't understand your sentiments. filipinos as a whole were understanding: there have been many cases of stragglers here that it was part of popular culture up to the 80s. the japanese government paid the municipality of lubang island $1.0 million in compensation. onoda wasn't impressed with the leaflets, or even when his real brother came over, speaking in a mike and singing their childhood songs. the guy cracked and onoda thought the jinx was up. the brother explained later that his voice broke because it was his last day on the island.

 

Nor me yours, we're the families of the people he murdered as understanding rather than the Filipinos in general. By the 70's/80's the Government had nothing to gain by annoying the Japanese economic superpower and much to lose.

 

japan, inc. was at its height in the 90s (at least that's how it felt here.) the 70s was a time of reconciliation and charm offensives by the japanese. they were dropping dollars around asia like rain. revisionism started roundabout the 90s.

i remember there was some noise made by locals in the island still during the 90s when onoda paid a visit but nothing serious. he targeted mainly soldiers and cops (guys who shot back.)

 

Once he got his back pay, I'm sure he went straight for the Comfort Women Station for a little overdue R & R.

 

You gotta show respect to the Japs. Sons of bitches would never give up. They'd kill themselves instead of surrendering. They'd sign up to fly planes into ships and charge at the enemy even though they knew they were gonna die. That is some serious loyalty. You gotta show a least some respect.

 

No, no respect for Japanese bast@rds. Their sub-human behavior in the war towards POWs and non-combatants in occupied areas leaves much to be desired. Read up on the Rape of Nanking for starters, then continue on with the Bataan Death March and any other incident where Allied personnel or civilians had the misfortune of falling under Japanese authority.

 

I don't think respect is the proper terminology one should use in describing the Japanese soldier in WW2. The fanatical, archaic ideology tortured, enslaved and murdered thousands upon thousands of civilians and POWs. To this day I have never heard a governing body on the Island of Japan ever claim remorse for the events that occurred in China and throughout the war.

 

I know I am going to hate myself; but, you need to read the book: "Letters from Iwo Jima" it gives a unique and personal insight to the Japanese soldier late in the war.

I agree though that "respect" is the wrong word especially when it is used to recognize pure fanaticism. I mean, I can appreciate staying at your post until properly relieved but Oto took that to an entirely new level, 30 years is a long time to wait for a flicker of common sense.

It almost makes you think there was some appreciation, on his part, for the seriousness of the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese during the war; almost like he didn't want to come out of the hills and face the music, he knew he was wrong.

 

I read one account of a proud Japanese warrior who served valiantly at Nanking and survived the war. He stated that at the time he and his most honorable comrades thought nothing of throwing babies into the air and "catching" them with fixed bayonets and raping women and small girls, much less having hours of bayonet practice on live POWs. It wasn't until after the war and he went home and started raising his own family, to include girls that he finally realized the they had been bad boys during the war. Give me a break.

 

Another little known example of the monstrous behavior of the benevolent warriors of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere took place after the Doolittle Raid in 1942. At least 250,000 Chinese civilians were killed by the IJA while they were beating the bush looking for the survivors of the raid.