Hiroo Onoda: The Last Japanese Soldier Who Kept on Fighting After WW2 had Finished

[EPISODE 30] Hiroo Onoda: The last Japanese Hold out

[00:00:00] Adam Cox: 20, uh,

[00:00:01] Adam Cox: Onoda said this was his fate.

[00:00:02] Adam Cox: To be stubborn. 

[00:00:04] Kyle Risi: Yeah. And to be 

[00:00:05] Adam Cox: lost for 20 odd years. Yeah, I mean, he is like the Japanese version of Bear Grylls times a thousand. 

[00:00:10] Kyle Risi: No, Bear Grylls 

[00:00:12] Kyle Risi: is a sissy.

[00:00:13] Kyle Risi: That's what I mean, times a thousand. Oh right, okay. Times a thousand sissies. 

[00:00:17] Kyle Risi: I mean a thousand sissies, that's not a force you want to reckon with. 

[00:00:20] Adam Cox: No, that's a 

[00:00:20] Kyle Risi: lot of slapping. I've been to the gay bar on a Friday night, and that's a scary 

[00:00:26] Kyle Risi: prospect. 

[00:00:51] Adam Cox: Welcome to the Compendium, an assembly of Japanese loyalty, honour, and just plain old stubbornness, along with an unbroken promise.

[00:01:00] Kyle Risi: Ooh. Is this a belligerent samurai that we're dealing 

[00:01:03] Adam Cox: with here? A belligerent samurai? Well, you're on the right track. Samurais do come into it. Ooh, I love a samurai story. Do you? Okay. Well, before we get into that, I am Adam Cox, the host for this week. And I'm 

[00:01:16] Kyle Risi: your co host for this week, Kyle Risi.

[00:01:19] Kyle Risi: And you are listening to The Compendium, an assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. We are a weekly variety podcast where I, Kyle Risi, ordinarily tell Adam Cox all about a story that I think he'll find both fascinating and intriguing from groundbreaking events to unforgettable people. We do it all in a simple one hour ish episode giving you just enough information for you to be the star of any social gathering.

[00:01:44] Kyle Risi: But I guess this week again, you're in that 

[00:01:46] Adam Cox: driving seat. I am. I'm back again. It's becoming a trend now. It's my one month show. Debut? Yeah. 

[00:01:54] Kyle Risi: Not debut. One month. Thing I do. One month a thing that you do. That's not all the thing. That's not the only thing you just once a month.

[00:02:03] Kyle Risi: I don't know where that's going. There's an insult in there 

[00:02:06] Adam Cox: somewhere. I'm sure there is, let's move on. Before we get into the main topic for today, um, any latest news for 

[00:02:13] Kyle Risi: us? I do, I've got one thing. So, I've not been that well recently. I do suffer from a bit of a sensitive stomach. But, I found out that taking Imodium, you know Imodium, right, to kind of help. Stop with the, uh, well you know. The pooping. Yeah, with the pooping. Did you know that it's actually an opioid?

[00:02:35] Kyle Risi: Really? Yeah, so remember when we were watching that show, what was that show on Netflix about crisis in America? Uh, Painkiller. Painkiller. And one of the side effects was that people were having chronic constipation. Right, yeah. And I didn't realize this but imodium is actually an opioid, and it's designed to interact with only the opioid receptors in your digestive tract to slow down your intestines.

[00:03:04] Kyle Risi: And basically scientists were like, hey, you know, like that anti diarrhea medication, heroin. Um, well, we can just make a version of that without the pesky side effects that get you high. And what they've done is they've managed to kind of separate. The thing that makes you constipated, that interacts with your digestive system in the heroin while removing the high factor from it.

[00:03:29] Kyle Risi: Really? 

[00:03:29] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:03:30] Kyle Risi: That's a thing. That is a thing. So it's an opioid. I had no idea. Mind is 

[00:03:34] Adam Cox: blown. Oh, okay. . 

[00:03:36] Kyle Risi: Well, that's all the latest things for this week for me. 

[00:03:38] Adam Cox: What have you got for us? Um, well, just, just a little story. Have you. Have you ever gone past a sunflower field and thought, I would love to get naked right now?

[00:03:49] Adam Cox: Um, 

[00:03:51] Kyle Risi: no, yes, no. Is this a trick? Are you trying to expose me? No, I can honestly say no, I've never walked past a sunflower field and felt the need to get naked. 

[00:04:03] Adam Cox: Well, um, you are alone in that. . Who's getting naked without me? What's happening? So a family farm in the UK has had to go to new lengths to basically stop visitors from stripping off in their sunflower field.

[00:04:21] Adam Cox: For what reason? Well, , the field, it's a pick your own sunflower. So people are supposed to go there and they can have photos. They've got these props of pianos and bathtubs. So interesting. It's supposed to be, you know, a nice place to visit with the family day out. Yeah. But what's happened is that the British public are stripping off and for the gram are getting naked to show a picture of them.

[00:04:43] Adam Cox: Like, I don't know, tastefully naked in a field of sunflowers. 

[00:04:47] Kyle Risi: Oh god, I guess if you're gonna be naked, the way to make it tasteful is to be surrounded by a flurry of 

[00:04:54] Adam Cox: sunflowers. Yeah, and so there's like this kid walking around and apparently he was like shocked to find this woman that was just wearing a thong.

[00:05:02] Adam Cox: And so they had to put out these signs that said, please do not get naked. 

[00:05:06] Kyle Risi: Okay, I hope these are people that are younger 

[00:05:08] Adam Cox: than us. I don't know. I guess anyone, each to their own. Um, but what is interesting is since they've put up these signs, they've had a lot of requests of people going like, Can I come to your farm and strip off?

[00:05:20] Kyle Risi: Is he saying like, No, like, I'm not condoning this. This isn't a thing. This is something that's happening against my will. Well, cows are 

[00:05:27] Adam Cox: offended. They don't actually go into whether he's accepting those bookings, but maybe if the price is right. 

[00:05:34] Kyle Risi: Ah, so a little business venture there for him.

[00:05:37] Adam Cox: Yeah. So if you're in the Portsmouth area, then, uh, look up that farm. Do it. Yeah. Nice. Okay. What are you serving up today? Well, Kyle, let's start off with a question. Ooh, have you ever been at work and been asked to do a particular task, such as a really in depth presentation, that you need to present back to a client or internally, whatever, and this presentation is going to take you all week, lots of research, you've been stressing about 

[00:06:05] Adam Cox: and the day finally comes that you need to present it back. And your boss goes to you, Oh, don't worry about that, it's no longer needed. Oh god, yes. 

[00:06:14] Kyle Risi: Did I not tell you about that? Did I forget to tell you about that?

[00:06:16] Kyle Risi: Yeah. All those hours that you put in, yeah, that happens all the time. In fact, 

[00:06:19] Adam Cox: weekly. Weekly. Well then you must be very frustrated by that. Oh yes. Well, compare yourself then to the Japanese holdout soldiers of World War II, who still believed the war was going on for almost three decades than it actually was.

[00:06:34] Adam Cox: These are Japanese soldiers? Japanese soldiers. Did they not get the memo? No. Well, there were attempts to tell them but didn't quite go to plan. What? So, these guys were hiding out in the jungle, living off coconuts and were still carrying out war tactics to fight for their country.

[00:06:50] Kyle Risi: That's mental. How did they not get the message though? I guess that's what this story's 

[00:06:55] Adam Cox: all about, is what this story's all about. 'cause in today's compendium, we are going to explore the last of the Japanese holdouts. A group of tough and incredibly strong willed soldiers from World War II that were tasked with going into hiding to cause trouble for their enemies as part of their strategy to take down the allies of World War II.

[00:07:14] Adam Cox: We will learn a little bit about the Samurai Code, and which should also help us understand why these soldiers did what they did for so long. Kamikaze!

[00:07:23] Kyle Risi: Do you not remember worms? 

[00:07:26] Adam Cox: Um... Is that what they did? No, the 

[00:07:28] Kyle Risi: little, little, little game on the, on the, on the telly thing. On the thing? Yeah, little worms, and then they would like, kind of like, one of their moves was like the kamikaze, and it'd be like a little suicide mission. And you'd see them put on their little Japanese little banner, and then they would wind themselves up, and then their worm would fire into kind of like, an enemy kind of ship or something, and then it would explode them.

[00:07:50] Kyle Risi: And no I didn't, no I never played that. And imagine that might have been part of the Samurai Code. Anyway. 

[00:07:55] Adam Cox: Yeah, well we'll talk about that. A segway there. A bit of a segway, but yeah, you're on the right track with Kamikaze. We're going to talk about that as well. 

[00:08:01] Adam Cox: Wow. Let's do it. Okay.

[00:08:03] Adam Cox: So we start our story in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II. It was a war that would bring pretty much every country into battle, led by the Allies, the big three being the UK, the Soviet Union, and later the United States.

[00:08:18] Adam Cox: And they were fighting against the Axis powers, which was Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan. Ooh. Random fact. Did you know that Finland was on Germany's side? 

[00:08:30] Kyle Risi: What, they were on the Axis side? Yeah. The Axis of Evil? 

[00:08:34] Adam Cox: Yeah. Finland? Finland. You know, you think they're kind of neutral, inoffensive.

[00:08:38] Adam Cox: Yeah. But actually, they were, you know, the enemies for us, at least. That's complete news to me. Yeah. That's why I was shocked. Shocked. Shocked, I tell you. Shocked. Well, not that shocked. But anyway, um, the war really kicked off for Japan in 1941. It was the 7th of December that year where Japan invaded Thailand.

[00:08:56] Adam Cox: They attacked Malaya, which is now Malaysia, and I think that was part of the UK empire at the time, Singapore and Hong Kong. And one of the ways the Japanese were able to carry out so many successful attacks in succession was how they approached war and they drew upon the ancient ways of the samurai and their code of honor. Ooh, Unagi. Unagi, salmon skin roll.

[00:09:19] Adam Cox: For those that watch Friends. But yes, as I was saying, those codes, one of those codes was called Bushido. Now, the thing about Bushido is it's a moral code where the closest way I could describe it, I guess, in Western culture is chivalry. Okay. But it's a fair bit more than that. It's like a set of rules that guides the behavior and mindset of Japanese samurai long ago.

[00:09:43] Adam Cox: It was all about honor, courage, and living a disciplined life. And this code became super important during Japan's involvement in multiple wars during the first half of the 20th century. Wow, okay. to boost the spirit of its soldiers. They wanted to make the war seem like this pure and cleansing act, okay? And they believed that dying in battle was a duty, not something to be feared. Yeah, sure, like it's an 

[00:10:08] Kyle Risi: honour. It's an honour to die for your country, almost. 

[00:10:11] Adam Cox: Yeah, it's like a morale booster. Like, don't be worried, this is actually a good thing.

[00:10:15] Adam Cox: Oh, it's a morale 

[00:10:15] Kyle Risi: booster? I mean, I wouldn't say it's a morale booster, but I mean, I would, willing, I'm willing to die for a cause, but I'm not, I'm not gonna feel 

[00:10:22] Adam Cox: good about it. No, I mean, that was sarcasm. 

[00:10:25] Kyle Risi: Oh, right. 

[00:10:26] Adam Cox: Sorry. Um, but they, they thought it essentially gives the soldiers they call it a spiritual shield that allowed them to fight until the very end, essentially.

[00:10:36] Adam Cox: Sure. One way of instilling this into the Japanese soldiers came from Japan's Prime Minister at the time, Hideki Tojo, I think it was. He had also been a military leader and he had a unique way of motivating his troops. He'd literally slap the soldiers faces.

[00:10:52] Adam Cox: Oh really? Uh, believing it was some form of training. Oh right. Yeah. 

[00:10:56] Kyle Risi: Sounds more like 

[00:10:57] Adam Cox: abuse. A little bit, but hey, it kind of made them the men that they were. Yeah, right. And so one thing you may have heard of is it's kamikaze pilots, a bit like the worms things you just said.

[00:11:08] Adam Cox: Um, but these suicidal attacks were how Japanese pilots, they crashed their planes into enemy ships. And in fact, 3, 000 Japanese pilots and 7, 000 American, Australian and British personnel lost their lives from these kamikaze attacks. Really? Damn. And that was all driven by Bushida. That's part of that.

[00:11:25] Kyle Risi: Right. It sounds like a bit of propaganda though, because I don't think that, like, the benefit there is that you are having a plane that's going to be crashing into a enemy ship or an enemy kind of tank or whatever. And that's probably way more reliable than trying to shoot them.

[00:11:42] Kyle Risi: Down with our bullets and stuff. So I think it's just a bit of propaganda to kind of try and make it seem like it's an honorable death. I wouldn't 

[00:11:48] Adam Cox: be surprised. Exactly. You're doing something for the greater cause, the emperor, essentially. Mm. now, of course, if you didn't follow Bushido, i. e. you decided to surrender, then essentially you were deemed a coward and you lost all respect.

[00:12:03] Adam Cox: This is why, unfortunately some prisoners of war weren't treated that well because they were seen as having forfeited their honour. If you didn't fight to the death, or were captured, or even worse, you had no choice but to surrender, well actually you brought shame among your family. 

[00:12:17] Kyle Risi: Right, I see. So is this partly what might have been, kind of, facilitated the holdout?

[00:12:24] Adam Cox: That comes into the whole Bushido. The salmon skin roll. The salmon skin roll. In fact, in some instances, families wish that you'd rather died and come back a prisoner of war or something like that. 

[00:12:35] Adam Cox: Which I think is, is kind of crazy because it's a real mindset change that you'd have to probably force yourself into that kind of adrenaline to take yourself out and the enemy, yeah. Well, I 

[00:12:47] Kyle Risi: think the prospect of just dying will give you that adrenaline boost without by just the act of doing it, getting mobilized.

[00:12:56] Kyle Risi: To point your ship or point your plane at the enemy and then just go 

[00:13:01] Adam Cox: full pelt. Yeah, I can't imagine that. That feels weird. 

[00:13:04] Kyle Risi: Oh, and knowing that it's just, it's going to be over. I would suck at war. Yeah, me too. I think I'm not, I'm not cut out for war. Good job we're too old for the draft, 

[00:13:13] Adam Cox: right? Maybe 10 years.

[00:13:16] Adam Cox: Do you reckon? I think so. We might have to do, I don't know, some toilet cleaning. I don't know. now we all know that Japan is pretty much the main reason why the United States joined World War Two. The US had remained neutral up until Japan hit their military base in Hawaii, Guam, and of course, the Pearl Harbor bombings in 1941.

[00:13:39] Adam Cox: And the Japanese forces also invaded the Philippines, which happened to be a US colony at the time. And so the Japanese were able to capture the islands and quickly overpowered the American and Filipino troops stationed there. So despite the Japanese occupation, you still have the Americans and Filipinos resisting the Japanese, and they're trying their best to fight back where they could.

[00:13:59] Adam Cox: And there was a battle in October 1944, which marked the beginning of the liberation of the Philippines and the US forces. with Filipino support for a series of battles to take back the islands. And so it was during these attacks that a number of Japanese men were sent to the Philippine islands to hamper enemy attacks and carry out guerrilla warfare.

[00:14:19] Adam Cox: Right, I see. So I thought, actually, first thing, do you know much about guerrilla warfare? 

[00:14:24] Kyle Risi: Um, no, I don't 

[00:14:27] Adam Cox: actually. That's fine, . Guerrilla warfare is a bit unconventional in that it usually involves small groups of military to carry out smaller attacks that would hamper or cause serious problems for the enemy.

[00:14:38] Adam Cox: Things like burning crops, affecting agriculture, running water, you know, ways of life, taking out police, or perhaps being close enough to spy and feed intelligence back to the base. Right, so where does 

[00:14:49] Kyle Risi: the term guerrilla come into it? That I 

[00:14:52] Adam Cox: don't know. 

[00:14:53] Kyle Risi: So just doing a quick Google search, it says that the term guerrilla warfare comes from the Spanish word for War, which is Gura and refers to a type of warfare fought by irregulars in fast moving small scale kind of actions against orthodox military or kind of police forces.

[00:15:13] Kyle Risi: Yeah, so it's about the origin of the word, I guess, which is Spanish. Yeah. 

[00:15:18] Adam Cox: Interesting. Yeah. So these men that were carrying out this type of warfare, They were specifically recruited to take up this role for Japan. And it would have been a massive honor at the time to go do this. And these men, they'd been given serious survival training and strict orders to remain in hiding until they were told otherwise.

[00:15:39] Adam Cox: And so they went off and started stealthily causing havoc for a lot of the allies across a lot of the Filipino islands. But fortunately for us, the war comes crashing down on Hitler as he commits suicide in April, 1945, which leads to Germany surrendering in May and ending the war in Europe.

[00:15:57] Adam Cox: The war, however, still goes on with Japan, and it's not until August 1945 that the U. S. drops a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, killing 80, 000 people within minutes. And then a second nuclear bomb is targeted towards Nagasaki, this time killing 120, 000 people.

[00:16:15] Adam Cox: Wow. Um, I mean, I knew about the bombs. But I never knew, I guess, the devastation that it caused. Yeah, it was 

[00:16:22] Kyle Risi: horrendous. 

[00:16:22] Adam Cox: Yeah, and those deaths, that doesn't even take into consideration those that would have died from radiation poisoning afterwards or any kind of other impacts from the bombings.

[00:16:31] Adam Cox: Yeah. Um, so yeah, horrendous attacks. You can totally understand why we don't want to go there again. So, given the severity of these attacks, it's less than a month later, on September the 2nd, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II. The United States leads the Allies in the occupation and rehabilitation of the Japanese state, which leads to military and political reform, amongst other things.

[00:16:54] Adam Cox: But whilst this is all happening, as you can imagine, telling all the Japanese troops that were stationed overseas, and there was about 3 million of them, to surrender and come home, Maybe wasn't at the top of the army's list and certainly not an easy task to get this message out to absolutely everyone.

[00:17:09] Adam Cox: Sure. Given that, some of these men, they didn't really know exactly where they were. They know they're on the island, but don't know exactly where to contact them on the island because they're in the jungle.

[00:17:17] Adam Cox: Oh, I see. I see. I mean, don't get me wrong, Japan did try, uh, many stragglers were captured and were sent home while hundreds went into hiding rather than surrender or commit suicide, because this was considered the better alternative than going home and bringing shame among their family. Mm hmm.

[00:17:33] Adam Cox: Um, some believed that they would go to prison, so wanted to avoid capture, and then there were a whole bunch that died as a result of starvation or sickness. Oh, God. Most of the men, however, that were in hiding were discovered in the 1940s. A few are found in the 1950s, one in the 60s, and then four men are found in the 1970s.

[00:17:53] Adam Cox: So these 

[00:17:55] Kyle Risi: numbers, these are very small numbers, but in the, in comparison to the numbers that are out there. Are these like just them just scratching the surface, or are there only just a very few number of these? 

[00:18:06] Adam Cox: Well, these are all the reported cases. Okay, so there's going to be some that probably aren't as well known sort of stories.

[00:18:13] Adam Cox: There are a few others which we'll touch on that may or may not have happened after that. Um, but I think largely in the decade that the war ended, most of them were kind of picked up and sent back home. But it was just that these stragglers were still out there. Yeah. And so in the 1970s, that was when the last Japanese soldier was to be found.

[00:18:34] Adam Cox: And his name was Hiro Enoda. in 1974. What a name. And, yeah, it's a really nice name. Hero. Yeah. Um, and that's who our story is about today. Okay, great. Hi, Hero. Hi, Hero. Um, so let's find out a little bit about his backstory, why he was able to survive so long, largely undetected, and what eventually caused him to come out of hiding 28 years and 210 days after World War II ended.

[00:19:03] Adam Cox: Okay. Wow, that's a long time. Mm-hmm. So here at aoda, his life began in the village of, I'm gonna hopefully say this correctly, Kawa. Okay. In wacky Yama. I is 

[00:19:18] Kyle Risi: great pronunciation. 

[00:19:19] Adam Cox: Um, which is excellent. Japanese. Thank you so much. Um, is a, a wacky Yammer, I think is a prefecture, which, uh, is in South Japan. It's a bit like a state or a county in the uk.

[00:19:29] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. . Um, so he was born in 1922. He was always a strong willed character. And in an interview that he gave, he said he was always defiant and stubborn in everything he did. He was born like that. 

[00:19:42] Kyle Risi: Okay. So he's primed to be a, what do you call it?

[00:19:44] Kyle Risi: A Japanese holdout. 

[00:19:45] Adam Cox: he's so suited to that. He said like, this, this was his fate. That's what he says. To be stubborn. 

[00:19:51] Kyle Risi: Yeah. And to be 

[00:19:52] Adam Cox: lost for 20 odd years. Yeah, I mean, he is like the Japanese version of Bear Grylls times a thousand. 

[00:19:58] Kyle Risi: No, Bear Grylls 

[00:19:59] Kyle Risi: is a sissy.

[00:20:01] Kyle Risi: That's what I mean, times a thousand. Oh right, okay. Times a thousand sissies. 

[00:20:06] Kyle Risi: I mean a thousand sissies, that's not a force you want to reckon with. 

[00:20:09] Adam Cox: No, that's a 

[00:20:10] Kyle Risi: lot of slapping. I've been to the gay bar on a Friday night, and that's a scary 

[00:20:16] Kyle Risi: prospect. 

[00:20:17] Adam Cox: It is for you. Um, anyway, so at just six years old, he got into a fight with a friend, and things got pretty serious.

[00:20:26] Adam Cox: He started waving a knife around and accidentally hurt his friend with the knife. His mother, as you might imagine, was not happy. And so, like most mothers, she wanted to take serious action. Um, I mean, you were naughty as a child, weren't you, Kyle? So what kind of things would you What would one make you do if you got into trouble?

[00:20:45] Kyle Risi: So, I would get the slipper thrown at me. I would, uh, be grounded. Right. Oh god, she would shout. Like, a lot. Yeah. But these are all kind of rudimentary things, little rudimentary measures that you place on children who are naughty, especially growing up in 

[00:21:01] Adam Cox: the 80s.

[00:21:02] Adam Cox: Yeah, these are not uncommon or unheard of things. 

[00:21:05] Kyle Risi: So what did, uh, Mama Hero do? 

[00:21:08] Adam Cox: Well. Oh God. Uh, his mother was so troubled by his behavior that she just couldn't tolerate him any longer. Okay. She took him to the family shrine and suggested a thug like him should commit harakiri. 

[00:21:22] Kyle Risi: I'm assuming that's like suicide. Yeah. 

[00:21:25] Adam Cox: That's horrible. Yeah, well, it's a ritual suicide which involves cutting the belly and disemboweling yourself. 

[00:21:32] Kyle Risi: Ooh, so he can bring mother and 

[00:21:34] Adam Cox: father. Well not so much that, he just needs to go do this because he's a bad little boy.

[00:21:39] Adam Cox: At the age of six, Kyle. 

[00:21:41] Kyle Risi: Mmm. Six. I guess it's like a threat of, the equivalent of like, ooh the boogeyman's gonna come get you or you should run away or... 

[00:21:48] Adam Cox: But being given a knife to go, come on, come get your stuff. Oh, 

[00:21:51] Adam Cox: even having that conversation with a child is terrible.

[00:21:55] Adam Cox: That is some tough 

[00:21:55] Kyle Risi: love. And what family has a family shrine? I don't know. Can we have a family 

[00:22:00] Adam Cox: shrine? Um, yeah, right, put it on the 

[00:22:03] Kyle Risi: list. Would it be RuPaul as our, like, as our queen? As our, as our 

[00:22:09] Adam Cox: god? I don't think so. Unless that's what you want. 

[00:22:12] Kyle Risi: Isn't that what you want? No. 

[00:22:14] Adam Cox: Anyway, back to the story. Okay. so once again, this Japanese honor is a common thread in their culture, as we know, and with his mum believing he's such a troublemaker, and that he should end his life. , Onoda couldn't bring it upon himself to go through with it, and rightly so. , Onoda has a brief stint with the Tajima Yoko Trading Company in Wuhan before he enlists in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was singled out, a suitable candidate for the school in Tokyo.

[00:22:44] Adam Cox: , a crucial training ground for intelligence agents here. He received the training, he would need in order to go into the jungles. Things like propaganda, sabotage, martial arts, and of course, to carry out gorilla warfare. His mission in 1944 was to go to Luang.

[00:22:59] Adam Cox: Uh, which is an island 93 miles southwest of the Filipino capital, Manila. Anoda, along with a small team, were tasked with obstructing American advances across the Pacific on that island. So Anoda's orders were given to him by Major Yoshimi Taniguchi. And they were pretty clear, and I'm going to read them out.

[00:23:20] Adam Cox: You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand. It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens will come back for you. Until then, so long as you have one soldier, you are continued to lead him. You may have to live on coconuts. If that's the case, live on coconuts. Under no circumstances are you to give up your life voluntarily.

[00:23:42] Kyle Risi: Wow, okay. Because they might be needed as kamikaze pilots or something like 

[00:23:48] Adam Cox: that. Well, I think they're just like, you're not giving up, you need to fight this war through sort of thing. We've got a job to do. I mean, these are very explicit orders. Exactly. Very explicit. 

[00:23:59] Adam Cox: So, once concealed in the jungle, Enoda and his team, basically pull together and his team is made up of three other soldiers. Private Yuichi Akatsu, Corporal Shoichi Shimada, and Private First Class Kenshichi Kozuka. 

[00:24:17] Kyle Risi: Wow, check out your 

[00:24:18] Adam Cox: pronunciation. I mean, I could have got that. You're smashing it.

[00:24:21] Adam Cox: Well, it sounds like it. It 

[00:24:22] Kyle Risi: does sound like it. I have no idea to verify whether or not it's correct or 

[00:24:25] Adam Cox: not. Take it till you make it. Okay. So these guys, they were completely cut off from the rest of their wider team, and they were surrounded by their enemy.

[00:24:33] Adam Cox: Anoda and his team lived very close together, constructing bamboo huts, living off only a very few amount of supplies. They only had the clothes that they were wearing, a small amount of rice, and each had a gun with limited ammunition. They turned to guerrilla warfare tactics to fight the allies where possible, civilian's cow for food.

[00:24:56] Adam Cox: The rest of the time, they rationed their supplies so meticulously that they pretty much just relied on coconuts, bananas, and the jungle's resources for food and drink. Okay. Over time, other groups stationed on the island are captured or are killed, but Enoda's team managed to work really well together and they evade capture.

[00:25:15] Adam Cox: Mm hmm. In the autumn of that year, 1945, not long after the war has ended, they do notice that the island's activities have slowed down a little bit. Um, but that doesn't mean to them that the war is over. They just think, oh, it's just gone a little bit quiet. Mm hmm. 

[00:25:31] Adam Cox: Anodea and his team would continue to fight the war for many years, attacking Lubang's civilian population and this would cause the local police force as well as Filipino and American search parties to actually go out and look for them and go like, come on guys, it's over, go home. Um, but the locals had little choice but get used to it because there was basically a bunch of wild Japanese soldiers that could burst out of the forest at any point with a gun.

[00:26:00] Adam Cox: Steal your cow and kill you. Yeah, you don't want to 

[00:26:02] Kyle Risi: reason with that, right? You don't want to risk that happening either. 

[00:26:04] Adam Cox: No, exactly. So you just have to kind of keep yourself to yourself and make sure you know, look behind your back where you're going. Yeah. And to be fair, Anoda and his team, they didn't really help themselves because as I said, like every time they, would attack a local, it would cause another search party. And this would then feed into their paranoia, um, because they believe these search parties are actually enemy spies dressed in civilian clothes, ready to hunt them out.

[00:26:30] Adam Cox: And so that kind of made them withdraw even more into the jungle and kind of, you know, keep hidden. And these guys, their paranoia became so bad that even when a plane flew over the island... dropping leaflets to tell the soldiers that the war was over, they didn't buy it. Really? Yeah, because Onoda had, I guess, studied, um, propaganda and he thought this was some way that the Americans were doing it as a hoax, essentially, to get them out of the jungle.

[00:26:54] Adam Cox: He just Well, that's 

[00:26:55] Kyle Risi: what they did as well. They, they did do that. Oh, did they? Yeah, they would drop leaflets on to various civilian areas, telling them all sorts of propaganda. In fact, when they dropped the bomb Hiroshima and Namasaki. They also drop loads of leaflets as well. 

[00:27:09] Adam Cox: Really? I did not know that.

[00:27:11] Adam Cox: Yeah. So, understandably then, you can see why Anoda perhaps wouldn't buy this because it's happened before. . Newspapers were also left for them, um, so it would have news about the war being over and other modern day events such as like the Olympics that were going on still didn't buy it. Uh, family members wrote letters and they took photos and they were dropped over and even some of the family members would visit the jungle and would speak over loudspeakers.

[00:27:38] Adam Cox: Really? Wow. 

[00:27:39] Kyle Risi: Um, but And they're like, ooh, they've managed to clone that's a good fake. It's a good fake of my mum. Yeah. Or it's a good fake of my 

[00:27:44] Adam Cox: wife. Either that, or they think they're being held against their will. Ah, right, okay, 

[00:27:48] Kyle Risi: sure. So it's a trap. I mean, they did have very explicit orders not to, I guess, take their own life, but also was one of the orders not to surrender.

[00:27:57] Adam Cox: Essentially, yeah, because that's part of, you know, you're going against Bushido if you do that. Mm. So, Enoda and his team, they stood strong, they were not deviating from their plan, and as the major, Yoshimi Taniguchi, said to them, he would come and get them when the war's over. And that's what they continued to believe.

[00:28:14] Adam Cox: Well, most of them anyway. In 1949, one of the team, Akatsu, had had enough. It's been about five years at this point that he's been in hiding, and he takes the decision to leave without telling the others in the group. And he surrenders to the Filipino forces. Why? 

[00:28:31] Kyle Risi: Just because he's had enough? He's exhausted.

[00:28:33] Adam Cox: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I can't handle two nights in a tent. Well, he's been there years. Exactly. Wow. So yeah, five years. Good on him. Um, but it still takes him after leaving the group, another six months before he actually hands himself in. Right. I think he was still quite nervous about doing it because, you know, shame and everything else that that would bring.

[00:28:55] Adam Cox: And also he could be put in prison. He didn't know what was going to happen. He could be shot. Yeah. So with Akatsu out of the group, Anoda, Shimada and Kazuka became even more cautious because they feel like, well, actually if, if Akatsu is interrogated, he could reveal details about their location and everything else.

[00:29:13] Adam Cox: So again, another layer of paranoia. Over the years, Anoda and his men carried out armed raids on farmers, many of which actually tragically resulted in deaths. So, part of the, tactics that they were, , employed to, , use was to take back the island, and that meant fighting locals, threatening them, setting fire to their houses and killing them, and in one instance, they murdered a person by decapitating them, and their body parts were found in several places.

[00:29:41] Adam Cox: Yeah, they were pretty tough and some nasty things that they did. Yeah, brutal as well. In June 1953, Shimada was wounded during a skirmish. Um, his leg was... A skirmish? What's that? Uh, a bit of a fight between the local police forces or civilians. Right, okay. Like a scuffle? Well, more of like a shootout. So not, 

[00:30:01] Kyle Risi: so not a scuffle, more than a scuffle, less than a kerfuffle.

[00:30:08] Kyle Risi: Um, 

[00:30:08] Adam Cox: it's a... A skirmish. A skirmish. Yeah. Um, so, you know, he basically got shot in the leg. Um, it did get better, but he did die about a year later following another skirmish on the beach, , with the police. And so that then, encouraged another search party to try and find these guys.

[00:30:28] Adam Cox: And that just left Kazuka and Onoda really, a team of two. . And even though they were a team of two, part of the thing that their major said to them was, even if you only got one soldier to lead mm-hmm. , you continue to lead that soldier, you continue to lead 

[00:30:40] Kyle Risi: them. And that's what they did. So what was like life like for them?

[00:30:44] Kyle Risi: Like what were they, did they have access to clothing? What were they wearing after five years? Like what state were, was there attire in. Were they just like covered in like black paint, like I imagine you're kind of trying to stay camouflaged in the jungle and your head's just poking out every now and again.

[00:31:04] Kyle Risi: Um, what did they wear? Did they just have a loincloth? 

[00:31:07] Adam Cox: A loincloth. Did they have a uniform? Do you know what? That's a good point. They don't go into that. Well, I didn't read about that, but, Noda does come out of hiding. His clothes are in pretty good condition.

[00:31:17] Adam Cox: Really? Wow. So he took very good care of his uniform because that's obviously representative of his country. Yeah. Um, so perhaps he did take that off and wear a loincloth or whatever to kind of, you're going to get sweaty 

[00:31:32] Kyle Risi: in the jungle. Yeah, yeah, this is like his Sunday best, which is his uniform, but the rest of the time he's just wearing like a bare skin.

[00:31:38] Adam Cox: Oh yeah, I think so anyway. Could be wrong, but I think that's the case.

[00:31:42] Adam Cox: So Kazuka and Anoda, , being the remaining two, they largely remain hidden for another 18 years after Shimada's death. In fact, all the failed search parties and attempts to find them, over the years leads to an official declaration that those two soldiers are pronounced dead in 1959. Wow. It's only when Kazuka is killed following another skirmish with Filipino patrol and his body is found that people start to think, Oh, maybe Anoda could be alive.

[00:32:13] Adam Cox: News about this reaches a college dropout called Norio Suzuki. He's described as a bit of a hippie, which I think is a bit odd when you think of a Japanese hippie. Because you think of long hair, straggly, that kind of thing, and Japanese are always so well kept.

[00:32:30] Adam Cox: Um, but this was the seventies after all, and he was traveling around several countries and he, he told his friends he was on a mission to find a Noda, a panda, and the abominable snowman in that specific order. So all 

[00:32:44] Kyle Risi: these three mythical creatures, including this, this hidden, this hidden 

[00:32:49] Adam Cox: panda a mythical 

[00:32:50] Kyle Risi: creature?

[00:32:51] Kyle Risi: Thanks for watching! Uh, well, like, a panda's not from Japan, though. A panda's from China. True. So maybe he's like, he's only ever heard about pandas, and he's only ever heard about the abominable snowman. True. And he's only ever heard that Anoda is out there. Yeah. So I think he's classing them three as these three mythical creatures, which is cute.

[00:33:13] Kyle Risi: It's cute, cute. I like what you've done there. 

[00:33:14] Adam Cox: I like it. I think it's, it's a good mission in life. So Suzuki sets out to go to the island to find Anoda. And, weirdly, it only takes him four days to find him, which is much quicker than any other search party out there. And on their first encounter, , Suzuki was actually really lucky to survive and not get shot by Anoda.

[00:33:36] Adam Cox: If it wasn't for the fact that Suzuki was wearing socks and sandals, anoda said that he probably would have shot him. Why? Because the locals, they would never be seen wearing that. Is that 

[00:33:47] Kyle Risi: a very Japanese thing to do? I guess it is. Like when you have these images of these samurais with these big gorgeous gowns, they're wearing sandals and socks.

[00:33:56] Kyle Risi: Yeah, 

[00:33:56] Adam Cox: and they're Filipino. What a way to 

[00:33:57] Kyle Risi: ruin a perfectly 

[00:33:58] Adam Cox: great outfit. I know. It's weird because growing up... Wearing like sandals and socks was like, blasphemous. You couldn't do that. But now it's okay to wear sliders and socks. Yeah, 

[00:34:09] Kyle Risi: yeah. I've got into that habit as well. 

[00:34:12] Adam Cox: I know. It's a shame. I pray for you.

[00:34:15] Adam Cox: It'll happen to you as well. With 

[00:34:17] Kyle Risi: you it'll be Birkenstocks and sandals. Maybe. Sorry, Birkenstocks 

[00:34:20] Adam Cox: and socks. Maybe. But, um, so that was the giveaway for him. Cause he was like, yeah, the locals would never wear that. Mm hmm. And so Suzuki tried to persuade Onoda to come home and that the war was over, but Onoda was, as we know, very stubborn and wasn't going to give in that easily and didn't necessarily take Suzuki's word straight away.

[00:34:41] Adam Cox: But actually I think there's something, in one of the books on an odor whereby he said that there was a certain Japanese expression that Suzuki must have done. Um, which made him think, actually maybe this guy is genuine. Now what, what was it? He didn't say what, but there was something that he did his demeanor and the way that he kind of portrayed himself, he's like, actually, yeah, you are Japanese.

[00:35:03] Adam Cox: You mean well, there's truth in what you're saying. Right, right, yeah. Onoda continued to stick to his instincts and refused to leave the jungle on Lebang Island, as for him the war was still going on. But Suzuki and od, they bonded enough for OD to reveal that he had only surrender when his commander, major Yoshimi Ttag Gucci would come and get him like he had promised almost 30 years ago.

[00:35:26] Adam Cox: Was he even still alive? Uh, we about to find out. Oh God. Um, so hearing this, Suzuki travels back to Japan. He takes photos of him and Onoda, as proof, and he manages to track down Onoda's former commander, Major Taniguchi. Mm hmm. Uh, he had surrendered long ago, and he was now a bookseller. Oh, he surrendered!

[00:35:45] Kyle Risi: Mm. Cheeky 

[00:35:46] Adam Cox: bugger.. 

[00:35:47] Kyle Risi: I know, right? 

[00:35:47] Adam Cox: Suzuki convinces Taniguchi to come with him, and they travel to Lebang. And on March the 9th, 1974, Suzuki and Taniguchi meet Onoda. Where the major reads the orders that state all combat activity was to be ceased and that Onoda could finally be relieved of duty.

[00:36:05] Adam Cox: Wow, 

[00:36:06] Kyle Risi: and he believed him then? He didn't think that he was a plant or? 

[00:36:09] Adam Cox: Yeah, he believed him because that was what the major said that he would come and do. Hmm. Aww. Although he did get a little sidetracked. Why? Well, it took him 28 years to visit him. Yeah, that's true. So maybe not that grand major.

[00:36:22] Adam Cox: He was busy setting up a bookshop. Yeah. Does that take 28 years though? Anyway, I guess he just forgot about him, right? I guess so. Maybe he just thought like, come on, he must have come back by now. Yeah. He didn't literally take my words, did he? Well, you did. He did. 

[00:36:36] Adam Cox: , So, when Onoda is given this news, he's obviously shocked, uh, he can't quite believe it, not only had Japan lost the war, but he'd been in hiding all that time for essentially no reason at all. Yeah. And . He describes how he felt, as he heard this news and I'm going to read it because I think this was in perhaps one of his autobiographies.

[00:36:59] Adam Cox: He reveals, We really lost the war? How could they have been so sloppy? Suddenly everything went black. A storm raged inside me. I felt like a fool for having been so tense and cautious on the way here. Worse than that, what had I been doing all these years? Had the war really ended 30 years ago? If it had then what had Shimada and Kazuka died for?

[00:37:23] Adam Cox: If what was happening was true, wouldn't it have been better if I had died with them? 

[00:37:27] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Well, no, not that he died, but yeah, that the feel of like, what a waste of a life. Yeah. Realization that you've done this all for nothing almost. Yeah. Yeah. And you've possibly missed out on having a family. You've probably missed out on The joys of living, do you know what I mean?

[00:37:46] Adam Cox: And he lost his friends and they could have had a, they could have had a life. So really sad and it takes some time for that news to sink in. He does hand in his sword, a functioning rifle he had kept in good order all these years.

[00:38:00] Adam Cox: 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades, as well as the dagger his mom had given to him in 1944 to kill himself if he was captured. Wow. She was hell bent on him killing himself. Yeah, she 

[00:38:13] Kyle Risi: was. Is she still alive? What about his family? 

[00:38:16] Adam Cox: I don't dunno. Actually, that's a good question. 

[00:38:19] Kyle Risi: How old was he when he finally surrendered, so he was 

[00:38:21] Adam Cox: born in 22. Mm-hmm. , he surrendered in 1974. So he is 

[00:38:29] Kyle Risi: So he was 52 years old, 52 years old. There's a chance that his mom and dad would've been alive, possibly. They were young enough, 

[00:38:37] Adam Cox: but he spent over half his life in the jungle at this point. He did.

[00:38:39] Adam Cox: They 

[00:38:40] Kyle Risi: probably wouldn't even recognize him. Mm, he'll probably come back and his mom would've been like, Oh, so you didn't kill yourself. Yeah, shouldn't you be dead? Yeah, I thought I got rid of you years 

[00:38:48] Adam Cox: ago.

[00:38:49] Adam Cox: I know, poor Noda. 

[00:38:50] Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's a real sad story. Like a wasted life. For almost nothing. And what's even worse is like, It's, it's because you take the words of your commander so seriously, right?

[00:39:03] Kyle Risi: That's gospel. That's what you do. And to him, like the war ended a few years later, . He forgot all about Hero and he probably never crossed his mind again. Probably not. He sat there in the jungle all these years, loyal to his commander. 

[00:39:21] Adam Cox: And this country, 

[00:39:21] Kyle Risi: yeah.

[00:39:22] Kyle Risi: And these countries, betrayal is multifaceted, right? I would, I'd be gutted. Gutted. And I wouldn't know how I'd be able to assimilate back into society after 

[00:39:32] Adam Cox: that. Well, , he did struggle with that, to be honest. I mean, not only did his, news about him being alive, caused a bit of controversy because, well, particularly in the Philippines, because, you know, innocent people had died at Onoda and his team.

[00:39:46] Adam Cox: Mm hmm. Um, but when he goes back to Japan, he is largely celebrated as a hero. As he truly represented Japan and the Bushido spirit. But , Japan had changed quite considerably in 30 odd, almost 30 years, so he did struggle. And 

[00:40:01] Kyle Risi: also when you think about how they changed, right, they almost became assimilated into the West.

[00:40:07] Kyle Risi: to a degree. So they were fighting against the West, they lost, and now they were very westernized. They have westernized ideals. Obviously the culture's very different, but still they have these westernized ideals, which is probably some of the things that they were fighting against. 

[00:40:24] Adam Cox: Yeah, and I think it was that the society Or societal changes that happened he struggled with and actually he did leave the country.

[00:40:34] Adam Cox: Oh he did, where did he go? Well we'll get onto that in just a second. I wanted to tell you a little bit more about two other holdouts that were found. Okay. Around the time. Because I wanted to share the contrast because Onoda was treated as this hero essentially and really had a positive reception.

[00:40:53] Adam Cox: But one guy called Shoichi Yokoi was found two years earlier after 26 years in hiding, so still a fairly long time, but he knew that the war ended in 1952. Oh really? 

[00:41:06] Kyle Risi: So what was his reason for holding 

[00:41:08] Adam Cox: out? Well, he wanted to remain hidden because he feared he'd be considered a deserter or he'd get court martialed or maybe even executed because they'd lost the war.

[00:41:18] Adam Cox: So he didn't really know what would happen, so he thought it was better that he would just hide. Okay, 

[00:41:22] Kyle Risi: that's understandable. But I wonder if there was something very specific that made him believe 

[00:41:28] Adam Cox: that. I guess maybe that's what they were sort of taught, you might get captured if you surrender. Um, but I think people struggled to warm to them as much because he didn't represent Japanese honour in the same way, whereas at least Onoda...

[00:41:44] Adam Cox: was out there fighting, thinking that the war was still going on. That's why he was in the jungle.

[00:41:49] Adam Cox: So an oda, he technically isn't the last soldier found. Mm-hmm. , uh, the last man ever to be found was Ro Nakamura, who lasted nine months more than an Oda. Mm-hmm. . And he also refused to believe that the war was over. So similar sort of mindset, but because he grew up in Taiwan, which was part of Japan's empire at the time and wasn't part of Japan itself, um, that is why odes considered the last Japanese hold on, sorry. Because it was 

[00:42:19] Kyle Risi: part of their empire. Even 

[00:42:21] Adam Cox: though it's not now. Yeah, I don't know if I should say that again. Is that confusing? 

[00:42:25] Kyle Risi: No, no, I understood it. So say it again just because you'll be able to say it with more conviction 

[00:42:29] Adam Cox: now. So one other thing, um, I should say. Technically, Onoda is not the last soldier.

[00:42:39] Adam Cox: As the last man ever to be found was Tiro Nakamura, who lasted nine months more than Onoda. And he, like Onoda, refused to believe that the war was over. He, however, grew up in Taiwan, which was part of Japan's empire at the time. Um, so he wasn't from Japan himself, which is why he's not considered, uh, like the last Japanese holdout.

[00:43:03] Adam Cox: right. Yeah. 

[00:43:04] Kyle Risi: That's interesting. I didn't know that Taiwan was not always part of China. 

[00:43:09] Adam Cox: Hmm. At this particular time, yeah, it was part of Japan 

[00:43:12] Adam Cox: Because Nakamura, was from Taiwan originally, he didn't receive the same warm reception as the other holdouts. Oh really? What happened to him? Um, so by the time that he walked out of the jungle, history had kind of rendered him stateless.

[00:43:27] Adam Cox: Because the Japanese empire, was gone. Mm hmm. And Taiwan had now become part of the Chinese nationalist government. Right. And though Nakamura himself expressed a wish to be sent to Japan, as he considered that his home country, and who he'd been fighting for, it emerged he had no right to live there.

[00:43:46] Adam Cox: Which is kind of sad. So what happened to him? Um, 

[00:43:49] Kyle Risi: I'm not too sure. Oh, 

[00:43:52] Adam Cox: okay. But I know that, From what I read, you know, we are just scratching the surface here, Kyle. Yeah, but that's a pretty 

[00:43:58] Kyle Risi: big detail. Like, If he's got nowhere to go, where's he gonna go? 

[00:44:02] Adam Cox: Um, I don't know. Oh, wait, I do know. I've got it just here.

[00:44:07] Adam Cox: He didn't actually survive much longer. He only lived for a further four years and he died at 59.

[00:44:14] Adam Cox: Um, so he spent half of his life in hiding. He was sort of rejected when he came out or certainly wasn't given the same reception. And yeah, then he died. So what was that all for? 

[00:44:27] Kyle Risi: Yeah. What was it all for? That's the thing about war, right? What is it all 

[00:44:30] Adam Cox: for? What's it really good for? Absolutely nothing.

[00:44:34] Adam Cox: Yeah. As a song. Yeah, that sounds like, 

[00:44:37] Kyle Risi: I thought it was a Family Guy reference, but no. 

[00:44:40] Adam Cox: Things did end better for Onoda, however. , the Japanese government offered him a large sum of money in back pay, but he refused all that.

[00:44:48] Adam Cox: What? 

[00:44:49] Kyle Risi: Why did he refuse it? That's his salary. He's owed that. 

[00:44:52] Adam Cox: Yeah. , but I guess, again, this honor thing comes into it. Um, he received donations from people, but he gave them away. Really? Yeah. I guess he kind of felt maybe a little bit uncomfortable profiting off of this because Yes, you've been doing all this sort of, um, for his country, but I think he did feel a bit of remorse for some of the actions that he did.

[00:45:15] Adam Cox: Oh really? That's interesting. Yeah. 

[00:45:17] Kyle Risi: Yeah, because I would think that maybe he refused all that back pay and also the donations as a way to further feel this, way that he's revered. Like, oh, like, yeah, we tried to give him money, but he said no. What a wonderful, amazing human he is and that elevates you even more as this incredible, noble, noble 

[00:45:38] Adam Cox: person.

[00:45:38] Adam Cox: Yeah. , he did find a way to kind of give back a little bit. So got found and he decided he didn't want to stay in Japan, he moved to a Japanese colony in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he became a cattle farmer. And in 1976 he married. Um, he did, though, return to Japan in 1984 after he grew tired of hearing of news stories of how he felt the Japanese youth were losing their way.

[00:46:06] Adam Cox: Um, one particular news story broke about a boy who murdered his parents, and Onoda felt so saddened to hear about this, he was adamant that before war, or the war that he was involved in, this would have never happened, as when a young adult had disagreements with their parents. They would leave home and become independent and they would grow as a person.

[00:46:27] Adam Cox: So I think this is the bit where he was struggling with society because he was like, it's changed and people were becoming not as, I don't know, I guess that they didn't have the same sort of morals in their way. Yeah. So what he did is he opened up the nature school, which was sort of like a, an educational youth camp.

[00:46:48] Adam Cox: Yeah. So students or children would camp out in tents and would come face to face with nature. Learning survival skills to essentially make them physically and mentally stronger. And he could impart his wisdom on the things that he had learned during his, you know, his survival days. Oh, that's nice. And he donates the money that he makes from the school back to Lebang.

[00:47:08] Adam Cox: Um, it's the equivalent of around 2 million yen that, he'd earned. And as a way of, I guess, giving back because of the trouble that he caused the island. Mm hmm. Wow. 

[00:47:18] Kyle Risi: He does, he does need to take a bit of his salary. 

[00:47:22] Adam Cox: I'm sure he does take some. Right. You know, he's benefiting, but I think he, he appreciates the simpler life in some ways.

[00:47:28] Adam Cox: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He also climbs one of the Himalayan mountains in 1987, at the age of 65. Wow. When he learns that Norio Suzuki goes missing. Mm-hmm. . So as I mentioned, Suzuki's goal was to find an odor, a panda, and then the abom snowman. Yeah. In that order, well, he found an odor. Um, apparently he found a panda.

[00:47:51] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. , But he then believes he finds the abominable snowman in 1975 from a distance, and so he goes back to the Himalayas in 1987, but he sadly dies. Oh, does he? Trying to locate, um, the snowman. Onoda, being the honourable man that he is, he wants to pay his respects. Because it's down to Suzuki that gave him a new life, he has a lot to thank him for.

[00:48:14] Adam Cox: And so Onoda camped out. Three days after climbing 4000m in the Himalayas, close to where Suzuki's body was eventually found, and he makes a simple altar on the mountain where he prays for Suzuki. Aww. Onoda releases a book, and there's even been a movie about him, which will include links within the show notes, if you're interested.

[00:48:35] Adam Cox: He's been given many accolades for his work in the later years. And he lives a long life to the age of 91 before dying from complications of pneumonia in 2014. 

[00:48:46] Kyle Risi: Oh, that's a shame. So it's not that long ago that he died then? Not 

[00:48:48] Adam Cox: really, but I am glad that whilst he spent 28 years in the jungle, he managed to have a good life afterwards.

[00:48:56] Adam Cox: Yeah, 

[00:48:56] Kyle Risi: And you said that he got married as well. So he moved out to Brazil with his wife. 

[00:49:01] Adam Cox: Yes. Or he met her there. He met her there, I think. But it just goes to show, yeah, he got a... He got a really good reception, he managed to have a life afterwards and it's a shame that maybe not everyone got celebrated in the same way or had that success afterwards.

[00:49:15] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:49:17] Kyle Risi: It still is that regret though, right? I don't know if I'd be able to live with that regret. It would be difficult to come to terms with. You would come to terms with it because of course it's life and you want to continue to live. After all those years, I still wouldn't be able to come to terms with it.

[00:49:32] Kyle Risi: Especially when you consider what is it all for? And it makes you put it into perspective as you get older. Like, what is the meaning of life? Like, what is my purpose? And it sounds like for a long time, he was so convicted in his feelings and In what he felt was right or wrong, but ultimately what is considered right or wrong can turn on a dime one minute.

[00:49:54] Kyle Risi: It can be, this is the just thing to do. The next thing is meaningless and pointless. And that must do some crazy stuff to your 

[00:50:02] Adam Cox: brain. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's why he, I don't know, tried to find meaning in his later years to kind of give back and do something good, to show that he'd learned something from it, I guess.

[00:50:11] Kyle Risi: And I guess what's nice is it's on his own terms, right? He's not being told this is the right thing to do. It sounds like he is saying, this is what I believe is the right thing to do. I'm not being told that this is what honour is. He understands the value of relationships and people. And that's why he went to go set up the school, because he understands that it's about you growing as a person and being respectful to your parents and find your own way in life.

[00:50:36] Kyle Risi: And so, yeah, that's sad. What a nice guy. Yeah, 

[00:50:42] Adam Cox: really nice guy. now there have been rumours and possible sightings of other Japanese holdouts still hiding in the surrounding islands of Lubang as recent as 2005, but this was thought to be a hoax because by this point the men would have been in their 80s and at that kind of age you're not going to be surviving in the jungle, I would have thought.

[00:51:02] Adam Cox: No. You'd be eaten. You've got a bad back, maybe your hips out, can't see, eat a poisonous toad, you're dead. That most likely means that hi AODA was indeed the last Japanese born hold out to be found an honorable man that was both stubborn and loyal, which would serve him well during his 28 years and 210 days in hiding.

[00:51:24] Adam Cox: Wow. Oh 

[00:51:26] Kyle Risi: yeah. There we go. 

[00:51:27] Adam Cox: That is the story of Hero. An oda 

[00:51:30] Adam Cox: The last Japanese soldier. Wow, 

[00:51:32] Kyle Risi: what an incredible story. Oh, thank you very 

[00:51:35] Adam Cox: much for that.

[00:51:36] Adam Cox: It's good, isn't it? I, um, yeah, I really enjoyed researching that one because I had no idea until I stumbled upon it. 

[00:51:41] Kyle Risi: Sure. So if I want to read more, what can I, where can I go? What can I look up? 

[00:51:45] Adam Cox: Well, there is a website dedicated to all the Japanese holdouts called wanpella. com. It's got a brief summary about.

[00:51:53] Adam Cox: All of them on there and other bits of information. So that's quite interesting. Um, there's the book by Hiro Onoda, called No Surrender, My Third Year War. And then the film 10, 000 Nights in the Jungle, which again is sort of based on Onoda. 

[00:52:06] Kyle Risi: Wow. Is that how much it comes up to, 10, 000 

[00:52:09] Adam Cox: nights? Yeah, I think it's over that, to be honest.

[00:52:11] Adam Cox: I worked it out, but then there's leap years and I got confused. 

[00:52:15] Kyle Risi: I think you only had a few on there. Yeah, but like 24, like 6 days on there. 

[00:52:21] Adam Cox: Yeah, but did the leap year start before the war? Oh, I don't know. This is why I got confused. Sure. Anyway. Amazing. To the outro. 

[00:52:29] Adam Cox: Yeah, let's go. And so we come to the end of another episode of the Compendium, an assembly of fascinating and intriguing things.

[00:52:37] Adam Cox: If you found today's episode both fascinating and intriguing, then we urge you to subscribe and leave us a review. Don't just stop there though. Schedule our episodes to download automatically. Doing this not only ensures you're always in the loop, but also boosts our visibility, helping us to serve up even more captivating tales straight to your ears.

[00:52:56] Adam Cox: You can also follow us on Instagram at thecompendiumpodcast or visit our home on the web at thecompendiumpodcast. com new episodes are released every Tuesday, and so until then, see ya! 

[00:53:08] Kyle Risi: See ya later!