WWII Hero Passes Away

Not that I'm one of those re-writers of history, who thinks the Japanese were 'goaded' into attacking Pearl Harbor, or that they received two unjust attacks in August of 1945.  I just thought it was worth mentioning, that a real WWII Hero has passed away.

How many of us, would have gone on for 29 years?

Hiroo Onoda, the last Japanese imperial soldier to emerge from hiding in a jungle in the Philippines and surrender, 29 years after the end of World War II, has died. He was 91.

Onoda died Thursday at a Tokyo hospital after a brief stay there. Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga on Friday expressed his condolences, praising Onoda for his strong will to live and indomitable spirit.

"After World War II, Mr. Onoda lived in the jungle for many years and when he returned to Japan, I felt that finally, the war was finished. That's how I felt," Suga said.
 
Onoda was an intelligence officer who came out of hiding, erect but emaciated, in fatigues patched many times over, on Lubang island in the Philippines in March 1974, on his 52nd birthday. He surrendered only when his former commander flew there to reverse his 1945 orders to stay behind and spy on American troops.
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I remember this story from back then.  There had been one or two others who had surrendered a few years before.  But they had stayed in the jungle because they feared for their lives, NOT because they were still fighting.

I remember stories from then, saying Lt. Onoda had set pigs free, and he had turned over outhouses to cause trouble.  He never gave up the fight, he just followed his last orders.

UPDATE: a few minutes later 

I just read what I posted, and I've got a question about something, something I missed the 6 times I read this account.  WHY does it say, ."...Japanese imperial soldier..."? 

Shouldn't it read, "...Japanese Imperial Soldier...", with Imperial and Soldier being in caps too?  That, according to my grade school training.  It was the Japanese Empire, or the Empire of Japan, so ANY reference specifically about them, that entity, it should be capitolized.  And beings it references a specific Soldier OF the Empire of Japan, the word soldier gets a cap too.

I guess they don't teach that shit any more.  But if that's the case, how come every time some hand-wringing, MSM writer says American Imperial blah, blah, blah...or, Bush's push for an American Imperial corner stone, or some other nonsensical crap going back to the early 1960's and the war(s) in S.E. Asia?

I guess it's because the U.S. is evil, and the Japanese were goaded?

Schteveo