Hirō Onoda, an IJA intelligence officer, was not aware of the war's ending on 2nd September 1945 and continued to hold out on Lubang Island in the Philippines with three other soldiers. They refused to believe leaflets dropped to them insisting that the war had ended, and continually raided farms and engaged in shootouts with locals and police; by 1972, the last of the other soldiers had been killed, leaving Onoda alone. Onoda was subsequently found by a Japanese traveler, Norio Suzuki, but insisted that he needed orders from his commanding officer to surrender. Suzuki used a photo he took of himself and Onoda (seen below) to prove Onoda's existence to the Japanese government. Onoda's former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi - now a bookseller - was located and flown to Lubang, where on 9th March 1974, he met Onoda and personally ordered him to surrender. Onoda did so, turning in his still functioning Type 99 Arisaka rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition, and several hand grenades.
Onoda was the second-longest Japanese holdout; Teruo Nakamura was captured in Indonesia a few months after Onoda's surrender. Onoda returned to Japan and later moved to Brazil, passing away in 2014 at the age of 91.
