An amazing story of survival, loyalty and perseverance
“In 1944, Lt. Hiroo Onoda was sent by the Japanese army to the remote Philippine island of Lubang. His mission was to conduct guerrilla warfare during World War II. Unfortunately, he was never officially told the war had ended; so for 29 years, Onoda continued to live in the jungle, ready for when his country would again need his services and information. Eating coconuts and bananas and deftly evading searching parties he believed were enemy scouts, Onoda hid in the jungle until he finally emerged from the dark recesses of the island on March 19, 1972.”
This story is amazing in that someone was able to survive in an island, so far away from home for twenty-nine years. The shock comes in that someone who had been fighting for so long because of orders, had been doing so for nothing for so many years. It would suck to lose so much of your life doing absolutely nothing.