Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese army officer sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines near the end of World War II with orders never to surrender. The war ended in 1945, but he refused to believe it. Leaflets were dropped and search parties were sent, and he dismissed every one of them as a trick. He stayed in the jungle for 29 years, still fighting a war that was long over. Finally, in March 1974, his old commanding officer flew in and personally told him he could stand down.
