The War is Over

    On September 2, 1945 radio messages went out all over the world announcing that Japan had surrendered and so World War II had came to an end. But certain Japanese soldiers, scattered on remote islands in the Pacific, never heard the announcements, and for them the war continued much longer.

    One of these holdouts, and the last to surrender, was Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda. For him, and his unfortunate islander neighbors, World War II continued until March 1974. And it would be have lasted longer still except for the dedicated efforts of a Japanese adventurer named Norio Suzuki.

    In December 1944 Hiroo Onoda was 22 years old. He was sent to the Philippine island of Lubang alone, as a guerrilla, with orders to blow up the airport and harbor and doing anything to hamper the advancing Allies. He was also ordered never to surrender and to take as many years as necessary to accomplish his mission.

    When Onoda landed on the island, he met a group of Japanese soldiers who had been sent there earlier and teamed up with them. Two months later, on February 28, 1945, American troops took control of the island and killed most of the Japanese defenders. But a small number of Japanese survived, including Onoda.

    Lieutenant Onoda ordered three other surviving soldiers to flee with him into the hills. Six months later when the Japanese leaders surrendered, Onoda’s squad didn’t hear about it. Some months after the surrender, however, they did see leaflets bearing the news, but they dismissed these as enemy propaganda.

    For years Onoda kept his men busy maintaining good guerrilla discipline. They moved constantly from place to place, skirmished with the villagers, kept fit, and practiced reconnaissance in anticipation of the day when Japan would regain the island. In 1949 one of the men, Akatsu, became fed up with this life, and abandoned the group. He surrendered to the Philippine Army and then returned to Onoda’s territory with friendly Philippine troops intending to persuade him to surrender. But Onoda was not fooled by this obvious enemy trick and withdrew with his men deeper into the jungle.

    Over the next few years the Japanese government made a concerted effort to contact Onoda. From villager reports they knew in general where he was hiding. They dropped flyers and photographs and even sent his brother to the area. "Hiroo," his brother called through a bullhorn, "the war is over!" Hiroo watched from a safe distance. That man in the distance looked like his brother and sounded like him, but it must be instead a very good actor. Hiroo was sure, because he had been taught since childhood, that Japan would never surrender.

    Since the three remaining Japanese were stealing food from the villagers, they were often shot at. One soldier died this way in 1954, and the other in 1972.

    Onoda continued to live a solitary guerrilla life until February 20, 1974. On that day Norio Suzuki, a young Japanese adventurer who had made it his personal mission to find Lieutenant Onoda, camped in Onoda’s territory and waited for him to appear. When Onoda came across the younger man, resting under a tree, his first impulse was to shoot. Onoda raised his gun, and Suzuki maintained his cool, for a long moment. But then, after all, Onoda preferred to talk. He lowered his gun, and a conversation of several hours ensued. At the end Onoda said, yes, he would surrender, but only on direct orders from one of his commanding officers.

    Suzuki left with the promise to return. A month later he did return and brought with him Major Taniguchi, Onoda’s one-time superior officer. Major Taniguchi delivered the oral orders for Onoda to surrender his sword. Thus ended Lieutenant Onoda’s thirty-year war.

    The parallel with those of us who are living in more regular circumstances is that during trauma, such as a car accident or surgery, the body tightens up. This is a protection against invasion. This tension may have some utility during the time of impact, but not afterwards. After the trauma has passed, the body should relax so that healing can take place through the circulatory system.

    When the body doesn’t get the message that "the war is over," it continues holding on to tensions as though the trauma were still current. This is the source of a great deal of unnecessary, harmful and painful holding.

    In many cases it takes a special communication to reach those tension holdouts. The Feldenkrais Method works specifically to release tension in depth. Maybe for you, or for someone you know, lessons in the Feldenkrais Method can be that special path of communication that signals that it is ok to relax, the trauma has passed.