This WWII Soldier Hid In A Philippine Jungle For 30 Years

Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese intelligence officer who hid in the jungle for 30 years thinking this country was still at war.

World War II had been over for nearly three decades by the time Hiroo Onoda stopped fighting.

An intelligence officer, Onoda was sent to the island of Lubang — a Philippine island south of Manila — to conduct guerilla warfare with three other soldiers in 1944.

At the behest of his commanding officers, Maj. Yoshimi Taniguchi and Gen. General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Onoda took his soldiers into the jungle. He would stay there until 1974. His original orders were to continue leading Pvt. Yūichi Akatsu, Cpl. Shōichi Shimada, and Pvt. 1st Class Kinshichi Kozuka for as long as it took Japan to win the war.

According to The New York Times, one of the last orders Onoda received was on Feb. 28, 1945, from Maj. Yoshimi Taniguchi, who told him stand and fight. “It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens we’ll come back for you,” the major said.