japanese soldiers who emerged from the jungle's decades after ww2 ended thinking that ww2 was still

is there a correct term for these men ? and does anybody have any info regarding them ?

they are a true testemant to survival as their equipment was immaculate !

hope this thread isnt in the wrong place.

i would just be interested in any info on these guys.

[edit on 20-2-2007 by RedDanDoc]

I remember this story from years ago I think... Guy was found in the woods with a machete or something. Lived like he was in a warzone..Crazy to spend that much of your life looking for the enemy

I've never actually read about these soldiers but I do remember the one on Gilligan's Island. Really though, I would be interested in reading more about them. If anyone finds an article, please post it up.

His Name Is Hiroo Onoda 30years in the jungle somewere in the philippines he was part of a group of gurilers and the sole surviver of about 2o or so men i believe i remember he killed about 30 philppinos wounding a hundred after hostilities ceased there was a few more in New Gunea as well

I think the History Channel had a show about these men. There were several (many?) throughout SE Asia. The one in question (named above) was the longest hold-out. He had killed some of the natives, and the natives were aware of him. If I recall correctly, they left food out for him at spots he was known to appear, but was never caught.

His old commanding officer (or NCO) was located and called to him on a bullhorn to "surrender", which he finally did upon the "order" of his former superior.

I believe the man moved to Brazil and is a rancher (he may be dead by now), and professed his disgust on how Japan has become Westernized.

Wow so some of those storiers are true? I thought they were just urban legands. Things that make you go Hmm

Originally posted by angryamerican
Wow so some of those storiers are true? I thought they were just urban legands. Things that make you go Hmm

en.wikipedia.org...

astonishingly true.

Originally posted by Zhenyghi

His old commanding officer (or NCO) was located and called to him on a bullhorn to "surrender", which he finally did upon the "order" of his former superior.

Little Correction: NCO- Non-Commissioned Officer

Not his old commanding officer.

[edit on 22-2-2007 by CautiousCrab]

Whats more incredible imho is that this man moved to South America lateron and made a life for himself, actualy being able to travel back to the island he was on and donating 10000$ to the local school. (Probably thanks to his book)

But still, living trough all that, being considered a complete loon for it and coming out rather sane and a productive member of society is nothing short of incredible.

Kind of put's a whole new spin on "Honey, I'm going to be a little late."

I wonder if he was pissed when he got home and his dinner was cold?

Throw some hair on em and make him have unusally big feet... and this could have been put in the Crypto section.

If this guy can survive 30 years in the woods/jungle without being caught or seen... hmmmm. Sounds familiar.

As a kid growing up I heard about something similar...except it was fiction....on a CBS comedy known as....


Gilligan's Island

So Sorry, My Island Now
Episode Number: 15 Season Num: 1 First Aired: January 9, 1965

While Gilligan is catching lobsters he thinks he sees a sea monster. He rushes to tell everyone. When he's gone we see it's a submarine with a Japanese sailor inside. Professor and Skipper don't believe him. Gilligan goes back to the lagoon and tells Thurston who also doesn't believe him. The soldier captures Thurston thinking he's an officer. Gilligan claims that he was eaten by the sea serpent. Gilligan and Ginger head back to the lagoon to look for Thurston but Ginger is captured too. Lovey is then captured. Gilligan goes back to the camp to warn the Skipper. Skipper and Gilligan go back to find the Professor but he was captured too. The women and men are in different cages guarded by the Japanese sailor.

professor tries to explain to the sailor that World War II is over. But the sailor doesn't believe them. Nor did he hear it on the radio or transmitter because they broke in 1942.......click HERE for more information.

Originally posted by CautiousCrab

Originally posted by Zhenyghi

His old commanding officer (or NCO) was located and called to him on a bullhorn to "surrender", which he finally did upon the "order" of his former superior.

Little Correction: NCO- Non-Commissioned Officer

Not his old commanding officer.

[edit on 22-2-2007 by CautiousCrab]

I know NCO means Non-Commisioned Officer (ala a Sergeant), I didn't recall if the superior was an NCO or a commisioned officer..

The hardest part I see in living for 30 odd years in a jungle setting (IMO) would be learning to deal with the local spiders, bugs, snakes...anything poisonous that could bite you.

Tropical locales have fruit trees and many edible plants that grow year-round. Water on a large island is also usually not to difficult to find...hell, build a solar still with some plastic if need be.

We've all seen that movie with Tom Hanks where he survives on an Island...it's totally rough on him, especially the solitude.

Most survival experts will tell you that if properly trained, the hardest aspect of survival to master is the psychological. . .

We ought to make a thread on how to "deal" with long periods of isolation. . . Obviously this Japanese soldier was able to stave off being driven mad by the lack of human interaction.

30 years later....talk about living in the past. but really you all say you couldn't do it without going mad...well he had his "mission" to complete. if he focused on that he would have no other distractions and he wouldnt care if he was alone...he had a job to do. so in essance...if your busy you wont go crazy

Thirty years, eh? Not the brightest bulb on the wire I'd assume. Thirty years! I mean come on. Hmmmmmm........Don't you think that after like 25 years you'd start to question things?

Things like

"Hey, you know come to think of it, I haven't heard a single gunshot in 25 years. I wonder......"

or

"Hmmmmm....... Let's see it's been 25 years, and I haven't seen a single person. I wonder if this place is worth protecting? Nah, I'll give it another couple of year just to be really sure......."

Originally posted by lombozo
Thirty years, eh? Not the brightest bulb on the wire I'd assume. Thirty years! I mean come on. Hmmmmmm........Don't you think that after like 25 years you'd start to question things?

Things like

"Hey, you know come to think of it, I haven't heard a single gunshot in 25 years. I wonder......"

or

"Hmmmmm....... Let's see it's been 25 years, and I haven't seen a single person. I wonder if this place is worth protecting? Nah, I'll give it another couple of year just to be really sure......."


you have to be able to comprehend the mindset of the Bushido i guess ?

I lived in the South Pacific for over 3 years and these stories were common for fishermen and the "coast guards" for the islands. One such incident happened while I was there, some fishermen went ashore on one of the small islands in the chain and apparently came accross a shot down Japanese Zero and found signs of activity. After calling it in they did a search of the island and sure enough, they found a WW2 Japanese fighter pilot still living on the island. Guy thought the war was still going, they put the article in the paper and they did an interview with him (in the south pacific where I was you could get TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System from Japan) and many other Japanese channels besides USA broadcasts... None the less they asked why he never tried to get help because of the amount of fishing vessels that went by, even Japanese and he remarked that he never knew it was over, every time he saw a vessel he though it was American or every time he saw a plane, he thought it was American bombers going to Japan.
Dont snear at this by the way, just remember the 100 years war between France and England... The guy did get sent home to his family which had survived.

Hiroo Onoda: After all that he must be one hard core guirilla fighter. Dang, you do NOT want to mess with that guy! As for his gun: wow, that was a good gun! 30 years and still working! I wonder if he got to keep it...

It is very easy to never realize a war is over if you go into the jungles, I was in island jungles and frankly you would never know the differance if a war was over or not on a mainland considering how dense they are. I would say those who were found, and those NOT yet found are probably the BEST, STRONGEST, ELITE, and HARD-CORE soldiers this world has ever seen. Being cut off from communications and not know what is going on yet they carry on even when they are in their 90's... Now THAT is the kind of person you want looking over your shoulder in war! Also it is sensible that the Japanese could handle it so easily thanks to religious reasons, mind over matter, in short: Buddism.

There is a book on this fellow also, called "no surrender: my 30 year war", well these are comments from other users regarding this book and his story

Countless times the island was blanketed with notes dropped from planes that said the war was over & Japan had surrendered. One of the soldiers he lived with walked away from Onada & his friends in 1949 (after 5 years living with Onada). He walked to freedom & then came back & tried to convince the last 3 soldiers (Onada, Shimada & Kozuka) to give up - that the war was over, they were wasting their time. They dropped notes with the 3 soldiers names on it, pictures of Onada's family members...& walked around the island with bullhorns yelling that the war was over. Onada, Shimada & Kozuka heard this from their friend & saw the notes but were convinced that their friend was captured by the enemy & it was all a trap.

Over the years his brother came & yelled on speakers to get Onada to surrender, Onada got within 150 yards of his brother & recognized him & his voice but still thought it was a trap.


Another time his sister did the same thing - he still thought something was fishy & refused to fall for the trap. People always left old newspapers around - from around the world , but mostly from the Philipines & Japan. Sometimes the stacks of newspapers were several feet high. They would read them all, right down to the "want ads". They still twisted things in their minds that the Americans had edited out all these papers & taken out the parts about the war - Onada thought the Americans went to all this trouble just to trick these couple of people on some isolated island.

For about 15 years they had access to a transistor radio & they would listen to stations all over the world - mostly Japanese but others such as the BBC. Still they couldn't wrap their heads around it that things were as they were being told from ex-soldier friends & family members. Finally after 30 years somehow Onada saw the light.

Lt. Hiroo Onoda spent 29 years on a Phillipine island fighting World War 2. When he was 22 he arrived on Lubang, fresh out of officer training, and reported in to an Imperial Japanese Army base to assume his duties as a junior intelligence officer. Shortly thereafter the steamroller of the US Navy, Army, and Marine Corps came rolling through and and Lt. Onoda retreated to the surrounding jungles of Lubang along with 3 other soldiars when his army base was decimated and captured. Lt. Onoda had recieved orders to continue the fight, even if it meant assuming the role of a guerilla fighter until he was formally relieved by a ranking officer.

One observation is that the ancient traditions and teachings of the Samurai (Bushido) were very much a motivational factor in the japanese military forces during the second world war. My second observation is that the devotion to duty and loyalty to an ideal can be carried further than many in the world of today could even think was possibile.

This is a must read book. I'd suggest that you familiarise yourself with the codes of Bushido first of all (Hagakure is a good place to start), so that you can better understand the mind set of Lt. Onoda. His descisions are largely based upon his upbringing and teachings and, (in my opinion) sadly, are somewhat foreign to the modern person. Wihout a small amount of familiarity with Bushido, or a knowledge of the ways of the Samurai, you might just view this story as a tale of s silly and ignorant man. I assure you that Hiroo Onoda was/is neither.

sounds like a good book, they should make a movie