Hero, or Murderous Idiot?
Back in Japan with photographic proof of his encounter with Onoda, the holdout’s new friend contacted the Japanese government, which in turn tracked down his former commanding officer. Onoda’s wartime commander travelled to Lubang, to personally inform him that the war was over, that he was released from military duty, and order him to stand down. In 1974, clad in his battered and threadbare uniform, Lieutenant Onoda handed in his sword and other weapons to representatives of the US and Filipino military, and finally brought his war to an end nearly three decades after the conclusion of WWII. He returned to a hero’s welcome in Japan, but admiration for his single minded devotion to duty was not universal. Lubang’s inhabitants did not see Onoda as a conscientious and honorable man devoted to duty. Instead, they viewed him as a bloody-minded idiot.
In his 29-year-holdout, Onoda inflicted sundry harms upon the Lubangese. He stole, destroyed, and sabotaged their property. He also needlessly killed about 30 local police and farmers with whom his band had clashed as they stole or “requisitioned” food and supplies in order to continue a war that had ended decades earlier. A militarist through and through, Onoda believed that the war had been a sacred mission, and the pacifist and futuristic Japan to which he returned was unrecognizable to him. He found himself unable to fit in a country and culture so radically different from the one in which he had grown up. Within a year of his return to Japan, Onoda emigrated to Brazil, where he bought a cattle ranch, settled into to the life of a rancher, married, and raised family. He died in 2014, aged 91.