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Book Reviews of No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War

No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War
No Surrender My Thirty-Year War
Author: Hiroo Onoda
ISBN-13: 9780870112409
ISBN-10: 0870112406
Publication Date: 1974
Pages: 219
Edition: 1st
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1

4 stars, based on 1 rating
Publisher: Kodansha America
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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hardtack avatar reviewed No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War on + 2855 more book reviews
This tale of Japanese Army lieutenant Hiroo Onodo's 30-years of guerrilla warfare in the Philippines is an amazing story of survival and one man's dedication to his beliefs. At the same time it is an indictment of the training given the Japanese where orders counted and independent reasoning was frowned upon. Onodo's training at a special guerrilla warfare school inclined him to see conspiracies within conspiracies. As he himself mentions, they "read the lines between the lines between the lines" of newspapers and messages left for them by those trying to make them understand the war was long over.

Although not addressed in this autobiography, Onodo's beliefs were responsible for the death of two of his friends years after the war, when, like one private soldier, they might have surrendered to the authorities and survived. This was a tragedy, as was the fact that Onodo's book does not mention that he killed several Filipino civilians during his 30-year ordeal.

In the end through, you need to admire Onodo as, like America's Sergeant York, he declined to profit from his experience and sought a simpler life helping others. Check out his Wikipedia page for details on his later life.