Who was the Japanese soldier that never surrendered?
Hiroo Onoda (middle): The Imperial Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippine jungle for 30 years after WWII. March 11, 1974 (photo), Imgur.
“Some Japanese soldiers considered surrender a way of courting death, therefore contrary to the Bushido code.”[1] These societal norms, paired with the righteousness of a sacrificing one's life for the Emperor, led to unfathomable levels of commitment to victory.
When Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda was deployed to Lubang in the Philippines in 1944, he was instructed to hold the remote island until the Japanese Army returned. Onoda took the orders very seriously and fought a guerrilla war on the island for more than 10,000 days until he finally surrendered in 1974.
During World War II, it was estimated that between 35,000 and 50,000 members of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces surrendered to Allied servicemembers prior to the end of World War II in Asia in August 1945.
After the war ended, Onoda spent 29 years hiding in the Philippines until his former commander travelled from Japan to formally relieve him from duty by order of Emperor Shōwa in 1974. He held the rank of second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA).
According to historian Robert Rogers, Yokoi was one of around 5,000 Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender to the Allies after the Battle of Guam, preferring life on the lam to the shame of being detained as a prisoner of war.
By the time Sturgell reached his destination with the 5th Squadron, 9th Bombardment Group in early 1945, Tinian had been secured for only a few months. Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender hid by day and harassed U.S. forces by night. (Murata Susumu, the last Japanese holdout on Tinian, was captured in 1953.)
The last Japanese soldier to come out of hiding and surrender, almost 30 years after the end of the second world war, has died. Hiroo Onoda, an army intelligence officer, caused a sensation when he was persuaded to come out of hiding in the Philippine jungle in 1974.
Hid in Guam jungles
Shoichi Yokoi (1915 – 1997) was a sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army, stationed on Guam during the Japanese Occupation of the island during World War II (December 1941- July 1944).
Did the Japanese fear Marines?
So yes, the Japanese were terrified of the Marines; just as the Marines were terrified of the Japanese.
The majority of the Japanese people know Musashi Miyamoto as Japan's most famous and most skilled swordsman. His status among the Japanese has reached mythic proportions in the same measure that Westerners would give to Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan. The life of Musashi is the gold standard of samurai in Japan.
The last Japanese soldier to formally surrender after the country's defeat in World War Two was Hiroo Onoda. Lieutenant Onoda finally handed over his sword on March 9th 1974. He had held out in the Philippine jungle for 29 years.
Many of the women and children were held in prison camps in terrible conditions and forced on death marches. Some women were killed on sight and others were raped, beaten, and forced to become sex slaves. Much of the book showcases the words of the people who lived through this period.
During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.
Contrary to Groom's statements regarding treatment by the “Nazis,” the POWs held by the Germans during WW II were the best treated until the Vietnam conflict.
Hiroo Onoda, an Imperial Japanese Army officer who remained at his jungle post on an island in the Philippines for 29 years, refusing to believe that World War II was over, and returned to a hero's welcome in the all but unrecognizable Japan of 1974, died on Thursday in Tokyo. He was 91.
Guy Louis Gabaldon (March 22, 1926 – August 31, 2006) was a United States Marine who, at age 18, captured or persuaded to surrender over 1,300 Japanese soldiers and civilians during the battles for Saipan and Tinian islands in 1944 during World War II.
For the Japanese, surrender was unthinkable—Japan had never been successfully invaded or lost a war in its history. Only Mitsumasa Yonai, the Navy minister, was known to desire an early end to the war.
If Japan had not surrendered, the Americans would have eventually invaded. Preparation for the invasion were already well advanced when the Emperor surrendered. Based on Iwo and Okinawa, the Japanese military casualties would have been 10 to 1 in comparison to the Americans.
What did Japan lose when they surrendered?
17 July–2 August: Potsdam Conference (Truman, Attlee, Stalin), held in Berlin, Germany; the joint declaration reiterates the call for Japan's unconditional surrender. Specific terms include the loss of all Japanese territories outside the Home Islands, complete disarmament, and Allied occupation of Japan.
The truth is, they already conquered most of the territory they held long before the attack at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, they had been at war for nearly a decade by then. But once they failed to totally destroy the US Navies Pacific Fleet, they were doomed.
Every day, memories of World War II are disappearing from living history. The men and women who fought and won this great conflict are now in their 90s or older; according to US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 119,550 of the 16.1 million Americans who served in World War II are alive as of 2023.
Wilhelm Dege became the final Nazi Germany soldier to surrender to Allied Forces.
Citation: Instrument of Surrender; September 2, 1945; Records of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff; Record Group 218; National Archives. Aboard the USS Missouri, this instrument of surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, by the Japanese envoys Foreign Minister Mamora Shigemitsu and Gen.
