And why's this of interest?

In an attempt to make my piece more appealing to a potential audience, as well as differentiating my piece from Onoda’s firsthand accounts I aim to incorporate many vivid descriptions of the harsh realities of the pacific campaign in world war two, one of the most brutal conflicts in human history.

Throughout the first few months of Lubang’s capture, Onoda and his cell encountered many stragglers from failed banzai attacks, these ruthless charges towards the enemy when done correctly inspired fear from the allied troops; as well as breaking apart defensive positions. When done incorrectly however, the line of running Imperial soldiers can be an easy target for emplaced machine guns and thus surviving one of these ordeals can break the mind and spirit of many soldiers. Many of these survivors were reported to have been aimlessly wandering the island, hoping only to find food and avoid the American ‘clean up squads’ tasked with killing or capturing any remaining Imperial soldiers on the island.

Although the initial capture of Lubang island was loosely described, the “sea peppered with landing craft” described by Onoda can be explored by researching the invasion of other pacific islands; the most notable of these being Iwo Jima – which has been dramatised in many films and was heavily photographed. Because of this research into the Pacific campaign as a whole, the descriptions of the battle can be enriched by vivid descriptions of both tactics and weaponry used by both sides and to capture the fear of the vastly underprepared Japanese troops on the island.

Tales of survival have become ever more popular in recent years, with Danny Boyle’s ‘127 hours’ – a tale of one man trapped on his own in the wilderness, as well as many books incorporating knowledge of military survival techniques becoming ever more popular as they explore the concept of Man vs Nature.

Because of this, a dramatisation of the life of a soldier stranded in a highly hostile environment – and without adequate training, will peak the interest in the fans of the survival genre as a whole. 

Dramatising the island

The main issue arising from dramatising the events on Lubang island is the lack of actual recorded dialogue and events, as well as how they kept motivated enough to hold out on the island for 30 years.

Throughout his time on the island Onoda was determined to carry out his secret mission on the island, to destroy Lubang’s airfield and pier – initially this was to halt the allied invasion however throughout the 30 years he spent on the island he constantly dreamed of carrying out his only orders received during the war (as Lubang was his first real assignment). And whilst the facilities were far too heavily fortified for him to destroy with his limited supplies this goal was constantly in the back of his mind and allowed him to focus on survival, observation and the harassment of those he believed to be the allies.
This idea of Onoda’s devotion to honour and carrying out his duty has prompted me to draw parallels between the actions taken on Lubang island and Bushido, the ‘way of the samurai’ which represents their strict code of honour and values.

“Being a samurai is all about selfless service and if the lord abuses the servant, it is no longer a situation of service; it becomes the situation of a victim. It is never acceptable for a samurai to be a victim. It is never acceptable to allow a lord to abuse you or rob you of your dignity. In such a situation, it is acceptable to walk away.” - Alexei Maxim Russell, Instruction Manual for the 21st Century Samurai

Onoda’s belief in this is one of the main reasons why, in the face of the Imperial army turning it’s back on Lubang, the garrison and their dwindling supplies – Onoda still relentlessly carried out his orders without question; and is why to this day he is regarded as ‘the last samurai.’

As for specific scenes, my research has uncovered many of the ‘signs’ that Onoda found on the flyers dropped by B-17’s after the war in the hopes of bringing him out of the jungle. His extensive training from the Nakano School of counterintelligence made him highly suspicious of enemy propaganda and took the poor printing quality and grammatical errors in the written Kanji as signs that this was an attempt to trick him into surrendering. This new light on why he decided to stay in the jungle has opened up many possibilities of scenes in which they are trying to discern the truth of these messages.

Finally, and perhaps the most engaging methods I am able to use after my research is the emotional relationship between Onoda, Shimada and Kozuka. Onoda was heavily reliant on both of them as well as his responsibilities to lead them to keep him going through the 30 years, with Shimada’s motto
“Don’t worry, it’ll all be back in our hands tomorrow” keeping the group in high spirits about the winning of the war they still believed they were fighting. In an encounter with local fisherman Shimada was shot in the leg, in which Onoda nursed him back to health with limited medical supplies – however the following year Shimada was killed.
Following this, two years before his eventual surrender Kozuka – a man Onoda could not have survived in the wild without – was killed in another altercation with local police, and ultimately the loss of his men, and his friends led to the loss of his fighting spirit.

Learning to survive

The main issue that arose whilst trying to turn my research into an interesting narrative was the lack of information about Onoda’s men, and his relationship with them. Because of this the piece would have lacked dialogue or the insight into what actually went on in the jungle.

Fortunately, failing to find a copy of ‘My thirty year war’ I managed to find a smaller Book which contained descriptions of many things that can be shown throughout the piece to keep it engaging.

When first arriving on the island Onoda was disheartened at the remains of the Lubang garrison; with limited guns between them, minimal supplies and a lack of any proper survival training the men he met were severely disheartened and had lost all fighting spirit.
Onoda was disgusted at this, as their lack of will to fight offended him and his honour, and thus he regretted he did not have the authority to get these people back in the fight. This difference in attitude caused many issues between him and his men, as at first the garrison believed Onoda was sent to take them off the island – however eventually they came to respect him and follow his orders, although not without question.

After the allied invasion of the island Onoda was the last officer in the group of 20 survivors, and being thoroughly trained in the art of guerrilla warfare promptly split this group into cells of three each. Onoda’s cell was comprised of himself; Private first class Kinshichi Kozuka, and Corporal Shōichi Shimada. These two were handpicked by Onoda to follow him as they were both disciplined, resourceful but more importantly had not lost their fighting spirit.

Onoda relied heavily on Kozuka to teach him many skills he needed to survive in the jungle, being raised on a farm Kozuka knew how to hunt, forage and remain undetected. This was crucial to their survival as despite the intense training in unconventional warfare and the use of propaganda (training that would later result in his distrust of flyers informing him of the ending of the war) Onoda, as well as the majority of troops at the time, had not received any training on how to survive in harsh environments

Fires were initially lit by removing the gunpowder from rusty 7.7×58mm Arisaka rounds (When he finally handed over his rifle in 1974 Onoda still had over 500 rounds saved from his 30 years) and ignited it with a glass lens. Shelters were made from resting coconut leaves over bamboo poles and food was scavenged from nearby farms, caught using crude snare chaps or mainly from collecting fruit.

A battle of survival

The later version of the type 99 (above) was crudely made however did not perform differently 

My research this week brought up a few useful insights into the Island of Lubang, both in the time that Onoda inhabited it and what it’s like in the present day.

The island itself is 25 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide – making a land mass of 125 square kilometres of dense jungle, mountains and beaches which gives us more insight into how Onoda managed to evade detection for so long.

According to an article on the ‘Onoda Trail’:

‘Wild boars, wild chickens, and small jungle animals may be a rare sight, but snakes would suddenly dart out from the undergrowth to cross one’s path.’

Which goes to show some of the dangers faced by Onoda and his men from the jungle around them, as well as other common dangerous insects and diseases commonplace in similar pacific islands.

In his book Onoda states:

“During the 30 years on Lubang, the only thing I always had plenty of, was water, The streams on the island were … so clear you could see the bottom,”

And with the jungle providing lots of fruit such as jackfruit, cashew, coconut, guava, banana and pineapple, (as well as small villages which were raided for grain supplies and the occasional animal) they were able to survive in the jungle with limited supplies and survival training.

As for the equipment he carried with him, an account of his first meeting with his commanding officer and handing over his weapons it says:

“He turned over his sword, his functioning Arisaka Type 99 rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades,”

Although much questioning over the quality of the late-era Arisaka Type 99 or ‘last ditch’ era rifles, the obvious drop in quality of the rifles was purely cosmetic to save money on manufacturing costs. So, despite being crudely built – Onoda’s rifle was among one of the most durable rifles of the era – and thus it’s easy to see how, with good care, it was still functional after 30 years.


And finally, Onoda has left a longstanding legacy on the Island of Lubang, and although he committed many crimes on the residents and local police he is still highly respected on the island. Many hold him responsible for the still pristine jungle on the island – as many people were too afraid of him to venture in to cut trees or harvest rare plants. Because of this there is a series of paths through the jungle dedicated to him, and remains one of the islands biggest tourist attractions.