No kidding. I find 1974 to be fanatical dedication.
He is the longest holdout I recall reading about. Off the top of my head, I recall a couple on Iwo that survived in the tunnels and were discovered in '47 I believe?
I know there were some on Saipan or Tinian in the early '50’s.
I’ll have to look this up again, you’ve peaked my interest.
I’ve read about these “holdouts” before and inclined to agree with you. They are an example to me, in the future I pray that I have such resolve to resist what’s coming down the pipe.
Meh, all I can think of is Pearl Harbor. Good riddance to a person blindly dedicated to a regime that trampled on freedom, and led the world into a a terrible war that took way too many peoples lives.
I can’t imagine what the loss of life would have been, had we invaded main land Japan. This man represented the attitude of an entire nation, I can’t help but respect his dedication.
I don’t think we lose anything by having some admiration for the dedication of a soldier while keeping in context his status as the enemy at the time. That’s my take any way.
Be care of what you wish for. You may just get it. Someday history could look at the US Soldiers in a similar context. Don’t blame the individual soldier for the lies and crimes of its leaders. Unless he committed atrocities and violated the laws of war, he was just a patriot following orders. Remember, “To the victor go the spoils of War”.
Normally this is the sort of thing I respect. But given he killed innocent villagers (non combatants) during that time makes him a serious POS indicative of everything that was wrong with the Imperial Japanese military. That he was revered as some kind of celebrity “war hero” should be as shameful to the Japanese people as our internment of Japanese Americans during the war. It says something DEEP about the Japanese psyche that they can admire people who did horrible, horrible things.
If you changed only details of circumstance and we were talking about a hold out from a SS werewolf division who went deep in the mountains of some occupied country and fought the war for another 20 years killing local villagers as he encountered them because he was following his “last orders” people would have a completely different opinion on the matter.
It’s unfortunate he wasn’t tried as a war criminal and jailed like he should have been.
In general terms loyalty, duty and dedication are all honorable things. The exception is when you pledge your loyalty and devotion to less than honorable people or organizations. Organized crime is a perfect example, there are people willing to lay down their lives and kill because they took an oath. Does that mean we should admire their dedication to their criminal families?
Japan was not fighting against foreign invaders and defending their way of life. To the contrary they were invading neighboring countries, forcing their values on others and destroying lives completely without regard. Devotion to duty in such an instance becomes incredibly evil and something the Japanese should be ashamed of, rather than show reverence to those who persisted.
Incidents like Nanking, Bataan and Unit 731 prevent me from having much respect for the Japanese of WWII. They went out of their way to earn their Hiroshima.
Rape of Nanking. **** the Japs of that era. Not going to honor a hold out of their ilk. I doubt someone who held out 3 decades alone in the jungle had a problem with Nanking.
I think you can separate the horrid acts of the WWII Japanese from an interesting story of jungle survival for 30 years. He had a fellow comrade for a number of years who died long before Onada was “found”. The things they jerry-rigged and how they survived is indeed quite interesting; that in no way makes me want to cheer them for their wartime and post-war actions.
Might be the most famous one but i looked at the linked registry and apparently, there was one found in the Philippines as recently as 1997! Good grief.
