The man who stayed in the jungle for 29 years after World War II ended. He was a Japanese soldier holding out on the island of Lubang in the Philippines. He did not come out of hiding until 1974 when his former commander travelled from Japan to relieve him of duty.

Werner Herzog wrote a short, slightly fictionalized book about this called The Twilight World. It was published this past June. Onoda passed away in 2014.

A subtitled movie released in 2021 also told this story, 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, which has a 95% rating on RottenTomatoes.

I read Herzog’s book in 3 days. I started the movie but turned it off. The story is funny and tragic because there were messages that the war was over. Onoda convinced himself they were fake.

Just before the war ended the island was invaded by allied forces. Onoda and 3 soldiers fled to the mountains and hid. They survived using guerrilla tactics. They occasionally stole from villagers and got into shootouts with police.