Onoda was the last Japanese soldier to surrender in World War II, and he was also the last to disarm and surrender in World War II, for Onoda Kanro, the war didn't really end until 1974.
From 1944, when he was stationed on Lupang Island in the Philippines, he persisted in fighting guerrilla warfare for 30 years in isolation, causing hundreds of casualties there.
【Hiroro Onoda who was evacuated from Lubang Island】
What is embarrassing is that such a war criminal with a lot of war crimes was not punished by the law, but was regarded as a hero by the Japanese people, and Onoda Kanro later immigrated to Brazil, where he spent his old age in peace.
Onoda Hiroro's War
Onoda Hiroro has been fighting guerrilla warfare for 30 years, and the biggest question from the outside world is where did he get the ammunition to support him for such a long time?
Actually, Hiroro Onoda
【Ryo Onoda】
He and his subordinates Shimada, Otsuka, and Akatsu formed a four-man combat group, and decided to continue guerrilla warfare after Lubang Island was occupied by American troops.
Onoda was concerned about the consumption of ammunition for the long-term guerrilla war, so he and his three soldiers collected all the ammunition they could find at the time.
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【Bolt-Action Rifles and Bullets】
Both types of machine gun cartridges are 7.7mm caliber and can be used with Type 99 rifles after a simple modification.
As a second lieutenant, Onoda Hiroro carried the only Type 99 rifle and his officer's command knife, and the other three all used the Type 38 rifle as their main weapon, so as long as the four of them did not have a fierce battle with the US army, nearly 10,000 rounds of ammunition would be enough.
In fact, until 1974, when Onoda Kanro came out of the jungle and surrendered, they had not run out of ammunition at that time. In addition to trying to avoid constant firefights with the U.S. military, Onoda Hiroshiro's weapons are also very good at preventing the waste of ammunition.
【Arisaka Type 99 Rifle】
Onoda Hiroro's own Type 99 rifle uses bolt-action feeding, and the magazine bay can be loaded with 5 rounds of ammunition, which basically does not have a continuous firepower, and mainly relies on the range and accuracy of the rifle to kill and injure the enemy. In the hands of a skilled archer like Onoda Kanro, the combat efficiency of the Type 99 rifle is quite amazing.
The 38-type rifle used by the rest of the people is also a bolt-action rifle, the rate of fire is not fast, and it is also to win with precision, according to the characteristics of the weapon in hand, Onoda Hiroro They will also pay attention to opening up the engagement distance when fighting, and kill the enemy with accurate point shooting at medium and long distances.
Both the Type 99 and Type 38 rifles had a good stopping effect, which further increased their ammunition utilization.
【Arisaka 99 style preserved to this day】
Self-sufficient ammunition depot
The four fought side by side until September 1949, when Private Akatsu, completely tired of the war, surrendered to the Filipino soldiers on the island with his Type 38 rifle, leaving Onoda Kanro and the three to continue fighting.
In 1953, Onoda Kanro and others launched an extremely rare active attack and captured an American-made M1 carbine in the firefight, but the M1.30 short bullet required for this weapon could not be replenished, so it could only be used as a trophy to commemorate it.
【Ryo Onoda】
Just a year later, Captain Shimada was killed in a battle with the Philippine army, and the combat team was reduced to two people.
According to Onoda Hiroro's recollection, he and the only remaining Private First Class Ozuka would fill their rifles with five rounds of ammunition for each sortie, carry an additional 30 rounds of ammunition on their belts, and carry five reserve rounds in the pockets of their uniforms.
The rest of the ammunition was stored by them on a cliff face, where poisonous insects were rampant, and the locals were afraid to approach it, only they were familiar with the situation.
Although the fighting conditions were difficult, Onoda Hiroro and his men tried to organize their lives and battles as much as possible, and they would quietly collect glass bottles discarded by the island's residents to hold bullets of different calibers.
The island has a humid climate, and in order to avoid getting damp from bullets, they also seal the mouth of the bottle with rubber from gas masks.
Over time, it is inevitable that there will be ammunition that cannot be fired, and Onoda and Kotsuka will mark reliable bullets, and ammunition with hidden dangers will be mainly used for warning and deterrence.
If the weather conditions were too bad to go out to fight, Onoda and his wife would be busy converting machine-gun rounds into rifle rounds, and in the years they had been fighting side by side, they had transformed thousands of such rounds and achieved self-sufficiency in ammunition.
【Hiroro Onoda leaving the jungle】
Onoda knew very well that if their battle was to continue, it was necessary to ensure the normal operation of weapons and ammunition, so Onoda maintained a fairly frequent weapon maintenance Xi, and his Type 99 rifle still maintained reliable accuracy after 30 years of fighting.
Aside from some decay in the wooden buttstock section, the rifle was still capable of firing lethal bullets.
After the death of Kotsuka in 1972, Onoda Kanro no longer worried about ammunition, and he was ready to die in battle.
【Onoda Kanro hands in the command knife】
He first stored Kozuka's Type 38 rifle properly, and prepared to wait for his Type 99 rifle to be completely used before activating it.
According to Onoda's plan at the time, he would continue to fight guerrilla warfare until he was 60 years old, and on his birthday, he would put on a new military uniform that had been preserved since 1944 and end his life by raiding the American radar position on Lubang Island.
However, the glorious moment of Onoda Kanro's plan did not appear, and the Japanese explorer Norio Suzuki found Onoda Kanro's commander at the time, and assisted him in giving Onoda Kanro a verbal order to disarm and surrender, and Onoda Kanro's 30 years of guerrilla warfare came to an end.
【Onoda Shoro Japan】
At this time, he still had more than 540 rounds of ammunition left in his ammunition magazine, and if it weren't for Norio Suzuki, this foolish soldier would have continued his own war.
Sources:
[1] Toi Jutsuki's 'Hiroo Onoda's Battle' (Shinchosha, 2005) ISBN 978-4-10-403104-7