The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F_ck

However, thousands of Japanese soldiers were still
scattered among the Pacific isles, and most, like Onoda,
were hiding in the jungle, unaware that the war was over.
These holdouts continued to fight and pillage as they had
before. This was a real problem for rebuilding eastern Asia
after the war, and the governments agreed something must
be done.
The U.S. military, in conjunction with the Japanese
government, dropped thousands of leaflets throughout the
Pacific region, announcing that the war was over and it was
time for everyone to go home. Onoda and his men, like
many others, found and read these leaflets, but unlike most
of the others, Onoda decided that they were fake, a trap set
by the American forces to get the guerrilla fighters to show
themselves. Onoda burned the leaflets, and he and his men
stayed hidden and continued to fight.
Five years went by. The leaflets had stopped, and most of
the American forces had long since gone home. The local
population on Lubang attempted to return to their normal
lives of farming and fishing. Yet there were Hiroo Onoda and
his merry men, still shooting at the farmers, burning their
crops, stealing their livestock, and murdering locals who
wandered too far into the jungle. The Philippine government
then took to drawing up new flyers and spreading them out
across the jungle. Come out, they said. The war is over. You
lost.
But these, too, were ignored.
In 1952, the Japanese government made one final effort
to draw the last remaining soldiers out of hiding throughout
the Pacific. This time, letters and pictures from the missing
soldiers’ families were air-dropped, along with a personal
note from the emperor himself. Once again, Onoda refused
to believe that the information was real. Once again, he
believed the airdrop to be a trick by the Americans. Once
again, he and his men stood and continued to fight.