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Japanese soldier who took three decades to surrender, dies
- Thread starter MRORANGE
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depths20XX
Member
The guy seems kinda dumb honestly.
After a few years or so you'd think you would wonder what's going on and come out of hiding. Let alone 30 fucking years.
After a few years or so you'd think you would wonder what's going on and come out of hiding. Let alone 30 fucking years.
EvilKatarn
Member
I want to know this as well.
Nisekoi: now fucking hardcore.
Carnby
Member
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
it would make for a good critique of patriotism.
EteRnal PAL
Member
Some pics of his surrender:
What a crazy story.
What a crazy story.
ConradCervantes
Banned
What a boss. RIP.
SilentRacoon
Member
I agree, he was either very stupid (or blind) to not notice the bodies of those who shot dead were not enemy soldiers.
I mean, all it takes is to make sure they are carrying any guns at all or that they are wearing a distinguishable piece of uniform (Hell he could have recognized their nationality and physical features) to realize you are killing innocent civilians of your own fucking country. Or maybe he was just a psychopath killer and used it as a reason to excuse his slaughter of innocent people.
Sickboy007
Member
~
Shia Labeouf
LOL
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Excuse me?
TangoAlphaLima
Member
Source?
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Well, that's one way of looking at it. Fuck all soldiers in all armed forces around the world, then?
From the article:
And why do you think this dude living in the jungle and completely cut off from all communication would somehow *know* that the war had ended, especially when his last orders were to stay behind and continue covert operations.
Dark Octave
Banned
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Not sure which which you're arguing is better or worse. Assuming that is your intention.
SillyEskimo
Member
Consider yourself excused.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Your avatar... this line... I can't. Too smug.
Either way, the "saved millions of lives" argument is not fact. It's a supposition used to justify the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocents. That's the only fact.
universalmind
Member
"He thought it was war time." He was wrong. Some people will find any reason to defend anything.
He was wrong, but he was in an isolated post given the orders that he should defend it at all costs until his commander relieves him of duty. He most likely had little to no contact with the outside world so there's no way in hell he would have known the war was over without someone telling him. The trouble is, the people telling him were not his commanders and may well have been the enemy trying to force him out of hiding.
The fact he shot those 30 people thinking they were the enemy is tragic, but so is the fact this man lost over 30 years of his life spent serving a military that should've never needed to exist.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I think some people completely lack the ability to imagine a situation from someone else's position.
vas_a_morir
Banned
He was talking about how the targeted attacks on Imperial Military steel and munition manufacturing infrastructure in Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastened the unconditional surrender of Japan. An early unconditional surrender was considered necessary in order to prevent further USSR incursion into Japan, as they had declared war and intent to invade, occupy, and likely reform Japan. The belief is that a two-pronged land invasion from US and Russian forces would result in likely millions upon millions of deaths, a divided Japan, and the destruction of the cultural autonomy of Japan. Some point to the fact that even after the decision had been made to surrender, there was a military coup attempted by top military leadership in order to prevent the surrender as proof that Japan was stubbornly resistant to capitulate.
Considering the circumstances, I personally cannot think of a decision that would provide a more positive outcome for hundreds of millions of people. However, I agree that it's hard to guess what might have happened.
soul creator
Member
that Robin Williams .jpg comes to mind
Vigilant Walrus
Member
Japanese people's mental strength has always fascinated me.
I don't think many western born cultures would last anywhere near this long, even if they were extremely loyal. The human curiousity, the ego, the doubt, the contemplations. I wouldn't have lasted very long personally.
It's a bit sick that Japan is not talking about their atrocious past in more details in schools and in general. It's very hush hush. Not fair. The brutality in China.. it's unreal.
I don't think many western born cultures would last anywhere near this long, even if they were extremely loyal. The human curiousity, the ego, the doubt, the contemplations. I wouldn't have lasted very long personally.
It's a bit sick that Japan is not talking about their atrocious past in more details in schools and in general. It's very hush hush. Not fair. The brutality in China.. it's unreal.
The only "interesting" thing about his whole story is the thought of someone coming out of Japan's nationalistic pre-war culture coming back 30 years later to post-war modern integrated world Japan and the reactions he would have had to how Japan has changed (apparently he didn't like it so he moved to Brazil).
Would be interesting to find his thoughts on the changes to society during those 30 years.
Would be interesting to find his thoughts on the changes to society during those 30 years.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Add to that towards the end of the war Japan had stockpiled a huge percentage of the arsenal for homeland defense.
It would have been horrible if it had actually happened.
I read about this guy for the first time a couple years ago and was just thinking about him again the other day. His is a fascinating story and I don't think it's as clear-cut as some people on the first page were making it out to be. His activities after his surrender are interesting as well. He first moved to Brazil and became a cattle rancher (his brother had already moved there) but eventually returned to Japan to run a nature/survival camp because he was concerned about young people and the future of Japan. The disconnect he felt with contemporary Japanese society after living in a bubble of WWII-era nationalism for 30 years was, of course, very significant.
A lot of them were Filipino police and local militia who were trying to hunt him down. They were justified in doing that, obviously, but it's not like this guy was murdering random people on the pretext that they were soldiers. Most of the deaths resulted from gunfights. His insistence that the war couldn't have ended and that any information he received to the contrary (for example, leaflets that the Filipinos distributed) was enemy propaganda borders on insane. There were other Japanese holdouts who voluntarily surrendered in much less than 30 years. But when you are raised in a society that values loyalty and self-sacrifice (and let's be honest, most societies do to a greater or lesser extent) some people are going to take those ideals to the extreme.
He wrote a book but I haven't read it beyond the first chapter preview.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1557506639/?tag=neogaf0e-20
A lot of them were Filipino police and local militia who were trying to hunt him down. They were justified in doing that, obviously, but it's not like this guy was murdering random people on the pretext that they were soldiers. Most of the deaths resulted from gunfights. His insistence that the war couldn't have ended and that any information he received to the contrary (for example, leaflets that the Filipinos distributed) was enemy propaganda borders on insane. There were other Japanese holdouts who voluntarily surrendered in much less than 30 years. But when you are raised in a society that values loyalty and self-sacrifice (and let's be honest, most societies do to a greater or lesser extent) some people are going to take those ideals to the extreme.
He wrote a book but I haven't read it beyond the first chapter preview.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1557506639/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Dark Octave
Banned
Even though the number is much less, I would say the person who could walk up to a person, take their life in a brutal fasion and then do that again 29 more times is more of a monster than someone who pressed a button and heard about the effects of it later.
See You Next Wednesday
Banned
SillyEskimo
Member
The positive attention given to this guy is pretty sick. If we found a lone Nazi who was on an island still killing jews 30yrs after WW2, he wouldn't be seen as a fucking hero. Well, some people would.
Which Japanese soldier did we find on that island? The "I'm just doing what I was told" or the type that participated in the brutal genocide of 250,000 and 100,000 rapes of innocent civillians at Nanking? Burying entire villiages alive? Slitting open the wombs of pregnant Chinese women, tossing the babies in the air and catching them in bayonettes? Would he have participated in the race to kill 150 people with a sword?
He had a perchant for merciless killing so I think he sounds like the perfect candidate for Unit 731. This particular Japanese unit specialized in human experimentation, killing over 12,000 men, women, and children by testing chemical, biological, and experimental weapons on them, live vivisections with no anesthesia of children and babies, exploded in pressure chambers...it's an endless list of the worst possible ways to die. I think he would've been right at home.
But hey, he's just a dude following orders so it's awesome.
Which Japanese soldier did we find on that island? The "I'm just doing what I was told" or the type that participated in the brutal genocide of 250,000 and 100,000 rapes of innocent civillians at Nanking? Burying entire villiages alive? Slitting open the wombs of pregnant Chinese women, tossing the babies in the air and catching them in bayonettes? Would he have participated in the race to kill 150 people with a sword?
He had a perchant for merciless killing so I think he sounds like the perfect candidate for Unit 731. This particular Japanese unit specialized in human experimentation, killing over 12,000 men, women, and children by testing chemical, biological, and experimental weapons on them, live vivisections with no anesthesia of children and babies, exploded in pressure chambers...it's an endless list of the worst possible ways to die. I think he would've been right at home.
But hey, he's just a dude following orders so it's awesome.
depths20XX
Member
C'mon man you aren't being serious right now are you? I agree the guy seems to be a bit off, and I can't imagine myself waiting something out like that for 30 years but is bringing up Unit 731 really relevant here?
SillyEskimo
Member
I wasn't going to bother, but good on you for the details.
History is an amazing thing. We can now look back and read pretty much every detail surrounding Operation Downfall from both sides of the potential invasion. For example, we know our worse case scenerio for Japan's military strength at Kyushu was significantly less than what was actually there. Learning after the fact at just how committed Japan was to fight to the very last man is horrifying to say the least. If we had invaded, our plan was to basically turn the first island i to an airport and firebomb the closest island to extinction, rinse, repeat. Japan's civillian death toll alone was estimated at 5-10 million.
What's with these we shit all the time? We have nothing to do with him.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Onodera drew on his training in guerilla warfare to kill as many as 30 people whom he mistakenly believed to be enemy soldiers
No way, the guy was a crazy asshole.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
We've got a shit load of condemning to do if we're going to damn every soldier who killed people that turned out not to be enemy soldiers.
lol, the guy was crazy. Don't try and justify it.
Soyongdori
Member
Hope he rots in hell, fuck that soldier.
Many of the locals he killed were unarmed and zero threat. That would be a war crime regardless of whether he thought the war was still going on. He was a murderer.
MasterOfPastures
Banned
Yeah... fuck that guy. "I didn't know the war ended" does not mean shit. By that logic, terrorists or anybody considering themselves "at war" are justified to any action they desire, and deserving of the same respect or admiration that people are handing out here. A rope, an unmarked grave and immediate dismissal of his memory should have been his fate.
SillyEskimo
Member
Seems a bit off huh? That's a rather amazing understatement.
Mount Shasta
Neo Member
It took him 30 years to kill 30 people?
freeloader
freeloader
thechristoph
Sir!
But katanas and honor and duty and mental fortitude and bushido and advanced culture!
R
Retro_
Unconfirmed Member
Fattony12000
Member
Fucking LOL.
/followed
/liked
/subscribed
It is, to the very best of my knowledge, a real quote that passed from the lips of Napoleon. The veracity of the claim is maybe up for debate, though! I'm somewhat inclined to believe that he was at least in the ballpark.
#reasons
(Because I'm the only one on Twitter talking any goddamn sense in these dark days, I thank you for your patronage.)
depths20XX
Member
Yes, much better to go off on some tangent about how this guy is probably some baby killer who enjoys human experimentation.
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