The imaginary war.

There are multiple stories about Japanese soldiers who spent years in hiding because they were unaware that the war had ended.

One of those men was Hiroo Onoda, an intelligence officer from Japan who was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines in 1944 to carry out guerilla activities with his team.

He lived in the mountains of the island for a year when, in October 1945, Onoda and his men found a leaflet that said “The war ended on 15 August. Come down!”.

They didn’t trust it.

Onoda decided to hide from the enemy, which he did for almost 30 years, and in the meantime his three team members died.

On 20 February 1974 Onoda was found by a Japanese man, Norio Suzuki, who was traveling around the world, looking for “Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman, in that order”.

Suzuki located Onoda after four days, won his trust, and tried to convince him to leave the island, but the soldier still refused to surrender, saying that he was waiting for orders from a superior officer.

Eventually, his old commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who had been a bookseller for many years, was flown to the island and told Onoda he was free.