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Speaker 1: Well as some old general one said war as hell,

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Speaker 1: but in this case it may be more like purgatory.

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Speaker 1: A twenty two year old Japanese soldier was left to

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Speaker 1: defend a South Pacific island during World War II, but

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Speaker 1: he never knew the war ended, and he stayed on

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Speaker 1: the job until the nineteen seventies. I'm Patty Steele. He's

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Speaker 1: next on the backstory. The backstory is back. Okay, imagine this.

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Speaker 1: You're just a kid. You get left on an island

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Speaker 1: during an all out war, and you're told to defend

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Speaker 1: it with your life. And by the way, you're also

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Speaker 1: told to destroy the only pathways off the island for yourself,

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Speaker 1: the harbor and the airstrip, and then wait for further instructions.

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Speaker 1: So you wait and wait and wait for decades. World

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Speaker 1: War Two lit the whole world on fire, but there

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Speaker 1: were brave folks on all sides who were devoted to

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Speaker 1: defending their country like all in no matter what. Twenty

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Speaker 1: two year old Anoda is near the top of that list.

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Speaker 1: He was a Japanese soldier who in nineteen forty four

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Speaker 1: was left on a small South Pacific island and told

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Speaker 1: to hold it for Japan, no matter what so he

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Speaker 1: stayed on the job until the nineteen seventies. Anoda was

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Speaker 1: left on the island with just a few other soldiers

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Speaker 1: and was ordered to destroy the harbor and an airstrip

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Speaker 1: in order to disrupt an upcoming American invasion. They told

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Speaker 1: him to defend the island at all costs, not to surrender,

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Speaker 1: and not to take his own life even as a

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Speaker 1: last resort, which some Japanese soldiers did in order to

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Speaker 1: save face rather than raise the white flag. His commanding

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Speaker 1: officer said, it may take three years, it may take five,

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Speaker 1: but whatever happens, we will come back for you. That

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Speaker 1: was in December of nineteen forty four, but the US

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Speaker 1: and Allied forces took the island just two months later,

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Speaker 1: forcing Anoda and three other remaining soldiers into the mountains.

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Speaker 1: The war in the Pacific ended just eight months after

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Speaker 1: the Allies arrived, but the war didn't end for a

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Speaker 1: Noda and the others. Leaflets were dropped by air telling

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Speaker 1: them the war was over, but they thought it was

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Speaker 1: a trick propaganda from the enemy. Anoda said, the leaflets

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Speaker 1: they dropped were filled with mistakes, so I judged it

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Speaker 1: was a plot by the Americans. By nineteen fifty four,

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Speaker 1: one of those four soldiers had surrendered and another was

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Speaker 1: killed in a shootout with island police. An Noda and

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Speaker 1: his lone fellow soldier remained in the mountain top jungle

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Speaker 1: until nineteen seventy two, when the other soldier was also

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Speaker 1: shot and killed by police patrolling the island. He was

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Speaker 1: all alone at that point, and finally, in nineteen seventy four,

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Speaker 1: a Noda living alone was found by a Japanese college

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Speaker 1: student who said he was traveling around the world looking

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Speaker 1: for Lieutenant Anoda, a panda, and the abominable snow Man

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Speaker 1: in that order. He told Anoda the war had ended

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Speaker 1: years ago, but he still refused to leave his post,

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Speaker 1: saying he was waiting for orders from his superior officer. Well.

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Speaker 1: The Japanese government finally sent that former commanding officer, who

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Speaker 1: had originally promised to come back within three to five years,

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Speaker 1: to personally convince him the war had ended almost thirty

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Speaker 1: years earlier. That's when Anoda, still wearing his old Imperial

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Speaker 1: Army uniform, finally surrendered and turned over his weapons, including

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Speaker 1: his sword and the dagger his mother had given him

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Speaker 1: in nineteen forty four to kill himself with if he

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Speaker 1: was captured, Wow, thanks mom. Now imagine what life was

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Speaker 1: like for Anodah at this point. He left Imperial Japan

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties when he was just twenty two

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Speaker 1: years old, and returned at the age of fifty two

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four, emerging into a shockingly different world.

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Speaker 1: Traditional Japanese culture and religion had been replaced by a

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Speaker 1: very modern, materialistic society. It was total culture shock, and

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Speaker 1: he really struggled to adapt. Ask at the time if

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Speaker 1: he regretted the lost years, he simply said, the only

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Speaker 1: thing I thought of during those years was accomplishing my duty.

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Speaker 1: I was fortunate that I could devote myself to my

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Speaker 1: duty in my young and vigorous years. A major newspaper

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Speaker 1: in Tokyo said, Ada has shown us that there is

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Speaker 1: much more in life than just selfish pursuits. There is

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Speaker 1: the spiritual aspect, something we may have forgotten. He was

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Speaker 1: celebrated as the ultimate hero for his devotion. People wanted

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Speaker 1: him to run for office, and he wrote a book

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Speaker 1: called No Surrender My Thirty Year War, detailing his life

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Speaker 1: as a guerrilla fighter in a war that was long over.

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Speaker 1: The Japanese government offered him a fortune and back pay,

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Speaker 1: but he gave it all to charity a note, hated

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Speaker 1: the publicity, and he was crazy on comfortable with the

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Speaker 1: loss of traditional values in Japan. Within a year, he

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Speaker 1: moved to a colony in Brazil where other Japanese people

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Speaker 1: with traditional sensibilities lived, and he married a woman who

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Speaker 1: was a Japanese tea ceremony teacher. The two returned to

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Speaker 1: Japan in nineteen eighty four and founded the Aoda Nature

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Speaker 1: School for children, but they returned to the wilds of

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Speaker 1: Brazil every year for three or four months at a time.

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Speaker 1: Heroanoda died in twenty fourteen at the age of ninety one.

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Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia

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Speaker 1: and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our

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Speaker 1: executive producer is Steve Goldstein of Amplified Media. We're out

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Speaker 1: with new episodes twice a week. Thanks for listening to

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Speaker 1: The Backstory. The pieces of history you didn't know you

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Speaker 1: needed to know. Four