On March 12, 1974, Onoda finally returned to Japan by a chartered government plane, where he received special treatment on his flight back to Japan. He returned to his home country, Japan, after almost 30 years. Around the airport, there were lots of politicians, mass media and other Japanese, meeting and welcoming him enthusiastically. His family members and other relatives were also there to welcome him. Onoda waved his hands to his well-wishers and walked down the stairs.
First, he greeted the high ranking government officials. His family members were there, and the distance between them was very short, however, he felt that it took so long to reach his family members because of so many well-wishers talking to him. Finally, Onoda met his family; is mother, Tamae, said “You came back from the battlefield alive. You had a great duty for a long time”. His family members thanked him for his long loyal service to the Japanese government, Also, Kinshichi Kozuka and Shimada’s family members came and greeted him. Onoda just said “I am terribly sorry” with a deep bow. He could not find the appropriate words to say.
After experiencing mixed emotions, Onoda attended a press conference in a hotel. Many black cameras were focusing on his face like guns as if he was caught in the crossfire. He answered a flood of reporter’s questions honestly, but he believed there was a lack of knowledge of the prewar generation in their questions, so he felt the generation gap spanning 30 years.
After Onoda went back to Japan, there were lots of requests from the Japanese government to make personal appearances, they were the ones who decided and managed his schedule. First, Onoda was mandated to go to a hospital for a medical checkup even though he wanted to visit first the graves of his two comrades who died on Lubang Island.
He slept on a bed during his 1st stay in the hospital but found thate was not able to sleep on comfortably so he adjusted it to a 15-degree angle like when he was sleeping in the jungle. During his medical checkup, he immediately woke up even at the slightest sound including a nurse’s footfall even though it was in the middle of the night. Before nurses knocked or came into his room, he was already awake. Onoda was still a soldier and had been in a state of war shock.
The result of his medical checkup was insignificant. Onoda was wondering why he had to stay in the hospital for a long time. A few weeks ago he was in the jungle moving around and carrying heavy equipment as part of his guerilla activities.
There were many press people outside of the hospital, helicopters flew over the hospital with a rumbling sound, making him feel like he became an easy target. Although he was hospitalized, he attended a press conference. Everyday, Onoda read newspapers in the morning and at night, but articles about him were mostly related to two topics: “Embodiment of military spirit” and “Ghost from past militarism.” Before, the Japanese fought like him and returned back home, so Onoda was wondering why only he was said to be a ghost or an embodiment?
For about three weeks, he stayed in the hospital, and on March 30th, he finally checked out.
The following day, on April 1, Onoda prayed at the Yasukuni Shinto Shrine, and then visited Chidorigafuchi to pray for victims of the unknown soldiers. Next, he visited the Imperial Palace, and finally, he met the prime minister, Kakuei Tanaka. He attended government ceremonies one after the other. Onoda really wanted to visit his buddies’ graves and got impatient about the hectic schedule. Wherever he went, he was followed by the press and a lot of audience who wanted to interview him for a long time. His schedule was really tight.
After the series of events, he finally visited the graves of Shimada and Kozuka.
Twenty six days after he came back to Japan, he could now go back to his hometown. On the bullet train, he received intense media coverage and was photographed by a lot of cameramen with Mt. Fuji in the background; he also granted their request to do some special posing. Finally, he got off the train and took a bus heading to his hometown where there were many people welcoming him enthusiastically. He kept waving his hand and bowing to them on both sides of the road while standing in the bus for one and half hours. When he reached his ancestral house he was very exhausted.
When he was on his way to his ancestor’s graves, he argued with his younger brother about the Buddhist tradition, this ended up broadcasted on a TV program and caused his father to become very angry at him, this resulted in them quarreling about the incident.
Onoda still went to his ancestors’ graves near his family residence. He gave a wry smile when he saw his own grave.