Customer Reviews

No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War (Bluejacket Books)

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I remember this as a news story in 1974; a Japanese soldier emerging from the jungles of the Philippines after finally realizing that WWII was over. I recall thinking 'he must be crazy'. NO SURRENDER shows it's not so. This is the true story of 2nd Lt Hiroo Onoda, who, on orders from his commanding officer retreated with a small band of men into the jungle to carry out guerilla attacks against returning American troops and the Filipinos. He was to stay alive and await reinforcements.

He didn't know when WWII ended and every attempt by Americans, locals, and even friends and familiy from Japan, to get him to come out was seen as a trap by Onoda. Only when his orders were specifically rescinded, did he emerge. Over the years his skills in evading and surviving were honed to a edge.

For humanists this is a positive message and a remarkable tale about the ability of the human spirit to endure great hardships for the sake of beliefs and duty. Less positive, from a mental health perspective, the book is a startling illustration of the power of the mind to program itself to shut out all messages and signals it does not wish to receive.

No Surrender, by Hiroo Onada, is a very interesting book! It tells the story of a Japanese soldier during World War II who was sent by his superior's to a secluded island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a mission. However, he and his party, due to the nature of their work, were not informed that World War II had officially ended. For the next 30 years, he travels around the island pilfering, storing, sneaking, and scouting, still believing he was doing his duty to Japan.

Although there were repeated attempts to contact Onada, all failed. For instance, he found a newspaper article about himself about 10 years after the war ended. He believed the article was "enemy propaganda" and was "an attempt to get me to surrender".

Finally, in the 70's, Onada's superior ranking officer finally made contact with him and told him to come home. He complied.

No Surrender is an incredibly interesting read, even if you're not interested in history/World War II. The story is very captivating, and Onada's will to survive is amazing.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Growing up I had heard the incredible stories of Japanese soldiers popping up from the jungles years & decades after the war was over. It always blew me away that someone could continue on fighting for so long after the war had ended. I could see someone doing it for 1 or 2 years because they were usually on isolated islands. No one (as far as we Know) was fighting the war for longer than Hiroo Onada.

The only thing was though Onada didn't really need to fight for longer than the one or two years after 1945 when the war ended - that is if his mind wasn't blocking out all the information that was showing him the war was over. No matter what happened he was too suspicious that it was a trap by the American's or Filipinos. I found the story amazing but after a while one has to wonder if he will ever believe anything.

Countless times the island was blanketed with notes dropped from planes that said the war was over & Japan had surrendered. One of the soldiers he lived with walked away from Onada & his friends in 1949 (after 5 years living with Onada). He walked to freedom & then came back & tried to convince the last 3 soldiers (Onada, Shimada & Kozuka) to give up - that the war was over, they were wasting their time. They dropped notes with the 3 soldiers names on it, pictures of Onada's family members...& walked around the island with bullhorns yelling that the war was over. Onada, Shimada & Kozuka heard this from their friend & saw the notes but were convinced that their friend was captured by the enemy & it was all a trap.

Over the years his brother came & yelled on speakers to get Onada to surrender, Onada got within 150 yards of his brother & recognized him & his voice but still thought it was a trap.


Another time his sister did the same thing - he still thought something was fishy & refused to fall for the trap. People always left old newspapers around - from around the world , but mostly from the Philipines & Japan. Sometimes the stacks of newspapers were several feet high. They would read them all, right down to the "want ads". They still twisted things in their minds that the Americans had edited out all these papers & taken out the parts about the war - Onada thought the Americans went to all this trouble just to trick these couple of people on some isolated island.

For about 15 years they had access to a transistor radio & they would listen to stations all over the world - mostly Japanese but others such as the BBC. Still they couldn't wrap their heads around it that things were as they were being told from ex-soldier friends & family members. Finally after 30 years somehow Onada saw the light.

The survival part of the book is pretty interesting & there is no doubt his 30 years of living out in the elements & off the land is one of the greatest survival stories in our lifetime.

He was a smart guy & had a brilliant mind for details but his mind prevented him from seeing that the war was over 29 years before he finally walked out of the jungle.

"No Surrender" tells the story of a Japanese Army lieutenant inserted into the Philippines late in WW2-with orders to fight as a guerilla. Lt. Onoda never realizes WW2 is over and continues on his "mission" until 1974-30 years! Any information from the outside world is dismissed as an American trick to get him to surrender. Even pleas from his family are ignored for the same reason. The book demonstrates the incredible capacity man has to overcome difficulties, discomforts and danger- not to mention an heroic sense of "duty first". If "No Surrender" has a weak spot, it lies in its' very! abrupt ending. I would like to know how Lt. Oroda fared personally in "modern Japan".Did he move to Brazil to live with his brother as he dreamed he might? Did he get a reward or was he received by the Emporer? What happened to the guy? Oroda is the type of character the reader has to like. I'd recommend "No Surrender" to two types of readers. 1): Those WW2 buffs who want a totally unique perspective on the conflict 2): Those who like "positive thinking" books because Lt. Oroda is the very emboiment of that. This also qualifies as an ideal gift for that "hard to please" book lover.

Well written and easy to read "No Surrender" is a book worth reading. Hiroo Oneda was deployed from a special officers school in Japan that specialized in Guerilla warfare. Trained to fight to the death and never surrender Hiroo gives insight into the buldog nature of the hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers that died during the allied island hopping.

For whatever reason the contents of the book fascinate me and a full year after reading it I find that I still reflect on it from time to time. I tend to take Hiroo at his word and believe him when he states that he believed he was following orders to wage a guerilla war and never realized the war was over.

On the other hand, I gave the book to my father and he believes Hiroo was a strange sort that was happy to escape from society and had selfish reasons for living in the bush for 30 years, but he too ejoyed the reading.

When I first heard the story about the author of this book I thought "Oh yeah right, this soldier thought the war was still in progress and stayed in the jungle for 30 years!" Well, that is exactly what happened. This book gives the reader an interesting insight into the mentality of WW II Japanese soldiers. I used to think that the Japanese soldiers of WWII were a bunch of nuts who fought to the death rather than surrender. However, I learned this is how they were raised and to them it was an honor to die in battle or commit suicide but a disgrace to be taken captive. Lt.Onoda was ordered by a superior officer to take to the jungle and continue the fight against the American troops and told not to NOT commit suicide. It is actually surprising that this soldier did in fact surrender. It is almost beyond my comprehension that this loyal and devoted army officer carried out his duty to his country and emperor for 30 years. This was a fascinating book and very enlightening to see the "other guy's" point of view. If you enjoy first hand adventure stories then this book is for you!

This is the first person account of the last Japanese soldier to fight in WWII. Lt. Onoda was under orders to "never surrender" unless ordered by competent authority. At the end of the war, his command structure was non-existent. He continued his mission to disrupt allied war efforts until the early 1970s. He was reduced to raiding Phillipine villages and destroying their rice crops to inflict damage on the enemies of Japan. His overwhelming sense of duty infuses every page. His description of daily existence in the jungle and mountains provides detailed advice for survival without outside resources. The fitting of known outside events into his paranoid world view is insightful commentary on the human mind. For example, when a shipment of war surplus from a shipwreck washed up on the beach of his island in the 1950s, he and his companions convinced themselves that it meant the Japanese were still transporting troops by ship in the area. All efforts, via loudspeaker and leaflets, to convince him that the war was over were likewise explained away as a subterfuge. Although this book is hard to get, it is a valuable addition to any survival or military library

This book had some light moments, but it was really heartbreaking because every trial and tribulation that Onoda endured was completely unnecessary.

The style of the book is very prosaic, getting across the basic facts without (alas) many lengthy digressions from his main line of describing life in the jungle. Unfortunately, life after Lubang island was not described in the book. We certainly learn a lot about life in the jungle, though. Typical sentences begin like:

"Speaking of stings..."
"More troublesome than the rats were the ants..."
"Some years it would rain all through May..."

He endured all this for 30 years, for nothing. 30 years eating green bananas.

The psychology of it all is fascinating; he constructed a model of how the war was going on and examined all the evidence he had in light of this unshakeable belief. The Japanese soldier must have been fearsome indeed, if even a fraction of them had the strength of conviction that Onoda had.

Definitely worth a read.

Lt. Hiroo Onoda spent 29 years on a Phillipine island fighting World War 2. When he was 22 he arrived on Lubang, fresh out of officer training, and reported in to an Imperial Japanese Army base to assume his duties as a junior intelligence officer. Shortly thereafter the steamroller of the US Navy, Army, and Marine Corps came rolling through and and Lt. Onoda retreated to the surrounding jungles of Lubang along with 3 other soldiars when his army base was decimated and captured. Lt. Onoda had recieved orders to continue the fight, even if it meant assuming the role of a guerilla fighter until he was formally relieved by a ranking officer.

I won't ruin the story for you but I'd like to interject what I took from this book. One observation is that the ancient traditions and teachings of the Samurai (Bushido) were very much a motivational factor in the japanese military forces during the second world war. My second observation is that the devotion to duty and loyalty to an ideal can be carried further than many in the world of today could even think was possibile.

This is a must read book. I'd suggest that you familiarise yourself with the codes of Bushido first of all (Hagakure is a good place to start), so that you can better understand the mind set of Lt. Onoda. His descisions are largely based upon his upbringing and teachings and, (in my opinion) sadly, are somewhat foreign to the modern person. Wihout a small amount of familiarity with Bushido, or a knowledge of the ways of the Samurai, you might just view this story as a tale of s silly and ignorant man. I assure you that Hiroo Onoda was/is neither.

Buy it, read it, make an effort to understand, you'll be entertained and you might just take away a valuable lesson. This story is one you will always remember.

Hiroo Onoda was ordered to conduct guerilla warfare until Japanese troops retook the island he was stationed on. He resolved to follow those orders and carried them out without resupply or outside aide for 30 years, only surrendering when his orders were personally rescinded by a commanding officer.

If anyone ever doubted the ability of one man to withstand a test of will, or ordeal of privation, here is the answer. An honorable man will keep his word, do his duty, and withstand all tests.

While Lt. Onoda is only held responsible for 7 casualties in his 30 years of war, he preserved occupied miles of mountainous territory in effect depriving "the enemy" of all the natural resources there-in. The book is sprinkled with action, but is more interesting for the insight into the mind of this remarkable man, and his description of methods of evasion, forage, and preservation of equipment in working order.