Hiroo Onoda was not the last soldier of World War II. Private Teruo Nakamura held out even longer and was arrested in Indonesia on 18 December 1974.

1959 · 1974 · apart: 15 years

Japan's government had declared Onoda dead back in 1959.

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The event

• Hiroo Onoda surrenders 29 years late1974 · Lubang Island, Philippines. Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda dismissed leaflets and family letters saying the war was over and fought on in the jungles of Lubang. He agreed to surrender only in March 1974, when his former commander, by then a bookseller, flew in from Japan to give the order in person: 10,416 days after Japan's surrender.

20th century

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