I just watched on the History Channel today about a man named Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who finally surrendered in 1974....an astounding 29 years after Japan lost WW2! It was a story of epic proportions and i was moved by how this man was told not to die by his hand (because this goes against his tradition). I was also amazed how he survived in the jungles of Lubang, Philippines for 29 years in which he first started off with a large group of soldiers and then it narrowed to himself after his comrades surrendered/gave up/killed in action.

Upon returning to Japan, he was regarded as a national hero and honorable warrior. However, he still retained the mentality of 1944 and was shocked at how different Japan had become. Consequently, he married and moved to Brazil where he has a cattle ranch.

His survival skills were truly amazing, he would have to resort to stealing from the villages (for supplies) and living off coconuts, wild life, etc. to survive. He was also able to keep his gun in good condition after all that time. He is still alive today and he visited Lubang in 1996, but there was much controversy in this. Back when he surrendered in 1974, Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos pardoned him. It was estimated that he and his comrades have killed an estimated 30+ citizens in Lubang. However, the present citizens of Lubang regard him as a war criminal. I say he is a determined and loyal soldier and that it was right to pardon him from those killings because he did not know that the war was over. However, i do feel sorry for the innocent lives lost.

Overall, a great story.
http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa120700a.htm

There were more like him!
http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa120700a.htm

I am wondering if there were any other post-war soldiers (such as the Germans, etc.) in our world's past wars. ok peace

Yeah I read about it.

Yes I was curious as to how many of you knew about him. He seems rather stupid if you ask me. "I didn't know we were defeated". I saw video tape of when this guy came off of the plane and back to japan. That was funny.

lol, thats true...how can he not know that they were defeated. He must of killed all the filipinos that were trying to tell him that it's over.

Man, i would love to see that video of him returning to Japan. He must of been like "WTF!" when he got off the plane.

No but see, while i was watching this documentary about this man on the History Channel, he was trained as a guerilla fighter and was told to survive at all costs. He was also trained to be skeptical so when flyers and search parties went all around Lubang telling that the war was over, he thought the enemy (the Allies) went to great lengths in trying to trick him. He didn't even believe it was really his brother when he heard his voice from a helicopter above him! Additionally, the flyers that were dropped on this island had many grammatical mistakes (it was written in Japanese) so he knew for sure it was a trick.

He had great confidence in his country and knew that Japan had not lost the war; he knew that his country had lost the war if every Japanese citizen/soldier was killed in the war and since he was alive, he thought to himself that the war was still going on. he was even told by his superiors that war could last up to 100 years if it had to (remember the 100 years war? i forgot the sides that partook in this battle)

But he wasn't the only straggler after the war. There were many others just like him! (See the link on my first post! :genius: )

The guy is simply an idiot... I bet the world is laughing at him right now.

I would love to see a video of him getting off the plane.

well if you saw the documentary that was shown on the History Channel, you would see things differently... :genius:

Wow... amazing... and stupid

No need. I already know all about the man. As I said before he is a fool. When I say they went all out for his return they went all OUT. The plane he rode had this enormous red sun. There were what looked to be about a thousand people to see the japanese soldier return. Each had a little flag. Little children out there. I think this was back in the 70s or late 60s. The celebration of a fool's return home. It still bothers me that they were so happy about this man. I mean they didn't even celebrate itokawa's rocket launch like that.

well how can one be labeled a fool for being an ardent and loyal fighter for his country? like i said, he was trained to survive at all costs and also trained to be highly skeptic (i must overemphasize this!). the flyers that came down from the sky had grammatical errors so he thought it was a trick. he was even told by his superiors that war could last 100 years if it has to. he would only be convinced that japan had lost the war if he found out that all the japanese died because he knew that all the japanese would fight until the death for the service of their emperor. when he realized that japan had lost, he said quote "how could they be so sloppy?" i mean you can think he is dumb but i personally think him as a loyal and well trained fighter who was only following orders that were given to him way back in 1944. and besides, i saw the footage also (from the tv documentary) when he came back to japan. everyone was cheering for him and regarded him as a national hero and to some as the last samurai (since he strictly followed his code/orders). oh yea, the title of this documentary was called "The Last Surrender."

There are many cases of this happening. During the seventies and sixties there were many soldiers found hiding from the Japanese government. They feared the Japanese imperial government and the punishment they would receive for deserting the army. They were infact sad victims of imperial Japan's brainwashing.

Many of the victims had actually known of Japan's defeat and the end of WWII (from newspapers and such) and yet they feared returning to their country. These people survived in the jungle off of stealing cattle and such.

They are yet another example of the mistakes the Japanese made during WWII.

The world war 2 japanese soldier was an animal

He would resort to cannibalism and barabric acts of cruelty to people


I saw a picture of a dead chinese civilian whose entire leg was eaten by japanese soldiers and all that was left was his leg bone.

That just shows how badly the war was going for the Japanese. There was widespread famine in Japan and the best food was going to the soldiers and still they had not enough food to survive. I can't believe America still dropped TWO nuclear bombs on us even though we were in no condition to fight.

Well, the Americans believe they were the good guys, and japanese were the bad guys. Dropping two a-bombs were justfied by Truman himself and the rest of the congress.

Truman's justification is as follows:

"[Truman] was convinced that using the atomic bomb would in the end save lives by avoiding an American invasion against 'savages, ruthless, merciless, and fanatic.'" (pp.1368 of America A Narrative History Fifth Edition by George Brown Tindall and David E Shi)

Truman was just a racist.

And it was also a perfect opportunity to show the American's might to the Soviets.

What do you expect when you bomb Pearl Harbor?

US was in the Great Depression when Japan decided to provoke war with it.

China was in Civil War when Japan invaded it !

Well you should know that Pearl Harbor was NOT a surprise attack to the US. This is starting to become common knowledge more and more. In about fifty years or so, this should be found in all US history textbooks. FDR started WWII in the US's interest, not Japan. And TWO ATOM BOMBS were never necessary for ending the war. America's top military advisors were all against the dropping of the bomb. The motivations behind dropping it were purely political and scientific. SHOW TO THE WORLD AND ESPECIALLY TO THE SOVIET UNION OUR MIGHT was their reasoning. And the even worse reasoning, the scientific one, LET'S DO THE GREATEST HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION WE CAN DO WITHOUT GETTING IN TROUBLE FOR. Two atom bombs is just human experimentation. What the US did is just as bad as what the Nazis did to the Jews. America knew that they would get no retribution. THey could just say that it was a war tactic but it was clear the scientists just wanted to know the effects of nuclear bombs on PEOPLE. It is sickening.

The dropping of the 2 bombs was American payback for Pearl Harbor. The internment of Japanese citizens as well.

On the other hand, I don't know why you would find USs acts repulsive when Japan engaged in more heinous atrocities during WWII. How do you reconcile?

They didn't even sign the Geneva Convention,

They wanted to treat Prisoners of War like $hit and torture, execute, sodomize them

To tell one nation to recognize their crimes and ignore the crimes of another nation's is just being hypocritical. I don't think that it is right that Japan is the only country that is receiving the fire. Japan has made tremendous efforts to make up for its crimes while America continues to teach their children that the atom bomb attacks were justified and applied correctly. What America has done, not just to Japan but to other nations as well, is just as terrible as the crimes that Japan has done. The act of comparing to crimes itself is despicable but it is widely practiced as a legitimate action and I cannot say anything against it, but I have to say, if you're gonna say something about Japan, say something against every other nation in the world that has committed a crime and has no recognized it. Korea and China are only pushing for Japan's apology is so that they could get some sort of benefit out of it.

Agreed truman was both selfish and racist.

like what?

Do you like Chinese women BarkerinTokyo? Yes or No?

Whats up with that question? I really have to hear this one.

I don't think that there is any reason I have to answer that question.

hehe, more like "cover up its crimes"

Japan has done enough to make up for its crimes and that is a fact whether you would like to acknowledge it or not.

Enough would be the public execution of Hirohito and other class A War Criminals and total revision of Japanese history textbooks that deny the existance of the Naning Massacre and sufferings the evil Japanese soldiers committed during their reign of terror.

I would love to hear your explanation of this little statement. Should be entertaining.

Japan continued to deny its past... and has not given reparations even to the surviving comfort women that still seek justice from the Japanese government to this day... They are a living testament that Japan has not lived up to its debts... I'm sure the Japanese government doesn't really care about all those who were hurt... and even when survivors are still able to voice their grievances.. the Japanese government chooses to wait and let them die out....

Do you like Chinese or Korean women BarkerinTokyo? Yes or No?

the japanese haven't done $hit to compensate its crimes in WWII.

when was the last time you hear the japanese compensating victims? When was the last time you hear them apologising? To those japanese telling them to admit the truth is already too much.

How long did it take that irresponsible nation to "just" admit that UNIT 731, RON, COMFORT WOMAN, existed? Well they stil deny the existence of RON, even when their own soldiers stationed there, testify againt them, evidence, from arund the world and their WWII allie. Oh yes LAst year they "finally" recongnized the existence of UNIT 731, and yet thats all. its alot for the japanese already, to admit their war crimes.

The Japanese responsibility compared to the Germans after WWII, is basically comparing an bacteria to an elephant.

They tested biologicial weapons on innocent chinese women, children.

They invade chinese cities and have orgies of fun, Nanjing is one of many smaller isolated incidents where Japanese rape little girls and old women. Japan's UNIT 731, is crazy, dissecting humans, cracking open chinese live skulls for japaense "studies". They tested every imaginable chemical and biological disease on chinese people. None of this have been repaid of compensated. Japanese haven't done jack $hit to repay the victims of its war crimes. Japanese were so perverted, even though they adhere to bushido, they rape every women in their sight, I feel bad for the Japanese women back in their homeland. Japanese can't stop having fun with raping a women 40 times a day, Military prostitution. That is so sickening, and inhumane, I truly hope the war criminals and all the japanese supports BURN in hell for the horrors and atrocities that Japanese caused in Asia.

Uh~ I don't know what planet you're from but Japan has apologized and compensated many people and NATIONs as well....

"Japan has also attempted to make up for its role in World War II. Japan established a private consolation fund for comfort women who claim that they were used as sex slaves during the war. Unlike Germany, Japan has paid monetary reparations to many of the individual nations it invaded. It allocating $3.9 billion to the Philippines, Vietnam, Burma, and Indonesia, in addition to giving $300 million and loaning $200 million to South Korea as "management of claims" for a former colony, but the Korean government denies the Korean public from viewing official documents and keeps the Korean public in the dark about the compensation. President Park who had been holiding the power when the normalization was completed, was later assassinated, and the ommission of compensation for individual Korean is blamed on him. Also unlike Germany, Japanese prime ministers have apologized directly for the invasion of China. Most notably, former Prime Minister of Japan Murayama Tomiichi offered an apology ("owabi") in 1995 on the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II.

Many governments, including Thailand and China, relinquished their claim to Japanese reparations at the intergovernmental level (i.e.: Those countries did not relinquish individual citzens from requesting reparation, nor they had the right to). Japan responded by relinquishing compensation for factories and railroads in China's Manchuria region worth billions of dollars. The Chinese government later asked for direct compensation. Japan began Official Development Assistance to China in 1979. It has provided $30 billion through the ODA and continues this practice today. Other nations in Asia had also received ODA and other funds to aid building their country after their independence. Additionally, Japanese school textbooks describe the invasion of China and its subsequent negative effects on the Chinese people. Japan also allows freedom of speech and discussion among the differing views its citizens have regarding issues like its role in World War II and the efficacy of its retributions. Finally, the government of Japan was judged responsible for the war and war criminals were taken to task by Allied forces or the People's Liberation Army. Until 1950, Class A, B, and C war criminals working for Japan, both Japanese and foreign (e.g. General Hong of Korea) were on trial and judged; some of these are still banned from entering the United States."

Taken from Wikipedia online encyclopedia.

many? NOT ALL!

Japan still denies its hidious war crimes in Nanking. Japan refuse to apologise for its sickening, barbaric, ihumane test on civilians targets during WWII (unit 731). Japan won't pay one penny to those victims. How many of those workers that were kidnap to work for Japanese imperalist coporation like mitsubishi? how many has justice served? The first winning case of a former worker suing the japanese company and gov't for compensation, is just a few years ago. How many more succed? I dont think there is even 10.

Just this year, a group of former workers sue the japanese corporation and japanese gov't. and won the case, but ONCE AGAIN both the corporation and gov't is trying to deny responsibility.

Many Hong Kongers, have boxes of japanese imperial waste paper, that your gov't refuse to take it back, and hand back proper money.

There are HK comfort woman, and they haven't receive one penny from the japanese gov't. They filed three law suits and they were all rejected back from japan.

you are the one that is living on another planet.

This the only few time where a idot became a hero...

China and Korea are mad because the government has not given an "official" apology recognizing its mistakes. Well we Japanese people can say the exact same things about your accusations. We have never made an "official" denial of war crimes. Our government has never stated those things have never happened, ever. Our government has never denied anything. There are many politicians who believe so but none of have an official denial that has been voted on. So, you can't be mad at us about that.

hmmm.....i don't get it!

i thought we were talking about a world war II soldier!

what's this flaming debate going on in here lol

oh well, i've seen like the same kind of talk in the other threads as well....we should make a thread specifically for these kind of debates instead of killing this one off...

EDIT: wow, i'm actually surprised that the AF moderator didn't catch this thread going off-topic......lol!

Well, all the topics that start in "Japanese Serious Talk" end up being Chinese and Koreans yelling at us Japanese people. In a sense, that's not off topic....

Well, this story is very old, much older than the internet and much older than me. My dad probably heard this story in the news when he was in middle school. So, I think we should stop talking about this now.

just because it's old means we have to stop talking about it? keep in mind that today is built on yesterday.....meaning that are future is determined by the past. how would it be "in-topic" if the threads in the japanese serious talk end up being chinese/korean attacks on the japanese people????

Well, there aren't too many Japanese people on this forum. This forum is run by mostly Chinese people. And to them, what matters most is to show how much they hate Japanese people. I have heard many people say to other CHinese people that if they don't hate Japanese people then they are not being patriotic or they are not a real Chinese person. To Chinese people, all stories about Japan are the same. They end up talking about how much Japan is "evil".

I wonder if he's a Dixiecrat.

Truman is not a dixiecrat, he supported liberal reforms in terms of racial equality amongs whites and blacks. In fact, during the 1948 Presidential elections, his opponent was a dixiecrat. Dixiecrats are basically conservative southern Democrats and Truman was a Presidential candidate running the Democrat ticket; he was not a dixiecrat. In fact, the dixiecrats formed in opposition to Truman and his positions.

It's actually pretty sad to see that such a liberal person was so racist towards the Japanese.

I can see why not, after the Pearl Harbor incident.

That was when the word "j@p" came from bunch of former Southern soldiers during WW2.

weren't the japanese themselves pretty racist???

The average Japanese person was not racist towards Americans. In fact, there were some people who held guerrila concerts playing American music and western instruments even though the government strictly prohibited western culture. The government tried to force hatred and fear of the American with extravagant propaganda but it failed to change the way rational people think. Some were influenced but after the war ended everyone realized their mistake.