In 1945, Japan surrendered. On Lubang Island in the Philippines, Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda kept fighting a guerrilla war, a small hidden fight against an enemy he believed was still there.
For him, the end had not come.
Why did he reject the leaflets?
He later said he found mistakes in them and took them for an American trick. His orders told him not to surrender, to keep fighting, and not to take his own life.
In his memoir he admitted that he and comrade Kinshichi Kozuka had clung so hard to their own beliefs that they could no longer understand anything that went against them.
Nearly 29 years passed after the war.
Almost three decades.
In March 1974, his former commander flew to the island and personally canceled the 1944 order.
Only then did Onoda put down his weapon.
He saluted and handed over his Type 99 rifle, the remaining 500 rounds, grenades, and a sword. He also turned in his diary and the dagger his mother had given him when he left. Everything was still in working condition.
The leaflets could not convince him.
His commander's order could.
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