Last world war combatant surrenders
Those old enough to realize its significance will never forget
the events of Sept. 2, 1945 when a ceremony aboard the USS Missouri
brought an end to the bloodiest war in history.
The Japanese government formally surrendered to the Allied
powers within a month of two mushroom-shaped clouds blossoming over
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Last world war combatant surrenders
Those old enough to realize its significance will never forget the events of Sept. 2, 1945 when a ceremony aboard the USS Missouri brought an end to the bloodiest war in history.
The Japanese government formally surrendered to the Allied powers within a month of two mushroom-shaped clouds blossoming over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The world went wild. The surrender with that of Germany four months earlier meant that the carnage that had claimed millions upon millions of lives and had devastated entire cities was over.
Mankind would turn to peace again, and those serving in all military forces would be coming home in the following weeks and months.
Or most of them.
For a time following the surrender, Japanese soldiers emerged from remote outposts to learn that the war had ended. Others heard of it through planes dropping leaflets or messages blared from loudspeakers in the jungles. By and by, they realized that the war was over and surrendered.
Lt. Hiro Onoda and three soldiers on the island of Lubang in the Philippines, were exceptions. He had been sent there in the last week of 1944 when he was 22 with special instructions. He was to engage in guerilla activities until relieved. “The war may take a long time, even years” he was told. “You are not to surrender and are forbidden to take your own life, even in despair. The Emperor depends upon you and others like you to maintain fighting until ultimate victory.” Onoda gave him his word of honor.
He came upon the three enlisted men in the jungle where they had become separated from their units and took command. Realizing that the enemy was superior numerically and could be anywhere, they never spent more than three or four days at any spot. They lived off coconuts and bananas, with an occasional iguana.
They sometimes accosted parties of Filipinos and killed some and drove others off. Onoda knew the enemy was wily so dismissed the leaflets as lies. Time passed and one soldier deserted.
But Onoda and the other two kept up the fight. Then another soldier was killed and only Onoda and his single follower remained on duty until the latter was finally killed.
One day in the jungle, Onoda spotted a young Japanese civilian and approached him. Anxious for word from home, he listened as the man told him the war was over. Onoda was still unconvinced but the man said he would find his old commander and bring him to Onoda.
He located him in Japan and persuaded him to return with him. Onoda’s former commander confirmed the story. Onoda wept, then remembering his responsibility, asked to be taken to President Ferdinand Marcos and surrendered his sword. Marcos returned it and pardoned Onoda for the killings.
With his honor vindicated and relieved of his duties, World War II’s last combatant made preparations to return to his homeland that very day, March 12, 1974, more than 28 years after the war had ended.
