The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F_ck

CHAPTER 4
The Value of Suffering
In the closing months of 1944, after almost a decade of
war, the tide was turning against Japan. Their economy was
floundering, their military overstretched across half of Asia,
and the territories they had won throughout the Pacific were
now toppling like dominoes to U.S. forces. Defeat seemed
inevitable.
On December 26, 1944, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda
of the Japanese Imperial Army was deployed to the small
island of Lubang in the Philippines. His orders were to slow
the United States’ progress as much as possible, to stand
and fight at all costs, and to never surrender. Both he and
his commander knew it was essentially a suicide mission.
In February 1945, the Americans arrived on Lubang and
took the island with overwhelming force. Within days, most
of the Japanese soldiers had either surrendered or been
killed, but Onoda and three of his men managed to hide in
the jungle. From there, they began a guerrilla warfare
campaign against the U.S. forces and the local population,
attacking supply lines, shooting at stray soldiers, and
interfering with the American forces in any way that they
could.
That August, half a year later, the United States dropped
atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Japan surrendered, and the deadliest war in human history
came to its dramatic conclusion.