One-man war

March 9 marked the day when a one-man war was finally over for Hiroo Onoda. The Japanese soldier finally surrendered on March 9, 1974 — nearly 30 years after World War II ended. He had been waging his own war from the jungle and mountains on Lubang Island in the Philippines. Onoda was sent there in December 1944 as an intelligence officer, with a mission to destroy infrastructure on the island and do all he could to thwart enemy attacks. He and three other Japanese soldiers hid in the mountains and conducted guerrilla warfare for nearly three decades.

In October 1945, they found a leaflet saying the war had ended on Aug. 15, but they didn’t believe it. It was inconceivable to them that Japan could have been defeated, or worse — surrendered. One man gave himself up in 1950, and another was killed by a search party in 1954. The two remaining men carried on the fight for another 18 years, until 1972, when Onoda’s companion was killed by police. Onoda finally surrendered in 1974 and returned home a hero. In 2001, Onoda said he didn’t want to be seen as a failure on Lubang, so he protected his honor and carried out his mission to the end.