Hiroo Onoda Early life . Onoda was born on March 19 , 1922 , in Kamekawa Village , Kaisō District , Wakayama Prefecture , Japan . When he was 17 years old , he went to work for the Tajima Yoko trading company in Wuhan , China . When he was 20 , he was enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army . Military service . Onoda trained as an intelligence officer in the of Nakano School . On December 26 , 1944 , he was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines . He was ordered to do all he could to hamper enemy attacks on the island , including destroying the airstrip and the pier at the harbor . Onoda ' s orders also stated that under no circumstances was he to surrender or take his own life . When he landed on the island , Onoda joined forces with a group of Japanese soldiers who had been sent there previously . The officers in the group outranked Onoda and prevented him from carrying out his assignment , which made it easier for United States and Philippine Commonwealth forces to take the island when they landed on February 28 , 1945 . Within a short time of the landing , all but Onoda and three other soldiers had either died or surrendered and Onoda , who had been promoted to lieutenant , ordered the men to take to the hills . Time in hiding . Onoda continued his campaign as a Japanese holdout , initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers ( Private Yūichi Akatsu , Corporal Shōichi Shimada and Private First Class Kinshichi Kozuka ) . During his stay Onoda and his companions carried out guerrilla activities , killed some 30 Filipino inhabitants of the island , and engaged in several shootouts with the police . The first time they saw a leaflet which claimed that the war was over was in October 1945 ; another cell had killed a cow and found a leaflet left behind by islanders which read : " The war ended on August 15 . Come down from the mountains ! " However , they mistrusted the leaflet , since another cell had been fired upon a few days previously . They concluded that the leaflet was Allied propaganda , and also believed that they would not have been fired on if the war had indeed been over . Towards the end of 1945 , leaflets were dropped by air with a surrender order printed on them from General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Fourteenth Area Army . They had been in hiding for over a year , and this leaflet was the only evidence they had the war was over . Onoda ' s group looked very closely at the leaflet to determine whether it was genuine , and decided it was not . One of the four , Yuichi Akatsu , walked away from the others in September 1949 and surrendered to Filipino forces in 1950 after six months on his own . This seemed like a security problem to the others and they became even more careful . In 1952 letters and family pictures were dropped from aircraft urging them to surrender , but the three soldiers concluded that this was a trick . Shimada was shot in the leg during a shoot - out with local fishermen in June 1953 , following which Onoda nursed him back to health . On May 7 , 1954 , Shimada was killed by a shot fired by a search party looking for the men . Kozuka was killed by two shots fired by local police on October 19 , 1972 , when he and Onoda were burning rice that had been collected by farmers , as part of their guerrilla activities , leaving Onoda alone . Though Onoda had been officially declared dead in December 1959 , this event suggested that it was likely he was still alive and search parties were sent out , but did not find him . On February 20 , 1974 , Onoda met a Japanese man , Norio Suzuki , who was traveling around the world and was looking for " Lieutenant Onoda , a panda , and the Abominable Snowman , in that order " . Suzuki found Onoda after four days of searching . Onoda described this moment in a 2010 interview : " This hippie boy Suzuki came to the island to listen to the feelings of a Japanese soldier . Suzuki asked me why I would not come out . . . " Onoda and Suzuki became friends , but Onoda still refused to surrender , saying that he was waiting for orders from a superior officer . Suzuki returned to Japan with photographs of himself and Onoda as proof of their encounter , and the Japanese government located Onoda ' s commanding officer , Major Yoshimi Taniguchi , who had since become a bookseller . He flew to Lubang where on March 9 , 1974 , he finally met with Onoda and fulfilled the promise made in 1944 , " Whatever happens , we ' ll come back for you , " by issuing him the following orders : Onoda was thus properly relieved of duty , and he surrendered . He turned over his sword , his Arisaka Type 99 rifle ( in working order ) , 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades , as well as the dagger his mother had given him in 1944 for protection . Only private Teruo Nakamura , arrested on 18 December 1974 , held out for longer . Though he had killed people and engaged in shootouts with the police , the circumstances were taken into consideration , and Onoda received a pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos . Later life . Onoda was so popular following his return to Japan that some Japanese urged him to run for the Diet . He also released an autobiography , " No Surrender : My Thirty - Year War " , shortly after his return , detailing his life as a guerrilla fighter in a war that was long over . However , Onoda was reportedly unhappy being the subject of so much attention and troubled by what he saw as the withering of traditional Japanese values . A Philippine documentary interviewed people who lived on Lubang Island during Onoda ' s stay , revealing that Onoda had killed several people , which he had not mentioned in his autobiography . In April 1975 , he followed the example of his elder brother Tadao and left Japan for Brazil , where he raised cattle . He married in 1976 and assumed a leading role in " Colônia Jamic " ( Jamic Colony ) , the Japanese community in Terenos , Mato Grosso do Sul , Brazil . After reading about a Japanese teenager who had murdered his parents in 1980 , Onoda returned to Japan in 1984 and established the " Onoda Shizen Juku " ( " Onoda Nature School " ) educational camp for young people , held at various locations in Japan . Onoda revisited Lubang Island in 1996 , donating US $ 10 , 000 for the local school on Lubang . His wife , Machie Onoda , became the head of the conservative Japan Women ' s Association in 2006 . He currently spends three months of the year in Brazil . Onoda was awarded the Merit medal of Santos - Dumont by the Brazilian Air Force on December 6 , 2004 . On February 21 , 2010 , the Legislative Assembly of Mato Grosso do Sul awarded him the title of " Cidadão do ( Citizen of ) Mato Grosso do Sul . "