A Little Girl Wrote to an American Pilot in 1948 — 24 Years Later, He Became Her Family

Lieutenant Herua, an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, was sent in 1944 to garrison a small Philippine island during the final stages of the Second World War.

He was given strict orders not to surrender under any circumstances, a command he adhered to for nearly three decades.

However, it was only in 1974, after Japanese explorer Norio Suzuki located him and persuaded him that he could lay down his arms if his former commanding officer personally relieved him of his duties, that Onota finally emerged from hiding.

On 9th March 1974, Anoda surrendered, becoming the penultimate Japanese soldier to officially lay down arms.

The question that fascinated many was why Anoda refused to believe the war had ended and how he survived in the jungle for more than 29 years.

Hiru Onoda was born on the 19th of March 1922 in Kynan Wakyama in central Japan.

At the age of 18 in 1940, he enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army and was quickly identified for special intelligence training.

He was sent to the Futamatada branch of the Nakano Military School in Tokyo, a prestigious facility devoted to producing elite commandos.

Here, Anoda received intense training in guerrilla warfare, martial arts, covert operations, and propaganda.

He was also schooled in history and philosophy, though the overarching focus of his training was indoctrination in loyalty and obedience.

Remarkably, this training diverged from the official battlefield code, the Senzhin Kun, which forbade soldiers from being captured and encouraged them to die in combat or through ritual suicide if defeat seemed imminent.

By December 1944, now holding the rank of lieutenant, Anoda was deployed to Lubang, a tiny island in the Philippines located about 93 mi southwest of Manila.

His mission was clear yet ambitious.

Destroy the island’s airfield and harbor pier and eliminate any enemy aircraft or personnel that attempted to land.

All to obstruct an anticipated Allied invasion scheduled for early 1945.

However, within weeks, Anoda’s mission faced immediate complications.

His superior officers upon his arrival argued that the harbor and airirstrip were needed to evacuate their own men, redirecting Anoda to assist in preparations for the evacuation instead.

Failing to complete his original mission weighed heavily on him.

On February 28th, 1945, an American assault captured the northern part of the island, effectively defeating most Japanese defenses.

By that point, most Japanese soldiers had either been killed, captured, or fled.

Major Yoshimi Tanaguchi, Onoda’s commanding officer, instructed Onoda and his three remaining men to continue resisting and never surrender.

They were also strictly forbidden from taking their own lives.

Japan officially surrendered on the 15th of August 1945 with the formal signing taking place on the 2nd of September.

Leaflets were dropped over Lubang announcing the surrender, but when other Japanese holdouts showed Onota one such leaflet in October, he dismissed it as enemy propaganda.

Another leaflet, this time carrying General Tommoayoyuki Yamashta’s explicit order to surrender, was also rejected by Onota, a skilled practitioner of intelligence and propaganda himself.

He claimed the document was a forgery designed to trap Japanese soldiers.

He had orders to follow and he would follow them.

Fully convinced that the war was still ongoing.

Onida and his remaining men waged a guerilla campaign in Lubang, targeting civilians, police forces, and search parties sent to capture them.

They believed all such forces to be coerced Japanese soldiers rather than locals or allied troops.

Survival required them to adapt to the harsh jungle.

Their diet consisted of banana skins, coconuts, and stolen rice.

Any attempt by locals to withhold food was interpreted as an enemy tactic to starve them.

Even during the Korean War, Anoda observed jets flying overhead, but assumed them to be part of a Japanese counteroffensive, dismissing all news dropped on the island as Yankee propaganda.

His comrades, however, began to doubt the endless continuation of the war.

In 1949, Uichi Akatsu left the group, surrendering 6 months later to Filipino forces.

Letters and family photos were dropped into the jungle in 1952 to convince Anoda that the war had ended.

Yet, he once again dismissed them as fakes.

The jungle continued to exact its toll.

In 1953, Anoda’s companion, Shoi Shamata, was shot in the leg by police during a raid.

A year later, Shamata was killed outright by another search party.

This left Onota with only one companion, Kinichi Kazuka.

The two men lived in caves, gathering intelligence on local facilities and occasionally clashing with villagers.

Over the years, they mistakenly killed 30 civilians, believing them to be enemy combatants while evading police ambushes.

Tales of a mythical soldier haunted the island, instilling both fear and hatred toward Onota.

In his memoir, No Surrender My 30-year war, Anoda reflected that by 1959, he and Kazuka had become so entrenched in their beliefs that they could no longer process information contradicting their worldview.

Anoda’s steadfastness was rooted in heavy indoctrination.

Japanese wartime ideology glorified death in service of one’s country, exemplified by the kamicazi pilots, and he also felt a profound responsibility as an intelligence officer.

Abandoning his post would have brought unbearable shame.

In October 1972, Kinichi Kazuka was killed by police gunfire.

Anoda, now alone, remained in hiding for another 18 months.

He may have comforted himself by claiming ignorance of the wars end rather than facing the reality that his actions had resulted in the deaths of his comrades and numerous civilians.

The Japanese government had declared the soldiers dead in 1959.

News of Kazuka’s death, however, suggested Onoda might still be alive, and by 1974, his story captured national attention.

Norio Suzuki, an adventurous student bored with everyday life in Japan, set out to find him.

Astonishingly, Suzuki located Onota within 4 days.

While the two men formed a friendship, Onota refused to surrender without official orders.

Suzuki returned to Japan with proof of their encounter, secured Onota’s former commanding officer, Major Tanaguchi, now a book seller, and returned to Lubang.

On 9th March 1974, Tanaguchi personally rescended Onota’s original orders, formerly relieving him of his duty by Emperor Shoa’s command.

Overwhelmed, Onida wept as he surrendered, handing over a sword, rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition, several grenades, and a dagger given to him by his mother to use if captured.

Returning to Japan at age 52, Anida was celebrated as a hero by 8,000 people.

NHK filmed his arrival, noting that he still wore his old imperial uniform.

He presented his sword to Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos, who granted him a formal pardon.

His family, who had believed him dead for decades, were reunited with him for the first time since his deployment at age 22.

In the context of Japan’s post-war economic struggles and shifting cultural values, Anot’s story became a symbol of loyalty, courage, and perseverance.

Conservatives embraced him as a living reminder of traditional virtues.

While media coverage allowed Anoda to profit far beyond his veterans pension, he wrote a best-selling memoir in 1974.

Though some war veterans and his ghost writer, Ikada Shin later questioned its accuracy.

Adjusting to modern Japan proved difficult.

Disenchanted by perceived moral decline and diminishing reverence for the emperor, Anoda followed his elder brother to a Japanese colony in S.

Paulo, Brazil in April 1975.

He ran a cattle ranch, married a Japanese woman in 1976, and split his time between Brazil and Japan.

After reading about a Japanese teenager who had murdered his parents in 1980, Anida established Anoda Shiangjuku in 1984, a series of camps designed to teach survival and camping skills to young Japanese.

Hiu Anoda passed away on the 16th of January 2014 at the age of 91, succumbing to pneumonia complications, leaving behind a story of remarkable endurance, unwavering loyalty, and the extraordinary consequences of duty taken to its extreme.