Hiroo Onoda: Last Man Fighting

Hiroo Onoda, soldier of the Japanese imperial army, died on January 16th, aged 91 Before he approached the tent where his commanding officer waited on March 9th 1974, Hiroo Onoda did two things. First, he inspected his rifle. (The Arisaka 99 still worked perfectly; over almost 30 years he had treated it as tenderly as a baby.) Then he retied his boots. Nothing must be slipshod. A soldier of the god-emperor had to be pure, prepared and spiritually invincible. He had taken elaborate care to get th...