#akatsu yūichi

[mostly-history]

Second Lieutenant Onoda Hirō heads for a helicopter landing site on Lubang Island for a flight to Manila (March 1974).  He is wearing his 30-year-old imperial army uniform, cap and sword, and has just come out of hiding in the jungle.

Onoda had been sent to Lubang Island in December 1944, a few months before the Americans invaded and retook the Philippines, to join an existing group of soldiers.  The last instructions he received from his immediate superior were to retreat to the interior of the island and harass the Allied occupying forces until the Imperial Japanese Army eventually returned.  “You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand,” he was told.  “It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we'll come back for you.  Until then, so long as you have only one soldier, you are to continue to lead him.”

When Allied forces took the island a few months later, Onoda and four other soldiers fled into the hills, and began a thirty-year-long insurgency.  The other three soldiers were Private Akatsu Yūichi, Corporal Shimada Shōichi and Private First Class Kozuka Kinshichi.

In October 1945, the four men found a leaflet left behind by the islanders that said, “The war ended on August 15.  Come down from the mountain!”  But they believed it was Allied propaganda, and that if they war was over, they wouldn't have been fired on.

Near the end of the year, leaflets with a surrender order from General Yamashita Tomoyuki (of the 14th Area Army) were dropped on the island from the air.  Onoda's group still didn't believe they were genuine.

Akatsu left the group in September 1949, and surrendered to Filipino forces six months later.  In 1952, letters and family pictures were dropped from aircraft, urging them to surrender.  These letters weren't believed, either.

Shimada was killed on May 7th, 1954, by a search party looking for the soldiers.  On October 19th, 1972, Kozuka and Onoda were burning rice that had been collected by farmers, as part of their guerrilla activities.  Kozuka was killed by local police, and Onoda was now on his own.

On February 20th, 1974, Suzuki Norio came across Onoda. He had been looking for “Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman, in that order.”  The two men became friends, but Onoda still refused to surrender, as he was still waiting for orders from a superior officer.  In 2010, he said in an interview: “This hippie boy Suzuki came to the island to listen to the feelings of a Japanese soldier.  Suzuki asked me why I would not come out...”

When Suzuki returned to Japan with photos of them together, the Japanese government found Onoda's commanding officer, Major Taniguchi Yoshimi, who was now a bookseller.  Taniguchi flew to Lubang Island and met with Onoda on March 9th, 1944.  He issued him the following orders:

In accordance with the Imperial command, the Fourteenth Area Army has ceased all combat activity.

In accordance with military Headquarters Command No. A-2003, the Special Squadron of Staff’s Headquarters is relieved of all military duties.

Units and individuals under the command of Special Squadron are to cease military activities and operations immediately and place themselves under the command of the nearest superior officer.  When no officer can be found, they are to communicate with the American or Philippine forces and follow their directives.

Onoda had formally been relieved of duty, and he surrendered, turning over his sword, rifle, ammunition, hand grenades, and the dagger his mother had given him in 1944 to kill himself with if he was captured. Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos issued him a pardon for his actions (the men had killed about 30 Filipinos over the years), taking into consideration Onoda's mistaken belief that the war was still ongoing.

[hyaenagallery]

Hirō "Hiroo" Onoda (1922 – 2014) was an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who fought in World War II and was a Japanese holdout who did not surrender in August 1945. He was born in Kamekawa Village, Kaisō District, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. When he was 17 years old, he went to work for the Tajima Yoko trading company in Wuhan, China. When he was 18, he was enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army Infantry. Onoda trained as an intelligence officer in the commando class "Futamata" of the Nakano School. On December 26, 1944, he was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines. He was ordered to do all he could to hamper enemy attacks on the island, including destroying the airstrip and the pier at the harbor. Onoda's orders also stated that under no circumstances was he to surrender or take his own life. When he landed on the island, Onoda joined forces with a group of Japanese soldiers who had been sent there previously. The officers in the group outranked Onoda and prevented him from carrying out his assignment, which made it easier for United States and Philippine Commonwealth forces to take the island when they landed on February 28, 1945. Within a short time of the landing, all but Onoda and three other soldiers had either died or surrendered. Onoda, who had been promoted to lieutenant, ordered the men to take to the hills. Onoda continued his campaign as a Japanese holdout, initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers (Private Yūichi Akatsu, Corporal Shōichi Shimada and Private First Class Kinshichi Kozuka). During his stay, Onoda and his companions carried out guerrilla activities and engaged in several shootouts with the police. The first time they saw a leaflet announcing that Japan had surrendered was in October 1945; another cell had killed a cow and found a leaflet left behind by islanders which read: "The war ended on August 15. Come down from the mountains!" However, they distrusted the leaflet. They concluded that the leaflet was Allied propaganda, and also believed that they would not have been fired on if the war had indeed been over. #destroytheday https://www.instagram.com/p/BpcPy-_h96w/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=uaooyvc85svt