As it was, Onoda’s group mounted an attack under the favorable conditions of the current environment but, they made some mistakes. One day, they found some fishermen on the shore before daybreak, they fired warning shots at them and then approached them to get their guns but, out of nowhere one of the fishermen guided by the moonlit daybreak suddenly opened heavy fire on them. Onoda suffered injury to his finger and a bullet penetrated through Shimada’s left leg. Onoda carried him and got away from the area immediately. Onoda boiled water to destroy bacteria and then cleaned Shimada’s wounded leg with it. He covered the wound with oil so as not to get infected. Shimada’s leg was then immobilized with a splint. He was taken care of by Onoda and Kozuka including managing Shimada’s bowel movement. Onoda recognized that they were a small number of guerilla soldiers again, so they decided not to wage another reckless attack.
Three months later, Shimada was able to walk, then one year after, he was able to run. However, he resisted moving quickly from one to another. He became discouraged over aggressive guerilla activities and often talked about his family members because he had a wife and kids. When he went to war, his wife was pregnant; he had picked up a leaflet showing his family members. At that time, he was aware of his daughter but never saw her because he was engaged in the war for about 10 years. He was around 40 years old and he was getting more gray hair.
In 1954, while they were patrolling along the Gontin Coast, they found many footprints in the sand and later on found over 30 people at night. Shimada’s leg was not fully healed yet. So they went back towards the mountain and hid in rock crevasses temporally. They gathered red nanka fruit and then Onoda and Kozuka took nap because they had not slept for a long time. After a short while, they were surprised seeing the red fruit on the rocks. Shimada put it on the place where enemies might find them. And then, they saw resident individuals too late and were attacked by the punitive force. Onoda and Kozuka took to their fighting positions and made a counter-charge, but Shimada stood still. After the gunfire, Shimada fell forward, he did not move anymore, his death was sudden. Onoda was wondering why Shimada did not squat and fight back, but remained standing. Shimada was a gunman, from one of their shooting experiences; he shot 5 times and was reminded not to shoot as many bullets to reserve them. They did not know the true reason why Shimada did not take cover; maybe he got exhausted from life in the jungle or he might saw something related to Japan such as a flag in the direction of the enemies.
Cpl. Shimada died at the age of 41, It was the end of his nine-year jungle life.
Due to the sudden attack, Onoda and Kozuka hastily retreated. They were not able to bring all the necessities because hey were caught off guard so they ran out of the area quickly and made their way to the secret place where their extra daily necessities were hidden to prepare again for their next guerrilla activities. They made their fabricated items such as a backpack, so it took some time to continue their mission again. Shimada’s death was a costly error for the group.
About 10 days after Shimada died, Onoda and Kozuka heard an announcement from an airplane flying overhead.
The news about Shimada’s death was delivered to the Japanese government. One of the divisions in Welfare Ministry which supported soldiers’ withdrawal from the battlefield started addressing Onoda’s issue. There was no embassy in the Philippines, but, the ministry persuaded the Philippine government to let the rescue team into the Philippines with persistence. Finally, the ministry, Onoda’s elder brother and Kozuka’s younger brother were allowed to come to the Philippines. They confirmed Shimada’s death with articles left on the scene at Manilla, and went to Lubang Island with 30,000 leaflets with Filipino forces 18 days after Shimada died. The rescue group went to the Gontin Coast and dropped leaflets and made announcements for 13 days. There was no response so they swore to come again and returned to Japan with Shimada’s ashes.
At that time, Onoda and Kozuka already moved to the north-eastern direction which was far away from the rescue team which was looking for them. They picked up some leaflets and heard some noises, but they were not aware of the existence of the rescue team at all. Kozuka got mad at seeing words in leaflets such as peace or friendship because the punitive force killed Shimada. Onoda read leaflets from his elder brother; however the names of his family members were accurate, so he thought it was propaganda to capture Japanese soldiers.
Two months later after Shimada died, Onoda and Kozuka went to the crevasse where Shimada died. They often exchanged blows with him, but they spent good times and bad times together for about 10 years. Shimada was an irreplaceable comrade. Onoda held his hands together to pray for him. His tears ran down his face for the first time since he came to this Island. They swore the revenge of Shimada against the armed group.
The number of leaflets dropped from the airplane increased as days passed. In 1957, Onoda got a leaflet from his mother, but he did not believe in the letter because his mother taught him not to surrender furthermore, she reminded him to die with honor. Kozuka also picked up a leaflet from his younger sister. They thought Japan was occupied by the United States so they concluded that their family members wrote letters at gunpoint. Kozuka was lectured on guerrilla warfare by Onoda, he also became a secret soldier like a Nakano academy student.
In 1958, the Philippine Air Force started the development of a radar base. Around that time, US ships in Manila Bay began to move actively and jet planes also often flew over the island. It was the Vietnam War which was happening at that time. Onoda and Kozuka thought the war still continued and the date of Japan’s counterattack was very close. Onoda and Kozuka saw many residents constructing roads. At first, they did not know what they were building. So they went on a reconnaissance mission to the base to monitor their activities carefully. After a while, extensive construction started around the top of the mountain. Onoda and Kozuka approached them to monitor what was happening. Accidentally, they encountered Filipino military men and a gunfight occurred. In addition, there were two US soldiers at the base, so Onoda and Kozuka continuously went there to try to kill them. The Philippine authorities did not tolerate their attacks and made a decision to eliminate them.
The news reached Japan and Onoda’s mother Tamae struggled to appeal to the Japanese government to rescue them. She went to big cities to hand out leaflets on the street. Akatsu was summoned as an unsworn witness in the Diet and testified about Onoda’s group. Public opinion arose to rescue the remaining survivors. In February, 1959, the Japanese government finally bestirred to their request. They passed a law and sent out a search and rescue party to the Philippines.
At that time, the Philippine government made noticeable changes. The police stopped the termination activities and President Quirino gave an amnesty for over 100 Japanese. He made a decision over strong opposition to forgive Japan and also built a great and friendly relationship for the future of both countries. The other reason was the appearance of communist countries such as China and The Soviet Union. The US wanted both countries to improve their relations to be the great walls against communism. In 1956, on the Japanese side, compensation of about 550 million dollars was paid for the damage caused during the war as not individual compensation but also in the form of products and public infrastructure projects. Many Japanese joined in these projects and came to the Philippines.
The health and welfare minister and survivors’ family members visited Lubang Island and searched for them. It was a long and massive search, it started in May and ended in November but, the rescue group’s members were attacked by bees, some of them were hospitalized. During the search, they played Japanese songs and recorded voices of Onoda’s and Kozuka’s family member’s over loudspeakers. It was very annoying for Onoda’s group, they were extremely afraid of enemies approaching them under loud sounds. In the jungle, they needed to know the proximity by sounds, so they moved from the noisy areas to quiet ones. The rescue group made mailboxes and put letters into them in the mountains; Onoda and Kozuka found and checked around them carefully to see if they were veiled with landmines. When they determined that they were safe, they opened the mail box from a distance because explosives might be in the mailbox itself and could detonate when they opened it. There were also lots of leaflets dropped from airplanes, however there were typographical errors of the names. The rescue group also put magazines and newspapers here and there. Onoda and Kozuka read them from cover to cover voraciously; they saw the photos of a gorgeous parade of the marriage of the crown prince and Japan’s prosperous society. Japan seemed to be getting re-established. However, they met incomprehensive articles especially diplomatic and military things because they had been staying in the jungle and they definitely had insufficient information about the outside world. So they needed to make inferences about current Japan with the fragmentary information they had. Which countries are friends or foes? It was impossible for them to understand the exact situation in the current world. If they left 10 year’s worth of informative articles, they would have known that.
Hiroo Onoda was thoroughly disciplined as an intelligence officer so he was thinking everything was under suspicion. He was taught that this war would continue for 100 years. Kozuka became a secret soldier too. Before, the Japanese swore to fight against Eastern countries until every last Japanese perish. However, the Japanese were still here, so that was not able to persuade him to surrender. Onoda’s group would not appear and finally the rescue group gave up and terminated searching and engraved Onoda and Kozuka on the big tree and returned to Japan. The Japanese government made a report to Onoda’s family; it was the 2nd report of Hiroo Onoda’s death.
Onoda and Kozuka became forgotten people from the outside world and caused concern with Lubang residents as genuine living ghost soldiers for over a decade.
Next
Chapter 10. Death of Last Friend
