HIROO Onoda’s commanding officer gave him one last order as the US closed in on Japan – “do not die”. And the soldier took his duty so seriously, he refused to believe World…
But Onoda — a highly trained survival expert — led his few surviving comrades into the mountainous jungle in the island's interior.
The die-hard soldier and a band of three other fellow stragglers were convinced that a surrender order document dropped from the skies by General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the 14th Army was fake. Hiroo later said he believed leaflets dropped by his own country were American-written because they were filled with mistakes.I became an officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shameAlso, with this was a tape-recording of his ageing mother, by now 86, was broadcast, pleading: "Please come home while I am alive."
So his commanding officer, by now a bookseller who retired from the army, was flown in to meet his old comrade and formally order him to stand down.Hiroo gave up his sword, his still-functioning Arisaka rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition, several hand grenades and a dagger his mum had gifted to commit suicide with should he be captured.
His commanding officer had told him in 1944, "It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens we'll come back for you."
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