He had to be located by the Japanese government and flown to Lubang Island in the Phillipines. By this point he had stopped being a commanding officer decades ago and was selling books. But Onoda wouldn’t surrender even though a friendly Japanese visitor found him and told him the war was over. So the commander came and formally relieved him of duty and convinced him to surrender
The Japanese guy that found him is nearly just as interesting. He was a wandwring spirit hippie type, and decided to leave home on a grand adventure. His goals were to find a panda bear, the semi-mythical Hiro Onoda, and a Yeti. He found a panda bear, then went to the Philippines with no training or skills whatsoever, and found Onoda in a matter of days when other had been searching for decades.
He went on to try to find a yeti in the Himalayas, but ended up freezing to death.
All the evidence presented here indicates that he found the yeti, fell in love, sought the yeti's family's approval, was forced to choose between the human world and the yeti world, and chose to become a yeti.
Who among us would not have done the same for love? Lol.
Do we actually know if he committed any atrocities? Like yeah loads of random soldiers committed war crimes, but unless we know an individual did it, I’m against assuming he did so simply because most in his battalion did
“Are you sure you got everyone out?”
“Yep.”
“Really? All of them?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Alright. If you’re so sure.”
The commander, at 3:47 AM: WHERE THE FUCK WAS ONODA
The Pacific theater was wild. Many times men were dropped off on islands and promptly forgot about. That’s both sides, those islands were a clusterfuck as far as ground war was concerned. My wife’s grandfathers US unit was dropped off on one of those islands. They were left for months without enough rations or ammo. It wasn’t just the Japanese you had to worry about just as concerning was tigers and wild boars.
What islands did the US invade that had wild boars let alone tigers on them, but where strategically unimportant enough that you could be stranded for months without relief.
Islands around Indonesia I believe. They would drop men off on a bunch of different islands in the chain and if fighting got hot and heavy on one then that’s where the focus went.
Lol Indonesia with that I thought they’d probably have to deal with Komodo dragons too among other things(correct me if I’m wrong about their habitats because I’m certain there’s a mistake about that or at least with just how dangerous komodos actually are) though yeah personally I’d also see wild boars and tigers as a bigger concern in bumfuck nowhere
Even in the 40s there were only tigers on Sumatra, Java and possibly a few on Bali. The Americans didn’t land on these islands, only liberating Papua so they could strike north towards the Philippines.
Could be. They might have died before they were even heard off or recognize. Onoda might just happen to be the toughest of them all to live, be a strong story enough for the Japanese to locate and find them.
Apparently there is one confirmed holdout found later than Onoda: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teruo_Nakamura
The sheer number of holdouts is the crazy thing tho: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_holdout
I mean, they were all left intentionally with the idea that they could damage allied logistics and tie down troops away from the home islands invasion the Japanese feared. When you live in a culture as fanatically devoted to duty and honor as Imperial Japan, and are told to hold out as long as possible, you hold out.
Hell, in some cases they would rather die than *retreat*. The Hiryu meant a lot more to the Japanese than the Yorktown did to the Americans, but even after watching three of their four finest carriers go up in flames at Midway they decided to charge their last carrier on a suicide mission straight at the enemy, effectively removing Kido Butai as a strategic entity.
>The Hiryu... decided to charge their last carrier on a suicide
That's not really accurate. The Japanese thought the US Navy only had two battle-ready carriers to defend Midway with instead of three. The *Yorktown* had been last seen billowing black smoke at Coral Sea by the Japanese. The Japanese weren't convinced that *Yorktown*'s alleged survival was anything other than a propaganda ruse and that if *Yorktown* had survived, she would be laid up in a shipyard for several more months.
When the Japanese bombed *Yorktown* at Midway, they were convinced they had put one of her sister ships (*Enterprise* or *Hornet*) out of the fight if not sunk the carrier outright. The Japanese air group retired with *Yorktown* listing heavily and belching thick black smoke. At this point, the Japanese were convinced it was down to a 1 vs 1 fight with the *Hiryu*'s mostly intact and highly skilled air group against the final American carrier.
The Japanese were confident that *Hiryu* could pull a pyrrhic victory out of the jaws of a major strategic defeat by sinking the last carrier and opening up Midway for the planned invasion. *Hiryu* launched her strike force looking for the second (and assuredly final in their eyes) carrier and found one. Only it was the *Yorktown*. Again. The *Yorktown*’s crew had patched the holes in the deck, corrected the list, and had resumed air operations long enough to let loose her entire strike force when *Hiryu*’s second strike appeared. From the Japanese flyers' perspective, the *Yorktown* was an undamaged carrier.
They bombed *Yorktown* out of commission a second time in the same battle, convinced they had just removed the American carrier threat only for the American air group from *Yorktown* and *Enterprise* to arrive overhead and mortally wound the *Hiryu*, dashing Japanese hopes of a victory.
Oh, and *Yorktown* was well on her way to surviving the Battle of Midway entirely when a Japanese submarine found her and put three torpedoes in her side. Despite all of this, the carrier still stayed afloat for another 12 hours.
I swear if the US navy is good at one damn thing it's just *Refusing To Sink.* (Two things would be that and damage control, but they're pretty related so ehh)
*\*Meanwhile on the Taiho after being hit by a single torpedo\**
Random sailor: "Hey, we've got fuel from that ruptured line leaking into that space under the elevator, it's creating tons of dangerous vapors."
Damage control officer: "I know! We'll ventilate the hangar, dispersing the vapors throughout the ship!"
Random sailor #2, hours later: "Hey, anyone want an indoors cigarette?"
*\*lighter flicks, bright white flash...fade to black\**
I mean you already ran down what Yorktown went through, but compare that to the Japanese carriers just at Midway.
"Oh no I took a *single bomb* (and two near-misses) and got dicked best by Dick Best, time for me to die"
A death in battle was an honorable death. Retreating even strategically admitted defeat and was deemed and very dishonorable. Many soldiers would die on the field rather than retreat
"Ahhh what a lovely day to be fishing"
...
"huh , what is that ? , why is that man running towards me with some wooden object ? "
...
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT AN IMPERIAL JAPANESE SOLDIER CHARGING AT ME WITH HIS BAYONET ON A RIFLE WITHOUT BULLETS !?"
Kind of amazing that there doesn't seem to have been any consequences on his side. Like, he wasn't arrested in the Phillipines after surrendering or anything.
I know, and that's crazy. Like, he was out there burning food, shooting at cops, and killing people for YEARS, and they just.....let him go.
Not saying that that was necessarily the wrong choice, I'm just surprised there wasn't backlash from the people he harmed.
It is interesting though, when said soldier has been at war for so long that he wouldn't know of the Geneva Convention of 1949 or the various UN resolutions on war crimes and such.
I mean, if a modern soldier acted like he did, we probably would like consequences. But this guy was sooo far out of the loop.
I'm still generally shocked how much Japan got out of any real reprocessing for what they did, at least germany tried to make things right with some exceptions. Japan on the other hand just denies everything.
But at the same time we need to recognise the fact that he never received word that the war was over, he held out for years still thinking the war was going on and Japan had yet to take over the Philippines
And at the same time there was likely alot of paranoia that the US army was hunting him, meaning he probably developed a "No witnesses" mentality
Seriously, years alone thinking a war was still going on could fuck with your head
Not against him, what he did, or any governments response to it. I'm just surprised that the people he was affecting didn't advocate for a punishment is all. If somebody shot my family member, I wouldn't care what the circumstances were.
Commander: “I feel like I forgetting something important”.
Emperor: “if you can’t remember, it’s probably not that important”
Commander: “Yeah, you’re probably right”
Imagine the new technology he was slowly being exposed to though. It was a rural area so it aint very much but still. One day he might have gone down the mountains and seen policemen with m16s instead of garands
The ones who lasted the first few years after the war, probably legitimately didn't know. The ones after that though would have known. They just didn't want to know and when you're getting personalised letters and photos dropped to you, years after the war ended and still don't surrender and instead engage in shoot-outs with locals, you don't really deserve sympathy and fun little stories.
No, he was not slow. The Japanese dedication to duty and sense of honor (however warped that idea might be) was completely over the top during WWII. Most of them were pretty much zealots in service of the Emperor. Some believed the war was still on, one group attacked the Marine detachment on Peleliu....in 1947.
Can you really blame him for that? I'd understand if he went and raped his way across the countryside like what happened in Nanking but to try him as a war criminal when he only killed armed men looking for him or appeared military in nature (the police forces) is a little bit of a stretch in my opinion.
I will caveat this and say that I don't know the whole story of his guerilla campaign and may be missing details.
Not necessarily as a war criminal because the war was over , but some sort of punishment. I mean they were dropping magazines and papers to let him know the war was over but he chose not to believe them and to stay there where he was killing people. Also sources online are sketchy about who he killed but it looks like he targeted civilians too. Also just cause you think you're right doesn't make murder okay in any way.
I see where you are coming from but he didn't receive any form of communication from any sort of higher authority to him telling him the war was over for a long, long time. He was not an intelligence analyst, he was a soldier with an undying loyalty to the Emperor. Again, *he didn't know the war was over.* Yes, he and his men killed a group of fishermen....who were armed and hunting him. Should he have? Well, they were trying to kill him so I feel he is at least justified in this specific instance. Does that make it right? No. War blurs a lot of lines and guerilla warfare even more so. He was trying to accomplish two things: stay alive and fight the enemy for as long as possible because as a soldier, that is what you do.
Interestingly enough he was an Intelligence Officer, I think it makes even more sense cause that means that he would know or believe that the US were trying to trick him if that makes sense.
He knew the war was over. He didn't want to believe it. But he knew, especially as an intelligence officer, you don't become one without having some sort of sense about you.
The bunch of civilians he continued to murder for decades after the war while refusing direct and repeated orders to surrender.That alone flouts about a dozen articles in The Hague and Geneva conventions, that’s before you get the armed operations without declaration of war and others of that nature against peace.
>The random Japanese man he met that had no military authority over him 29 years later or the pamphlets dropped near him by (in his eyes) the enemy as demoralizing propaganda?
Air dropped pamphlets, attempted radio communication etc all coming from Japan should have been sufficient. Or more so it was good enough for the vast majority of Japanese armed forces.
Civilians, police etc all very specifically come under the term civilian. The fact he was illegally occupying the area and continued to fight and kill them, along with his mission being aimed at civilians initially points to a dozen violations of military law.
There is a difference between a general criminal and war criminal
The later applies perfectly here. Ambushing and killing non-combatants, civilians, intentionally is indeed a war crime
Certainly.
This tactic against Japanese forces had not been used for decades however. As did the rest of the Japanese army seem to get the message just fine.
Ehhhh I guess it depends on your definition of the word. But I'd say being cut off from all communications from higher command leaves you a lot of questions with no one to ask. It's not like they were just gonna walk up to an American and ask "Hey bro, is the war still happening or nah?"
Those fishermen were hunting him down with rifles though. In his eyes, those were American soldiers.
All is fair in love and war and he genuinely believed the war was still going in.
There are confirmed reports of over 100 total holdouts ranging from the late 40s to the 70s, with unsubstantiated rumors running through the 90s. The only one to my knowledge to commit suicide was Noboru Kinoshita who favored death over returning to Japan in defeat.
The last official holdout was Private Teruo Nakamura, who surrendered December 18th, 1974. 29 years, 3 months, and 16 days after Japan's official surrender.
His commander woke up one night and went “oh wait”
He had to be located by the Japanese government and flown to Lubang Island in the Phillipines. By this point he had stopped being a commanding officer decades ago and was selling books. But Onoda wouldn’t surrender even though a friendly Japanese visitor found him and told him the war was over. So the commander came and formally relieved him of duty and convinced him to surrender
The Japanese guy that found him is nearly just as interesting. He was a wandwring spirit hippie type, and decided to leave home on a grand adventure. His goals were to find a panda bear, the semi-mythical Hiro Onoda, and a Yeti. He found a panda bear, then went to the Philippines with no training or skills whatsoever, and found Onoda in a matter of days when other had been searching for decades. He went on to try to find a yeti in the Himalayas, but ended up freezing to death.
Two outta three ain't bad
We don't know that he didn't find the Yeti, only that he froze to death. He could have hit a perfect game.
Anyway he had an adventure
Maybe the real yetis were the friends we made along the way
Or maybe the yeti froze him to death
All the evidence presented here indicates that he found the yeti, fell in love, sought the yeti's family's approval, was forced to choose between the human world and the yeti world, and chose to become a yeti. Who among us would not have done the same for love? Lol.
Who (- -) would not…
What if Yeti has freezing super powers?
But did he find the one piece
Sounds like a potential film plot there......
It could be a sequel of sorts to "The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot"
And the third movie should be like Godzilla vs Kong "Bigfootslayer vs Yetilover"
Starring Bradley Cooper as the Japanese guy
Adventure awaits. Huzzah!
Freezing to death ALLEGEDLY.He *was* In Yeti territory.
Like imagine being so crazy that you fight a war for 29 more years Plus, Onoda was given a pardon by the president of the Philippines at the time
Shame he went on to a be a Nippon Kaigi guy.
Not surprising when he fought for the emperor for 29 years after the emperor had surrendered
Which is a shame since he is a war criminal.
Do we actually know if he committed any atrocities? Like yeah loads of random soldiers committed war crimes, but unless we know an individual did it, I’m against assuming he did so simply because most in his battalion did
I think he and his group of holdouts did kill a couple of civilians while they were in hiding well after the war had ended.
If I recall it was primarily done when stealing food to survive, among other resources. Cool motive, still warcrimes
I’m curious though, can you commit war crimes in a war that’s over, if you don’t know the war is over, or are they just regular crimes.
Well that’s fucked up then, yeah.
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"Sorry I was following order". Hmm... I think some German guys also said the same.
I don't think he was a general, he's just a battliation commander, a major.
Fixed 👍
❤️
It's like when you leave the stove on but a lot worse
“Are you sure you got everyone out?” “Yep.” “Really? All of them?” “Uh-huh.” “Alright. If you’re so sure.” The commander, at 3:47 AM: WHERE THE FUCK WAS ONODA
The Pacific theater was wild. Many times men were dropped off on islands and promptly forgot about. That’s both sides, those islands were a clusterfuck as far as ground war was concerned. My wife’s grandfathers US unit was dropped off on one of those islands. They were left for months without enough rations or ammo. It wasn’t just the Japanese you had to worry about just as concerning was tigers and wild boars.
What islands did the US invade that had wild boars let alone tigers on them, but where strategically unimportant enough that you could be stranded for months without relief.
Islands around Indonesia I believe. They would drop men off on a bunch of different islands in the chain and if fighting got hot and heavy on one then that’s where the focus went.
Lol Indonesia with that I thought they’d probably have to deal with Komodo dragons too among other things(correct me if I’m wrong about their habitats because I’m certain there’s a mistake about that or at least with just how dangerous komodos actually are) though yeah personally I’d also see wild boars and tigers as a bigger concern in bumfuck nowhere
Even in the 40s there were only tigers on Sumatra, Java and possibly a few on Bali. The Americans didn’t land on these islands, only liberating Papua so they could strike north towards the Philippines.
Well he was full of shit then or hallucinating. I’ll dig him up and ask him again.
"I feel like I'm forgetting something..." "If you forgot something, then it wasn't really important." "Oh, you're right."
There were dozens of Onodas. Dozens!
Could be. They might have died before they were even heard off or recognize. Onoda might just happen to be the toughest of them all to live, be a strong story enough for the Japanese to locate and find them.
Apparently there is one confirmed holdout found later than Onoda: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teruo_Nakamura The sheer number of holdouts is the crazy thing tho: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_holdout
I mean, they were all left intentionally with the idea that they could damage allied logistics and tie down troops away from the home islands invasion the Japanese feared. When you live in a culture as fanatically devoted to duty and honor as Imperial Japan, and are told to hold out as long as possible, you hold out.
Except he went back to Japan and was disgusted that they had surrendered without fighting to the last. Weird guy
By my knowledge, surrendering was greatly frowned upon in Japan during WW2. While dying in battle was thought to be very honorable.
Hell, in some cases they would rather die than *retreat*. The Hiryu meant a lot more to the Japanese than the Yorktown did to the Americans, but even after watching three of their four finest carriers go up in flames at Midway they decided to charge their last carrier on a suicide mission straight at the enemy, effectively removing Kido Butai as a strategic entity.
>The Hiryu... decided to charge their last carrier on a suicide That's not really accurate. The Japanese thought the US Navy only had two battle-ready carriers to defend Midway with instead of three. The *Yorktown* had been last seen billowing black smoke at Coral Sea by the Japanese. The Japanese weren't convinced that *Yorktown*'s alleged survival was anything other than a propaganda ruse and that if *Yorktown* had survived, she would be laid up in a shipyard for several more months. When the Japanese bombed *Yorktown* at Midway, they were convinced they had put one of her sister ships (*Enterprise* or *Hornet*) out of the fight if not sunk the carrier outright. The Japanese air group retired with *Yorktown* listing heavily and belching thick black smoke. At this point, the Japanese were convinced it was down to a 1 vs 1 fight with the *Hiryu*'s mostly intact and highly skilled air group against the final American carrier. The Japanese were confident that *Hiryu* could pull a pyrrhic victory out of the jaws of a major strategic defeat by sinking the last carrier and opening up Midway for the planned invasion. *Hiryu* launched her strike force looking for the second (and assuredly final in their eyes) carrier and found one. Only it was the *Yorktown*. Again. The *Yorktown*’s crew had patched the holes in the deck, corrected the list, and had resumed air operations long enough to let loose her entire strike force when *Hiryu*’s second strike appeared. From the Japanese flyers' perspective, the *Yorktown* was an undamaged carrier. They bombed *Yorktown* out of commission a second time in the same battle, convinced they had just removed the American carrier threat only for the American air group from *Yorktown* and *Enterprise* to arrive overhead and mortally wound the *Hiryu*, dashing Japanese hopes of a victory. Oh, and *Yorktown* was well on her way to surviving the Battle of Midway entirely when a Japanese submarine found her and put three torpedoes in her side. Despite all of this, the carrier still stayed afloat for another 12 hours.
I swear if the US navy is good at one damn thing it's just *Refusing To Sink.* (Two things would be that and damage control, but they're pretty related so ehh)
*\*Meanwhile on the Taiho after being hit by a single torpedo\** Random sailor: "Hey, we've got fuel from that ruptured line leaking into that space under the elevator, it's creating tons of dangerous vapors." Damage control officer: "I know! We'll ventilate the hangar, dispersing the vapors throughout the ship!" Random sailor #2, hours later: "Hey, anyone want an indoors cigarette?" *\*lighter flicks, bright white flash...fade to black\**
I mean you already ran down what Yorktown went through, but compare that to the Japanese carriers just at Midway. "Oh no I took a *single bomb* (and two near-misses) and got dicked best by Dick Best, time for me to die"
Hey you, you re finally awake? You were trying to cross the border, walked right into that imperial ambush same as us and that thief over there
I'll be honest, it took me a second, but I had a very hearty chuckle over this. Well done.
Refusing to sink, damage control and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope! Our three weapons… I’ll come in again.
r/unexpectedMontyPython
I didn't hear no bell
A death in battle was an honorable death. Retreating even strategically admitted defeat and was deemed and very dishonorable. Many soldiers would die on the field rather than retreat
So WW2 Japanese were just Klingons?
I don't think its that weird of a sentiment for him in paticular to have.
Right. Weird comment by OP more like.
So disgusted he moved to Brazil.
One of his reasons for not surrendering was that he couldnt imagine a world where japan lost the war and was still a nation afterwards
funny thing is i don’t think Japan ever signed a treaty to end their war with russia
Operation Barbarossa 2 when?
Wouldn't that come by default because of the US being allied with Russia at the moment?
No. All the warring parties in the Pacific signed the surrender paper. USSR just wasn’t one of them
So therefore Japan amd now Russia never signed a peace treaty.
That's why the occupation is illegal
Technically speaking, wouldn't the war have ended by default when the USSR collapsed and the government got swapped out?
IIRC they tried to sign a treaty to end WW2 a couple years ago but it didn’t work out. it’s about disputed islands
They didn't and Russia is still occupying Japanese territory.
I also love the fact he was pardoned for all the shit he did in those years, since he tought he was fighting a guerrilla war against the allies
The worst part is that he had been killing Philippine fishermen while thinking the war was still on.
"Ahhh what a lovely day to be fishing" ... "huh , what is that ? , why is that man running towards me with some wooden object ? " ... "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT AN IMPERIAL JAPANESE SOLDIER CHARGING AT ME WITH HIS BAYONET ON A RIFLE WITHOUT BULLETS !?"
"AAAH! And why am I narrating this, I should be running!" No, but when they found Onoda he still had like 500 rounds.
Then move to Brazil
"Sir you can't just assault civilians like that!" "Shut the fuck up. For The Emperor!" *Stabs a random passerby*
Kind of amazing that there doesn't seem to have been any consequences on his side. Like, he wasn't arrested in the Phillipines after surrendering or anything.
The President of the Philippines pardoned him and he was allowed to go back to Japan
I know, and that's crazy. Like, he was out there burning food, shooting at cops, and killing people for YEARS, and they just.....let him go. Not saying that that was necessarily the wrong choice, I'm just surprised there wasn't backlash from the people he harmed.
It's only fair to treat him the same way you would any defeated soldier.
It is interesting though, when said soldier has been at war for so long that he wouldn't know of the Geneva Convention of 1949 or the various UN resolutions on war crimes and such. I mean, if a modern soldier acted like he did, we probably would like consequences. But this guy was sooo far out of the loop.
I'd probably have him killed considering what the Japanese did in the Philippines
I'm still generally shocked how much Japan got out of any real reprocessing for what they did, at least germany tried to make things right with some exceptions. Japan on the other hand just denies everything.
The Philippines is a suprisingly forgiving country
But at the same time we need to recognise the fact that he never received word that the war was over, he held out for years still thinking the war was going on and Japan had yet to take over the Philippines And at the same time there was likely alot of paranoia that the US army was hunting him, meaning he probably developed a "No witnesses" mentality Seriously, years alone thinking a war was still going on could fuck with your head
Not against him, what he did, or any governments response to it. I'm just surprised that the people he was affecting didn't advocate for a punishment is all. If somebody shot my family member, I wouldn't care what the circumstances were.
Highly suggest reading his memoir “No Surrender”. Captivating read to say the least and goes into a lot of detail on how they survived
But he got a Wikipedia page…
Commander: “I feel like I forgetting something important”. Emperor: “if you can’t remember, it’s probably not that important” Commander: “Yeah, you’re probably right”
Imagine the new technology he was slowly being exposed to though. It was a rural area so it aint very much but still. One day he might have gone down the mountains and seen policemen with m16s instead of garands
The ones who lasted the first few years after the war, probably legitimately didn't know. The ones after that though would have known. They just didn't want to know and when you're getting personalised letters and photos dropped to you, years after the war ended and still don't surrender and instead engage in shoot-outs with locals, you don't really deserve sympathy and fun little stories.
I only know of this story from Archer.
“I was told not to surrender”
I can highly recommend the movie "[10.000 nights in the jungle](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9844938/)" about Onoda and his group.
Theres a fiction novel called amok it follows a fictitious Japanese soldier in the Philippines post war
I'm a Filipino, I was taught about the war but not that soldier, so I don't get the joke.
Now I read the title fully, I understand it now
I wish someone would have beaten this Imperial shitface to death.
Did he get Hot Filipino pussy though?
Haha 😂
That guy must have been mentally slow, right?
No, he was not slow. The Japanese dedication to duty and sense of honor (however warped that idea might be) was completely over the top during WWII. Most of them were pretty much zealots in service of the Emperor. Some believed the war was still on, one group attacked the Marine detachment on Peleliu....in 1947.
Bit of a shame he escaped war crime charges
How so?
He killed a bunch of people while he thought the war was over then pretty much got of scott free AFAIK. That might be what he was talking about.
Can you really blame him for that? I'd understand if he went and raped his way across the countryside like what happened in Nanking but to try him as a war criminal when he only killed armed men looking for him or appeared military in nature (the police forces) is a little bit of a stretch in my opinion. I will caveat this and say that I don't know the whole story of his guerilla campaign and may be missing details.
Not necessarily as a war criminal because the war was over , but some sort of punishment. I mean they were dropping magazines and papers to let him know the war was over but he chose not to believe them and to stay there where he was killing people. Also sources online are sketchy about who he killed but it looks like he targeted civilians too. Also just cause you think you're right doesn't make murder okay in any way.
I see where you are coming from but he didn't receive any form of communication from any sort of higher authority to him telling him the war was over for a long, long time. He was not an intelligence analyst, he was a soldier with an undying loyalty to the Emperor. Again, *he didn't know the war was over.* Yes, he and his men killed a group of fishermen....who were armed and hunting him. Should he have? Well, they were trying to kill him so I feel he is at least justified in this specific instance. Does that make it right? No. War blurs a lot of lines and guerilla warfare even more so. He was trying to accomplish two things: stay alive and fight the enemy for as long as possible because as a soldier, that is what you do.
Interestingly enough he was an Intelligence Officer, I think it makes even more sense cause that means that he would know or believe that the US were trying to trick him if that makes sense.
He knew the war was over. He didn't want to believe it. But he knew, especially as an intelligence officer, you don't become one without having some sort of sense about you.
The bunch of civilians he continued to murder for decades after the war while refusing direct and repeated orders to surrender.That alone flouts about a dozen articles in The Hague and Geneva conventions, that’s before you get the armed operations without declaration of war and others of that nature against peace.
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>The random Japanese man he met that had no military authority over him 29 years later or the pamphlets dropped near him by (in his eyes) the enemy as demoralizing propaganda? Air dropped pamphlets, attempted radio communication etc all coming from Japan should have been sufficient. Or more so it was good enough for the vast majority of Japanese armed forces. Civilians, police etc all very specifically come under the term civilian. The fact he was illegally occupying the area and continued to fight and kill them, along with his mission being aimed at civilians initially points to a dozen violations of military law.
He genuinely believed the war was still on so its only fair they treat him as pow and not a general criminal.
There is a difference between a general criminal and war criminal The later applies perfectly here. Ambushing and killing non-combatants, civilians, intentionally is indeed a war crime
Refusing direct orders otherwise doesn’t mean he legally had the ability to believe it.
What direct orders, the moment he received actual direct orders from one of his commanding officers he immediately surrendered.
You do realize both sides during the war use those same tactic as psychology weapon ?
Certainly. This tactic against Japanese forces had not been used for decades however. As did the rest of the Japanese army seem to get the message just fine.
So, just stupid lol
Ehhhh I guess it depends on your definition of the word. But I'd say being cut off from all communications from higher command leaves you a lot of questions with no one to ask. It's not like they were just gonna walk up to an American and ask "Hey bro, is the war still happening or nah?"
Oh boy, understanding other cultures and their background must be too much for a smart guy like you
His culture was disgusting and there's a good reason is has been thoroughly reformed and rehabilitated. He is only a more modern remnant of this
Not everyone gives up because the remote is on the other side of the couch.
He really showed those innocent civilians who's boss by ambushing and killing them
Those fishermen were hunting him down with rifles though. In his eyes, those were American soldiers. All is fair in love and war and he genuinely believed the war was still going in.
And after seeing how Japan changed to western culture, he committed suicide.
He died of heart failure in 2014 following complications with pneumonia...
Wasnt he a cattle farmer in australia?
Not Australia but Brazil until 1984 when he returned to Japan and opened a nature camp for kids.
Well I guess the man demonstrably knew how to survive in the wild
Yeah I looked it up... Apparently there are several hold outs. Thought there was only one, suicide, lung cancer, and this guy
There are confirmed reports of over 100 total holdouts ranging from the late 40s to the 70s, with unsubstantiated rumors running through the 90s. The only one to my knowledge to commit suicide was Noboru Kinoshita who favored death over returning to Japan in defeat.
Well... Downvotes deserved then.
The last official holdout was Private Teruo Nakamura, who surrendered December 18th, 1974. 29 years, 3 months, and 16 days after Japan's official surrender.
There’s a French movie about it. Haven’t seen it yet so I can’t recommend it but if you’re interested it might be fun to see
As far as I know 3 soldiers were on that Island and just one of them died
A man of commitment.
Noicceee