MILITARY PERSONNEL

Hiroo Onoda

1922 - 2014

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Hiroo Onoda (Japanese: 小野田 寛郎, Hepburn: Onoda Hiroo; 19 March 1922 – 16 January 2014) was a Japanese soldier who served as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. One of the last Japanese holdouts, Onoda continued fighting for nearly 29 years after the war's end in 1945, carrying out guerrilla warfare on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974. Onoda initially held out with three other soldiers: one surrendered in 1950, and two were killed, one in 1954 and one in 1972. The men did not believe flyers and letters from their families stating that the war was over. They survived on wild fruits, game, and stolen rice, and occasionally engaged in shootouts with locals and the police. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Hiroo Onoda is the 50th most popular military personnel (up from 124th in 2019), the 21st most popular biography from Japan (up from 42nd in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Japanese Military Personnel.

Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese soldier who was stationed on the island of Lubang in the Philippines. He was a member of the Imperial Japanese Army, and he was told that Japan had lost the war in 1945. He refused to believe this and continued to fight against the Philippine government until 1974.

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Among MILITARY PERSONNELS

Among military personnels, Hiroo Onoda ranks 50 out of 2,058Before him are Guan Yu, Stonewall Jackson, Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Charles X Gustav of Sweden, Alfred Jodl, and Douglas MacArthur. After him are Seleucus I Nicator, Alfred Dreyfus, Germanicus, Isoroku Yamamoto, Lü Bu, and Gerd von Rundstedt.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1922, Hiroo Onoda ranks 8Before him are José Saramago, Yitzhak Rabin, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Christopher Lee, Judy Garland, and Stan Lee. After him are Norodom Sihanouk, Franjo Tuđman, Thomas Kuhn, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Emil Zátopek, and Aage Bohr. Among people deceased in 2014, Hiroo Onoda ranks 7Before him are Gabriel García Márquez, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Robin Williams, Eusébio, Ariel Sharon, and Eduard Shevardnadze. After him are Gough Whitlam, Claudio Abbado, Wojciech Jaruzelski, Nadine Gordimer, Eli Wallach, and Joe Cocker.

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In Japan

Among people born in Japan, Hiroo Onoda ranks 21 out of 6,245Before him are Yasunari Kawabata (1899), Hideki Tojo (1884), Emperor Taishō (1879), Murasaki Shikibu (973), Shinzō Abe (1954), and Satoshi Nakamoto (1975). After him are Yoko Ono (1933), Isoroku Yamamoto (1884), Emperor Jimmu (-711), Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894), Osamu Dazai (1909), and Lee Myung-bak (1941).

Among MILITARY PERSONNELS In Japan

Among military personnels born in Japan, Hiroo Onoda ranks 3Before him are Oda Nobunaga (1534), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542). After him are Isoroku Yamamoto (1884), Hattori Hanzō (1542), Saigō Takamori (1828), Akechi Mitsuhide (1526), Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159), Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837), Chūichi Nagumo (1887), Ishida Mitsunari (1559), and Toyotomi Hideyori (1593).