In the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the reforms carried out, Japan made a powerful economic breakthrough. Nevertheless, the country's authorities faced serious problems - a lack of resources and a growing population of the island nation. To solve them, according to Tokyo, expansion to neighboring countries could. As a result of the wars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Korea, the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan and Manchuria came under Japanese control.

In 1940-1942, the Japanese military attacked the possessions of the United States, Great Britain and other European powers. The Land of the Rising Sun invaded Indo-China, Burma, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. The Japanese attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands and captured a large part of Indonesia. Then they invaded New Guinea and the islands of Oceania, but already in 1943 they lost the strategic initiative. In 1944, the Anglo-American troops launched a large-scale counteroffensive, pushing the Japanese in the Pacific Islands, Indochina and the Philippines.

• Japanese military in Hebei during the Second Sino-Japanese War
• JAPAN PHOTO LIBRARY

emperor soldier

Hiroo Onoda was born on March 19, 1922 in the village of Kamekawa, located in Wakayama Prefecture. His father was a journalist and deputy of the local council, his mother was a teacher. During his school years, Onoda was fond of the martial art of kendo - sword fencing. After graduating from school, he got a job at the Tajima trading company and moved to the Chinese city of Hankou. Learned Chinese and English. However, Onoda did not have time to make a career, because at the end of 1942 he was drafted into the army. He began his service in the infantry.

In 1944, Onoda underwent command personnel training, receiving the rank of senior sergeant after graduation. Soon, the young man was sent to study at the Futamata department of the Nakano army school, which trained commanders of reconnaissance and sabotage units.

Due to the sharp deterioration of the situation at the front, Onoda did not have time to complete the full course of study. He was assigned to the Information Department of the Headquarters of the 14th Army and sent to the Philippines. In practice, the young commander was supposed to lead a sabotage unit operating in the rear of the Anglo-American troops.

Lieutenant General of the Japanese Armed Forces Shizuo Yokoyama ordered the saboteurs to continue to carry out their tasks at any cost, even if they had to act without communication with the main forces for several years.

• Hiroo Onoda in his youth
• Gettyimages.ru
• Keystone/Hulton Archive

The command awarded Onoda the rank of junior lieutenant, after which he was sent to the Philippine island of Lubang, where the morale of the Japanese military was not too high. The scout tried to restore order at the new duty station, but did not have time - on February 28, 1945, the American military landed on the island. Most of the Japanese garrison was either destroyed or surrendered. And Onoda, with three soldiers, went into the jungle and proceeded to what he was being prepared for - guerrilla warfare.

Thirty Years' War

On September 2, 1945, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Chief of the General Staff General Yoshijiro Umezu signed an act of Japan's unconditional surrender aboard the American battleship Missouri.

The Americans scattered leaflets over the Philippine jungle with information about the end of the war and orders from the Japanese command to lay down their arms. But Onoda was told about military disinformation while still in school, and he considered what was happening a provocation. In 1950, one of the fighters in his group, Yuichi Akatsu, surrendered to Philippine law enforcement and soon returned to Japan. So in Tokyo they learned that the detachment that was considered destroyed still exists.

Similar news came from other countries previously occupied by Japanese troops. In Japan, a special state commission was created for the return of military personnel to their homeland. But her work was hard, as the imperial soldiers were hiding deep in the jungle.

In 1954, Onoda's detachment entered into battle with the Philippine police. Corporal Shoichi Shimada, who covered the withdrawal of the group, died. The Japanese commission tried to establish contact with the rest of the intelligence officers, but did not find them. As a result, in 1969 they were declared dead and posthumously awarded the Order of the Rising Sun.

However, three years later, Onoda "resurrected". In 1972, saboteurs tried to blow up a Philippine police patrol on a mine, and when the explosive device did not work, they opened fire on law enforcement officers. During the skirmish, Onoda's last subordinate, Kinshichi Kozuka, was killed. Japan again sent a search party to the Philippines, but the second lieutenant seemed to have disappeared into the jungle.

Onoda later recounted how he learned the art of survival in the Philippine jungle. So, he distinguished the disturbing sounds made by birds. As soon as someone else approached one of the shelters, Onoda immediately left. He also hid from American soldiers and Filipino special forces.

The scout most of the time ate the fruits of wild fruit trees and caught rats with snares. Once a year, he slaughtered the cows that belonged to local farmers to dry meat and get fat for lubricating weapons.

From time to time Onoda found newspapers and magazines, from which he received fragmentary information about the events taking place in the world. At the same time, the intelligence officer did not believe reports that Japan was defeated in World War II. Onoda believed that the government in Tokyo was collaborationist, and that the real authorities were in Manchuria and continued to resist. He regarded the Korean and Vietnamese wars as the next battles of the Second World War and thought that in both cases Japanese troops were fighting the Americans.

A Farewell to Arms

In 1974, the Japanese traveler and adventurer Norio Suzuki went to the Philippines. He decided to find out the fate of the famous Japanese saboteur. As a result, he managed to talk with his compatriot and take a picture of him.

Information about Onoda, received from Suzuki, became a real sensation in Japan. The country's authorities found Onoda's former direct commander, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who worked in a bookstore after the war, and brought him to Lubang.

On March 9, 1974, Taniguchi gave the intelligence officer an order from the commander of a special group of the General Staff of the 14th Army to stop military operations and the need to get in touch with the US army or its allies. The next day, Onoda came to the American radar station in Lubang, where he handed over a rifle, cartridges, grenades, a samurai sword and a dagger.

• Hiroo Onoda surrenders to Philippine authorities
• JIJI PRESS

The Philippine government is in a difficult position. During the almost thirty years of guerrilla warfare, Onoda, together with his subordinates, carried out many raids, the victims of which were Filipino and American soldiers, as well as local residents. The scout and his associates killed about 30 people, almost 100 were wounded. According to the laws of the Philippines, the officer faced the death penalty. However, President Ferdinand Marcos, after negotiations with the Japanese Foreign Ministry, released Onoda from responsibility, returned his personal weapons to him, and even praised his loyalty to military duty.

On March 12, 1974, the scout returned to Japan, where he found himself in the center of everyone's attention. However, the public reacted ambiguously: for some, the saboteur was a national hero, and for others, a war criminal. The officer refused to receive the emperor, saying that he was not worthy of such an honor, since he had not accomplished any feat.

The Cabinet of Ministers gave Onoda 1 million yen ($3.4 thousand) in honor of the return, a significant amount was also collected for him by numerous fans. However, the scout donated all this money to the Yasukuni Shinto shrine, which worships the souls of warriors who died for Japan.

• Hiroo Onoda
• Gettyimages.ru
• Keystone

At home, Onoda dealt with the socialization of youth through the knowledge of nature. For his pedagogical achievements, he was awarded the Prize of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports of Japan, and was also awarded the Medal of Honor for services to society. The scout died on January 16, 2014 in Tokyo.

The spirit of collectivism

Onoda became the most famous Japanese military man who continued to resist after the surrender of official Tokyo, but he was far from the only one. So, until December 1945, Japanese troops resisted the Americans on the island of Saipan. In 1947, Lieutenant Ei Yamaguchi, at the head of a detachment of 33 soldiers, attacked the American base on the island of Peleliu in Palau and surrendered only at the command of his former boss. In 1950, Major Takuo Ishii was killed in a battle with French troops in Indochina. In addition, a number of Japanese officers, after the defeat of the imperial army, went over to the side of the national revolutionary groups that fought the Americans, the Dutch and the French.

On the picture: Hiro Onoda during his service in the imperial army and today

Second Lieutenant Hiro Onoda surrenders to the Philippine authorities 28 years after the end of the war. The image is taken from the digital archive of photographs of the Second World War (1939-1945). http://waralbum.ru/55937/

Hiro Onodo
- (Japanese) (born March 19, 1922) - junior lieutenant of the military intelligence of the Japanese armed forces, who fought during World War II and surrendered only in 1974.
During the Second World War, the brave Japanese samurai were unrestrictedly quartered on many islands in the Pacific Ocean. On one of these patches of land, the island of Lubang, the Nakano training camp was located, where the hero of this article was trained. Suddenly (however, as always happens in such cases), the island was captured by the Allied forces.

On December 17, 1944, Major Taniguchi ordered 22-year-old Hiro Onoda to lead a partisan detachment: “We are retreating, but this is temporary. You will go to the mountains and make sorties - lay mines, blow up warehouses. I forbid you to commit suicide and surrender. It may take three, four or five years, but I will come back for you. This order can only be canceled by me and no one else." Very soon, US soldiers landed on Lubang, and Onoda, breaking his "partisans" into cells, retreated into the jungle of the island along with two privates and Corporal Shimada. Onoda did not know what happened to the soldiers from other cells. In October 1945, he found an American leaflet with the inscription: “Japan surrendered on August 14th. Come down from the mountains and surrender! Hiro Onoda hesitated, but at that moment he heard shooting nearby and realized that the war was still going on. And the flyer is just a lie to lure them out of the woods. But they will turn out to be smarter than the enemy and will go even further, into the very depths of the island ...

“My father fought against him, then I became a policeman and also fought with the Onoda squad - it seemed like it would never end,” says ex-deputy sheriff of Lubang Fidel Elamos. at night the samurai again shot at us in the back. We dropped fresh newspapers to them so that they could see that the war had ended long ago, sent letters and photos from relatives. I asked Hiro afterwards: why didn't you give up? He said that he was sure that the letters and newspapers were forged"

Year after year passed, and Onoda fought in the jungle. Skyscrapers rose in Japan, Japanese electronics conquered the world, businessmen from Tokyo bought the largest American concerns, and Hiro fought on Lubang for the glory of the emperor, believing that the war was going on. Onoda boiled water from a stream over a fire, ate fruits and roots - for all the time he only once seriously fell ill with a sore throat. Sleeping in the pouring tropical rain, he covered the rifle with his body. Once a month, the Japanese ambushed military jeeps, shooting the drivers. But in 1950, one of the privates lost their nerve - he went out to the police with his hands up. Four years later, Corporal Shimada was killed in a shootout with police on Gontin Beach. The second lieutenant and the last private Kozuka dug themselves a new underground shelter in the jungle, invisible from the air, and moved there.

In 1952, photographs and letters from relatives of Japanese soldiers were dropped on the island, but no one believed these letters.

May 7, 1954, on Gontin Beach, during a shootout with Filipino Akaba, Corporal Simada died the death of the brave.

In 1959, Hiro was officially declared dead in Japan. In October 1972, near the village of Imora, Onoda laid the last mine he had left on the road to blow up a Philippine patrol. But the mine rusted and did not explode, and then they, together with Private Kozuka, attacked the patrolmen - Kozuka was shot dead, and Onoda was left completely alone.
The death of a Japanese soldier who died 27 years after Japan's surrender caused shock in Tokyo. A search operation was urgently organized, which, however, was not crowned with success. Leaflets calling for surrender, newspapers and letters from Onoda's relatives were again scattered over the island. Onoda found the letters, but decided that the relatives were being held captive by the American intelligence services. Search companies urgently went to Burma, Malaysia and the Philippines to look for soldiers of the imperial army lost in the forests. And then the incredible happened. For almost 30 years, Onoda couldn't find the best special forces units, but quite by accident
he was stumbled upon by a Japanese tourist, Suzuki, who was collecting butterflies in the jungle. He confirmed to the stunned Hiro that Japan had capitulated, there was no war for a long time. After thinking, Hiro said, “I don't believe it. Until the major cancels the order, I will fight.” Returning home, Suzuki threw all his strength into the search for Major Taniguchi. He found it with difficulty - the head of the "last samurai" changed his name and became a bookseller. The major flew to the island and informed Onoda that the war was over, Japan had been defeated, and ordered the guerrilla to lay down their arms. Lieutenant Onodava came out of the jungle and surrendered to the Philippine authorities on March 10, 1974, after 29 years
after the end of the war, in full uniform, with a serviceable Arisaka type 99 rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition for it, several hand grenades and a samurai sword. Bowing ceremoniously to the open-mouthed policemen, he carefully laid the old rifle on the ground. “I am Second Lieutenant Hiro Onoda. I obey the order of my superior, who told me to surrender."

“Demonstrations broke out in the country demanding that Hiro be put in jail,
- explains the widow of the then President of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, - After all, as a result of his "thirty years' war" 130 soldiers and policemen were killed and wounded. But my husband decided to pardon 52-year-old Onoda and let him go to Japan.”

“I spoke to him shortly after his surrender. This man could not come to his senses for a long time, - said the former "first lady" of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, - Onoda survived a terrible
shock. When he was told that the war ended in 1945, his eyes just went dark. “How could Japan lose? Why did you take care of your rifle like a small child? Why did my people die? he asked me, and I did not know what to answer him. He just sat there and wept uncontrollably.
“I remember Onoda showing us his hideout in the jungle,” said former Lubang Deputy Sheriff Fidel Elamos. “It was clean, there were slogans with hieroglyphs “War to Victory,” and a portrait of the emperor carved from banana leaves was hung on the wall. While his subordinates were alive, he conducted training with them, and also arranged competitions.
the best poems"

“They believed that they would come back for them,” Lubang Vice Governor Jim Molina grins, “After all, the major promised it. True, in the last year, the junior lieutenant began to doubt: have they forgotten about him? Once the thought of suicide came to his mind, but he immediately
rejected - this was forbidden by the major who gave the order "

However, the very last samurai, with fear and surprise, examined the overgrown
skyscrapers Japan, this return was not encouraging. At night he dreamed of the jungle where he had spent so many decades. He was frightened by washing machines and electric trains, jet planes and televisions shocked him. A few years later, Hiro bought a ranch in the thick of the forests of Brazil and went to live there.

After returning from the jungle, Onoda moved to Brazil, where he became a rancher and married in 1976. He later wrote a memoir, Never Surrender: My Thirty Years' War. In 1984 he returned to Japan, where he established a children's camp where he
dissemination of knowledge about how, thanks to resourcefulness and ingenuity, he managed to survive in the jungle. In 1996, he visited the island again where he donated $10,000 to a local school. As of 2009, Onoda mainly resides in Japan, spending three
months in Brazil.

“Hiro Onoda unexpectedly came to us from Brazil in 1996,” says Lubang Vice Governor Jim Molina. “He did not want to stay at the hotel and asked permission to settle in a dugout in the jungle. When he came to the village, no one shook hands with him.

The last samurai of World War II is still alive today. He categorically refuses to talk to Jewish journalists, explaining: “I published the book “Don't Surrender: My 30 Years' War”, where I already answered all the questions. What would have happened if Major Taniguchi hadn't come for me? Everything is very simple - I would continue to fight until now ... "

“For him, the war is not over,” they sometimes say about former soldiers and officers. But this is more of an allegory. But the Japanese Hiroo Onoda was sure that the war was still going on even a few decades after the end of World War II. How did it happen?

Scout on Lubang

Hiroo Onoda was born on March 19, 1922 in the village of Kamekawa, Wakayama Prefecture. After graduating from school, in April 1939 he got a job at the Tajima trading company, located in the Chinese city of Hankou. There, the young man mastered not only Chinese, but also English. But in December 1942, he had to return to Japan - he was called up for military service. In August 1944, Onoda entered the Nakano Army School, which trained intelligence officers. But the young man failed to complete his studies - he was urgently sent to the front. In January 1945, Hiroo Onoda, already in the rank of second lieutenant, was transferred to the Philippine island of Lubang. He received orders to hold out to the last. Arriving at Lubang, Onoda suggested that the local command begin preparations for a long-term defense of the island. But his call was ignored. The American troops easily defeated the Japanese, and the reconnaissance detachment led by Onoda was forced to flee to the mountains. In the jungle, the military set up a base and began a guerrilla war behind enemy lines. The squad consisted of only four people: Hiroo Onoda himself, Private First Class Yuichi Akatsu, Private Senior Class Kinshichi Kozuki, and Corporal Shoichi Shimada. In September 1945, shortly after Japan signed the act of surrender, an order from the commander of the 14th Army was dropped from aircraft into the jungle, ordering them to surrender their weapons and surrender. However, Onoda considered this a provocation by the Americans. His detachment continued to fight, hoping that the island was about to return to Japanese control. Since the group of partisans had no connection with the Japanese command, the Japanese authorities soon declared them dead.

"War" continues

In 1950, Yuichi Akatsu surrendered to the Philippine police. In 1951, he returned to his homeland, thanks to which it became known that members of Onoda's detachment were still alive. On May 7, 1954, Onoda's group clashed with the Philippine police in the mountains of Lubang. Shoichi Shimada was killed. In Japan, by that time, a special commission had been created to search for Japanese military personnel who remained abroad. For several years, members of the commission searched for Onoda and Kozuki, but to no avail. On May 31, 1969, the Japanese government declared Onoda and Kozuku dead for the second time and posthumously awarded them the Order of the Rising Sun, 6th class. On September 19, 1972, a Japanese soldier was shot and killed in the Philippines while trying to requisition rice from peasants. That soldier turned out to be Kinsiti Kozuka. Onoda was left alone, without comrades, but obviously he was not going to give up. During the "operations", which he carried out first with subordinates, and then alone, about 30 were killed and about 100 seriously wounded military and civilians.

Loyalty to officer honor

On February 20, 1974, Japanese travel student Norio Suzuki stumbled upon Onoda in the jungle. He told the officer about the end of the war and the current situation in Japan and tried to persuade him to return to his homeland, but he refused, citing the fact that he had not received such an order from his immediate superiors. Suzuki returned to Japan with pictures of Onoda and stories about him. The Japanese government managed to contact one of Onoda's former commanders, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who has now retired and worked in a bookstore. On March 9, 1974, Taniguchi, in military uniform, flew to Lubang, got in touch with a former subordinate and gave him the order to stop all military operations on the island. On March 10, 1974, Onoda surrendered to the Philippine military. He faced the death penalty for "combat operations", which were qualified by local authorities as robberies and murders. However, thanks to the intervention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, he was pardoned and on March 12, 1974 solemnly returned to his homeland. In April 1975, Hiroo Onoda moved to Brazil, got married and took up cattle breeding. But in 1984 he returned to Japan. The former military man was actively involved in social work, especially with young people. On November 3, 2005, the Japanese government presented him with the Medal of Honor with a blue ribbon "For Public Service". Already at an advanced age, he wrote a memoir entitled "My Thirty Years' War on Lubang." Hiroo Onoda died on January 16, 2014 in Tokyo at the age of almost 92.

On the hot morning of March 10, 1974, a fit, elderly Japanese man in a half-decayed uniform of the imperial army came out to the police department. Bowing ceremoniously to the open-mouthed policemen, he carefully laid the old rifle on the ground. “I am Lieutenant Hiro Onoda. I obey the order of my superior, who ordered me to surrender.” For 30 years, the Japanese, not knowing about the surrender of his country, continued to fight with his detachment in the jungles of the Philippines.

fatal order

“This man could not come to his senses for a long time,” recalled the “first lady” of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, who spoke with him shortly after the surrender. “He went through a terrible shock. When he was told that the war ended in 1945, his eyes just went dark. “How could Japan lose? Why did you take care of the rifle like a small child? Why did my people die? he asked, and I did not know what to answer him. He sat and wept bitterly.

The history of many years of adventures of a Japanese officer in the jungle began on December 17, 1944, when the battalion commander, Major Taniguchi, ordered the 22-year-old Lieutenant Onoda to lead a guerrilla war against the Americans on Lubang: “We are retreating, but this is temporary. You will go to the mountains and make sorties - lay mines, blow up warehouses. I forbid you to commit suicide and surrender. It may take three, four or five years, but I will come back for you. This order can only be canceled by me and no one else.” Soon, US soldiers landed on Lubang, and Onoda, breaking his "guerrillas" into cells, retreated into the jungle of the island, along with two privates and Corporal Shimada.

“Onoda showed us his hideout in the jungle,” said former Lubang Deputy Sheriff Fidel Elamos. “It was clean, there were slogans with the hieroglyphs “War to victory”, and a portrait of the emperor carved from banana leaves was fixed on the wall. While his subordinates were alive, he conducted training with them, even arranged competitions for the best poems.

Onoda didn't know what happened to the soldiers from the other cells. In October 1945, he found an American leaflet with the inscription: “Japan surrendered on August 14th. Come down from the mountains and surrender!” The second lieutenant hesitated, but at that moment he heard shooting nearby and realized that the war was still going on. And the leaflet is a lie to lure them out of the forest. But they will be smarter than the enemy and go even further, into the very depths of the island.

“My father fought against him, then I became a policeman and also fought with the Onoda squad – it seemed like it would never end,” says Elamos. “We combed the jungle over and over again and did not find them, and at night the samurai again shot at our backs. We dropped fresh newspapers to them so that they could see that the war had ended long ago, sent letters and photos from relatives. I asked Hiro later: why didn't he give up? He said that he was sure that the letters and newspapers had been forged.

Year after year passed, and Onoda fought in the jungle. Skyscrapers rose in Japan, Japanese electronics conquered the world, businessmen from Tokyo bought the largest American concerns, and Hiro fought on Lubang for the glory of the emperor, believing that the war was going on. The lieutenant boiled water from a stream over a fire, ate fruits and roots - for all the time he only once seriously fell ill with a sore throat. Sleeping in the pouring tropical rain, he covered the rifle with his body. Once a month, the Japanese ambushed military jeeps, shooting the drivers. But in 1950, one of the rank and file lost their nerve - he went out to the police with his hands up. Four years later, Corporal Shimada was killed in a shootout with police officers on Gontin Beach. The lieutenant and the last private Kozuka dug a new underground shelter in the jungle, invisible from the air, and moved there.

“They believed they would come back for them,” grins Lubang Lieutenant Governor Jim Molina. - After all, the major promised. True, in the last year the second lieutenant began to doubt: have they forgotten about him? Once the thought of suicide came to his mind, but he immediately rejected it - this was forbidden by the major who gave the order.

Lone wolf

In October 1972, near the village of Imora, Onoda laid the last mine he had left on the road to blow up a Philippine patrol. But it rusted and did not explode. Then he and Private Kozuka attacked the patrolmen - Kozuka was shot dead, and Onoda was left completely alone. The death of a Japanese soldier who died 27 years after Japan's surrender caused shock in Tokyo. Search campaigns rushed to Burma, Malaysia and the Philippines. And then the incredible happened. For almost 30 years, Onoda could not find the best parts of the special forces, but quite by accident he stumbled upon the Japanese tourist Suzuki, who was collecting butterflies in the jungle. He confirmed to the stunned Hiro that Japan had capitulated, there was no war for a long time. Thinking, he said: “I don’t believe it. Until the major cancels the order, I will fight.” Returning home, Suzuki threw all his strength into the search for Major Taniguchi. I found it with difficulty - the head of the "last samurai" changed his name and became a bookseller. Together they came to the Lubang jungle to the agreed place. There, Taniguchi, dressed in a military uniform, read out the order to Onoda, who was standing at attention, to surrender. After listening, the second lieutenant threw a rifle over his shoulder and, staggering, headed towards the police station, tearing half-rotted stripes from his uniform.

“There were demonstrations in the country demanding that Hiro be put in jail,” explains the widow of the then President of the Philippines. - After all, as a result of his "thirty years' war" 130 soldiers and policemen were killed and wounded. But the husband decided to pardon 52-year-old Onoda and allow him to go home.

Back in the forest

However, the second lieutenant himself, who was looking at Japan overgrown with skyscrapers with fear and surprise, was not happy about the return. At night he dreamed of the jungle where he had spent so many decades. He was frightened by washing machines and electric trains, jet planes and televisions. A few years later, Hiro bought a ranch in the thick of the forests of Brazil and went to live there.

“Hiro Onoda unexpectedly came to us from Brazil in 1996,” says Lubang Lieutenant Governor Jim Molina. - Didn't want to stay at the hotel and asked permission to settle in a dugout in the jungle. When he came to the village, no one shook hands with him.

The "Last Samurai" of World War 2 released the book "Don't Surrender: My 30 Years' War", where he already answered all the questions. “What would have happened if Major Taniguchi hadn’t come for me? Everything is very simple - I would continue to fight until now ... ”- the elderly second lieutenant Onoda told reporters. Here's what he said.

"Sick only once"

- I can’t imagine how you can hide in the jungle for 30 years

- Man in megacities is too far removed from nature. In fact, the forest has everything to survive. A mass of medicinal plants that increase immunity, serve as an antibiotic, and disinfect wounds. It is also impossible to die of hunger, the main thing for health is to observe a normal diet. For example, from the frequent consumption of meat, the body temperature rises, and from drinking coconut milk, on the contrary, it decreases. For all the time in the jungle, I got sick only once. We should not forget about elementary things - in the morning and in the evening I brushed my teeth with crushed palm bark. When the dentist later examined me, he was amazed: in 30 years I had not had a single case of caries.

- What is the first thing you need to learn to do in the forest?

- Take out the fire. At first, I ignited gunpowder from cartridges with glass, but ammunition had to be protected. Therefore, I tried to get a flame by rubbing two pieces of bamboo. Maybe not right away, but in the end I did it. Fire is needed to boil river and rain water - this is a must, it contains harmful bacilli.

- When you surrendered, along with the rifle, you gave the police 500 rounds of ammunition in excellent condition. How did so much survive?

- I was saving. The cartridges went strictly to skirmishes with the military and to get fresh meat. Occasionally we went out to the outskirts of the villages, catching a cow that had strayed from the herd. The animal was killed with one shot in the head and only during a heavy downpour: so the villagers did not hear the sounds of shooting. The beef was dried in the sun, divided so that the carcass of a cow could be eaten in 250 days. The rifle with cartridges was regularly lubricated with beef fat, disassembled, and cleaned. He took care of her like a child - he wrapped her in rags when it was cold, covered her with his body when it rained.

What else did you eat besides beef jerky?

- Cooked porridge from green bananas in coconut milk. We fished in the stream, raided a shop in the village a couple of times, took rice and canned food. They set traps for rats. In principle, there is nothing dangerous for humans in any tropical forest.

What about poisonous snakes and insects?

“When you spend years in the jungle, you become part of it. And you understand that the snake will never attack just like that - she herself is afraid of you to death. The same with spiders - they do not aim to hunt people. It is enough not to step on them - and everything will be fine. Of course, at first the forest is very scary. But in a month you will get used to everything. We were not afraid of predators or snakes at all, but people - even banana soup was cooked exclusively at night so that the smoke would not be seen in the village.

“Soap was missing the most”

- Don't you regret that you spent the best years of your life waging a senseless guerrilla war alone, although Japan surrendered a long time ago?

“It is not customary to discuss orders in the imperial army. The major said, “You must stay until I come back for you. Only I can cancel this order." I am a soldier and carried out the order - what's so surprising? I am offended by suggestions that my struggle was pointless. I fought to make my country powerful and prosperous. When I returned to Tokyo, I saw that Japan was strong and rich - even richer than before. This comforted my heart. As for the rest... How could I know that Japan had capitulated? And in a terrible dream I could not imagine it. All the time that we fought in the forest, we were sure that the war continues.

- Newspapers were dropped from the plane for you to learn about the surrender of Japan.

– Modern printing equipment can print everything that the special services need. I decided that these newspapers were fake - they were made by the enemies specifically in order to deceive me and lure me out of the jungle. For the last 2 years, letters from my relatives from Japan have been thrown from the sky, persuading them to surrender - I recognized the handwriting, but I thought that the Americans had captured them and forced them to write such things.

- For 30 years you fought in the jungle with an entire army - at different times a battalion of soldiers, special forces units, helicopters were used against you. Directly the plot of a Hollywood action movie. Doesn't it feel like you're Superman?

- Not. It is always difficult to fight with partisans - in many countries they cannot suppress armed resistance for decades, especially in difficult terrain. If you feel like a fish in water in the forest, the enemy is simply doomed. I clearly knew that in one open area one should move in camouflage made of dry leaves, in another - only from fresh ones. The Filipino soldiers were not aware of such subtleties.

- What did you miss the most from household amenities?

Soap, probably. I washed my clothes in running water, using fire ash as a cleaning agent, and washed my face every day ... but I really wanted to soap myself. The problem was that the form began to unravel. I made a needle from a piece of barbed wire and darned clothes with thread I made from palm shoots. In the rainy season he lived in a cave, in the dry season he built an "apartment" from bamboo trunks and covered the roof with palm "straws": in one room there was a kitchen, in the other - a bedroom.

How did you feel about returning to Japan?

- With difficulties. As if from one time was immediately transferred to another: skyscrapers, girls, neon advertising, incomprehensible music. I realized that I would have a nervous breakdown, everything was too accessible - drinking water flowed from the tap, food was sold in stores. I could not sleep on the bed, I lay down on the bare floor all the time. On the advice of a psychotherapist, he emigrated to Brazil, where he raised cows on a farm. Only after that I was able to return home. In the mountainous regions of Hokkaido, he founded a school for boys, teaching them the art of survival.

- What do you think: can any of the Japanese soldiers still hide in the depths of the jungle, not knowing that the war is over?

– Perhaps, because my case was not the last. In April 1980, Captain Fumio Nakahira surrendered after hiding in the mountains of the Philippine island of Mindoro for 36 years. It is possible that someone else remained in the forests

By the way

in 1972, Sergeant Seichi Yokoi was found in the Philippines, who all this time did not know about the end of World War II and the surrender of Japan. In May 2005, the Kyodo News agency reported that two Japanese soldiers, 87-year-old Lieutenant Yoshio Yamakawa and 83-year-old Corporal Suzuki Nakauchi, were found in the jungles of Mindanao Island (Philippines), their photos were published. The Japanese Embassy in Manila issued a statement: "We do not exclude the possibility that dozens (!) of Japanese soldiers are still hiding in the Philippine forests, not knowing that the war is long over." 3 employees of the Japanese embassy urgently left for Mindanao, but for some reason they did not manage to meet with Yamakawa and Nakauchi.

In February 1942, Marshal Zhukov wrote that the partisans of Belarus and Ukraine continue to stumble in the forest on weapons depots guarded by lone Soviet soldiers. “They were put on guard by the commanders the day before the start of the war or a week after it started - at the end of June. Then they were forgotten about, but they did not leave their post, waiting for the guard or the head of the guard. One of these sentries had to be wounded in the shoulder - otherwise he would not let people near the warehouse. In the summer of 1943, Captain Johann Westman wrote in his diary in the Brest Fortress: “Sometimes at night we are fired upon by Russians who are hiding in the casemates of the fortress. They say there are no more than five of them, but we can't find them. How do they manage to live there for two years without water and drink? I do not know that".

Until December 7, 1941, there was not a single military conflict with the Asian army in the history of America. There were only a few minor skirmishes in the Philippines during the war with Spain. This led to the underestimation of the enemy by American soldiers and sailors.
The US Army has heard stories of the cruelty that the Japanese invaders inflicted on China's population in the 1940s. But before the clashes with the Japanese, the Americans had no idea what their opponents were capable of.
Regular beatings were so common that it's not even worth mentioning. However, in addition, the captured Americans, British, Greeks, Australians and Chinese had to deal with slave labor, forced marches, cruel and unusual torture and even dismemberment.
Below are some of the more shocking atrocities of the Japanese army during World War II.
15. CANNIBALISM

The fact that during the famine people begin to eat their own kind is no secret to anyone. Cannibalism took place on the Donner-led expedition, and even on the Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes, which is the subject of the movie Alive. But this always happened only in extreme circumstances. But it's impossible not to shudder when hearing stories of eating the remains of dead soldiers or cutting off parts from living people. The Japanese camps were in deep isolation, surrounded by impenetrable jungle, and the soldiers guarding the camp often starved like the prisoners, resorting to horrendous means to satisfy their hunger. But for the most part, cannibalism was due to mockery of the enemy. A report from the University of Melbourne states:
“According to the Australian lieutenant, he saw many bodies that were missing parts, even a scalped head without a torso. He argues that the condition of the remains clearly indicated that they had been dismembered for cooking."
14. NON-HUMAN EXPERIMENTS ON PREGNANT WOMEN


Dr. Josef Mengele was a famous Nazi scientist who performed experiments on Jews, twins, dwarfs and other concentration camp prisoners, for which he was wanted by the international community after the war for trial for numerous war crimes. But the Japanese had their own scientific institutions, where no less terrible experiments were performed on people.
The so-called Detachment 731 conducted experiments on Chinese women who were raped and impregnated. They were purposefully infected with syphilis so that it could be known whether the disease would be inherited. Often, the state of the fetus was studied directly in the mother's womb without the use of anesthesia, since these women were considered nothing more than animals for study.
13. COLLECTION AND SUITATION OF THE GENITALS IN THE MOUTH


In 1944, on the volcanic island of Peleliu, a Marine soldier, while having lunch with a comrade, saw the figure of a man heading towards them across the open terrain of the battlefield. When the man approached, it became clear that he was also a Marine Corps soldier. The man walked bent over and moved his legs with difficulty. He was covered in blood. The sergeant decided that it was just a wounded man who had not been taken from the battlefield, and he and several colleagues hurried to meet him.
What they saw made them shudder. His mouth was sewn shut and the front of his trousers was cut open. His face was contorted in pain and horror. Having taken him to the doctors, they later learned from them what really happened. He was captured by the Japanese, where he was beaten and severely tortured. The Japanese army soldiers cut off his genitals, stuffed them into his mouth, and sewed him up. It is not known if the soldier could survive such a horrific abuse. But the reliable fact is that instead of intimidation, this event had the opposite effect, filling the hearts of the soldiers with hatred and giving them additional strength to fight for the island.
12. SATISFYING THE CURIOSITY OF DOCTORS


People involved in medicine in Japan did not always work to alleviate the plight of the sick. During World War II, Japanese "doctors" often performed brutal procedures on enemy soldiers or civilians in the name of science or simply to satisfy curiosity. Somehow they were interested in what would happen to the human body if it was twisted for a long time. To do this, they put people in centrifuges and twisted them sometimes for hours. People were thrown back against the walls of the cylinder, and the faster it turned, the more pressure was exerted on the internal organs. Many died within a few hours and their bodies were removed from the centrifuge, but some were twisted until they literally exploded or fell apart.
11. AMPUTATION

If a person was suspected of espionage, then for this he was punished with all cruelty. Not only were the soldiers of the enemy armies of Japan tortured, but also the inhabitants of the Philippines, who were suspected of intelligence intelligence for the Americans and the British. The favorite punishment was simply cutting them up alive. First one hand, then maybe a leg and fingers. Next came the ears. But all this did not lead to a quick death in order for the victim to suffer for a long time. There was also a practice of stopping bleeding after cutting off a hand, when several days were given to recover in order to continue the torture. Men, women and children were subjected to amputations, for no one there was no mercy from the atrocities of Japanese soldiers.
10 Drowning Torture


Many believe that drowning torture was first used by US soldiers in Iraq. Such torture is contrary to the constitution of the country and looks unusual and cruel. This measure may or may not be considered torture. It's definitely an ordeal for a prisoner, but it doesn't put his life at risk. The Japanese used water torture not only for interrogations, but also tied prisoners at an angle and inserted tubes into their nostrils. Thus, water entered them directly into the lungs. It didn't just make you feel like you were drowning, like drowning torture, the victim actually seemed to drown if the torture went on too long.
He could try to spit out enough water to keep from choking, but this was not always successful. Drowning torture was the second most common cause of death for prisoners after beatings.
9. FREEZING AND BURNING

Another kind of inhuman study of the human body was the study of the effects of cold on the body. Often, the skin peeled off the victim's bones as a result of freezing. Of course, the experiments were carried out on living, breathing people who, for the rest of their lives, had to live with limbs from which the skin had come off. But not only the effect of low temperatures on the body was studied, but also high ones. They burned the skin on a person's hand over a torch, and the captive ended his life in terrible torment.
8. RADIATION


X-rays were still poorly understood at the time, and their usefulness and effectiveness in diagnosing disease or as a weapon was questionable. The irradiation of prisoners was especially often used by Detachment 731. The prisoners were collected under a canopy and exposed to radiation. They were taken out at intervals to study the physical and psychological effects of exposure. At particularly high doses of radiation, part of the body burned and the skin literally fell off. The victims died in agony, as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki later, but much more slowly.
7. BURNING ALIVE


Japanese soldiers from small islands in the South Pacific were hardened, cruel people who lived in caves where there was not enough food, nothing to do, but there was a lot of time to cultivate hatred for enemies in their hearts. Therefore, when American soldiers were captured by them, they were absolutely ruthless towards them. Most often, American sailors were burned alive or partially buried. Many of them were found under rocks where they were thrown to decompose. The captives were tied hand and foot, then thrown into a dug hole, which was then slowly buried. Perhaps the worst was that the head of the victim was left outside, which was then urinated on or eaten by animals.
6. DEHEADING


In Japan, it was considered an honor to die from a sword strike. If the Japanese wanted to disgrace the enemy, they brutally tortured him. Therefore, it was good luck for those captured to die by decapitation. It was much worse to be subjected to the tortures listed above. If the battle ran out of ammunition, the Americans used a rifle with a bayonet, while the Japanese always carried a long blade and a long curved sword. Soldiers were lucky to die by decapitation, not by a blow to the shoulder or chest. If the enemy was on the ground, then he was hacked to death, and not cut off his head.
5. DEATH BY THE TIDE


Since Japan and its surrounding islands are surrounded by ocean waters, this type of torture was common among the inhabitants. Drowning is a terrible kind of death. Even worse was the expectation of imminent death from the tide within a few hours. The prisoners were often tortured for several days in order to learn military secrets. Some could not stand the torture, but there were those who only gave their name, rank and serial number. For such stubborn people, a special kind of death was prepared. The soldier was left on the shore, where he had to listen for several hours as the water was getting closer and closer. Then, the water covered the prisoner with his head and within a few minutes of coughing, filled the lungs, after which death occurred.
4. BAMBOO TORTURE


Bamboo grows in hot tropical areas and its growth is noticeably faster than other plants, several centimeters per day. And when the diabolical mind of a person invented the most terrible way to die, then it was impalement. The victims were impaled on bamboo, which slowly grew into their bodies. The unfortunate suffered from inhuman pain when their muscles and organs were pierced by a plant. Death occurred as a result of organ damage or blood loss.
3. COOKING ALIVE


Another activity of Unit 731 was to expose victims to small doses of electricity. With a small impact, it caused severe pain. If it was long, then the internal organs of the prisoners were boiled and burned. An interesting fact about the intestines and gallbladder is that they have nerve endings. Therefore, when exposed to them, the brain sends pain signals to other organs. It's like boiling the body from the inside. Imagine that you swallowed a red-hot piece of iron in order to understand what the unfortunate victims experienced. Pain will be felt throughout the body until the soul leaves it.
2. FORCED LABOR AND MARCHES


Thousands of prisoners of war were sent to Japanese concentration camps, where they led the lives of slaves. A large number of prisoners was a serious problem for the army, since it was impossible to supply them with enough food and medicine. In concentration camps, prisoners were starved, beaten, and forced to work to death. The life of the prisoners meant nothing to the guards and officers watching them. In addition, if labor was needed on an island or another part of the country, then prisoners of war had to march there hundreds of kilometers through unbearable heat. Countless soldiers died along the way. Their bodies were dumped into ditches or left there.
1. FORCED TO KILL COMRADES AND ALLIES


Most often, during interrogations, beatings of prisoners were used. Documents claim that at first they spoke to the prisoner in a good way. Then, if the interrogating officer understood the futility of such a conversation, was bored or simply angry, then the prisoner of war was beaten with fists, sticks or other objects. The beating continued until the tormentors got tired. In order to make the interrogation more interesting, another prisoner was brought in and forced to continue under pain of his own death by decapitation. Often he had to beat the prisoner to death. Few things in war were so hard on a soldier than inflicting suffering on a comrade. These stories filled the Allied forces with even greater determination in the fight against the Japanese.