Rotten Mango - #164: The Conspiracy of The Mountain Devil (Case of Hiroo Onoda)

Episode Date: May 15, 2022

He emerged from the thick jungle for the first time in a long time. He had been waiting for this moment for years. The day World War II would come to an end. He would be relieved from his duties and Japan glorious in their victory! Onoda held his breath while his commander read his release. Onoda waited for further orders but there were none. Just a tub of face cream. “What’s this for?” - asked Onoda. “You’re going to need it. For all the interviews… Onoda, the war ended 29 years ago. We’ve been looking for you. The world will want to know what on earth did you do in the jungle for the past 29 years? How did you even survive? And how many did you kill?” Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Butta being Butta Boo

Welcome to this week's mini-soda run, Mango. I'm your host, Stephanie Sue, and let's just jump right into it. Onoda emerged from the thick jungle for the first time in a really long time. He had been waiting for this moment for years now. The day that World War II comes to an end. He would finally be relieved from his duties as an officer, and Japan would be glorious in their victory. Onoda held his breath while his commanding officer gave him his last orders.

In accordance with the Imperial Command, the 14th area army seized all combat activity. Officer 2003, you are now relieved of all military duties. That is all. Onotice stood at attention waiting for the next orders to come, but instead he was handed a tub of face cream. What is this for? Oh, you're gonna need it. The president wants to see you when we get back to Japan and you'll probably have interview

after interview with news stations. What do you mean is it? Is it about the war? Onada. The war ended 29 years ago. We've been looking for you and your fellow armymen. You've been in the jungle for 29 years while World War II has come to an end. People started getting back to their normal lives. The world as you knew it is not the same anymore. It has changed. It's been 29 long years. The war has been over three decades ago. What on earth have you been doing in the jungle for the past 29 years? He time traveled?

No. He just stayed in the jungle thinking the war was still going on for 30 years. Oh, exactly. As always, full show notes are available at rottenminglepodcast.com, but there is a book on this called No Surrender written by Hiro Onada, which is the guy that we're talking about. I want to say it's Oh No's Onada, but it's a good book. I don't know if I would recommend it because, well, you're going to find out why. So war crimes, let's talk about it because you can't have war without them. It just comes hand in hand.

What's fascinating about war crimes, but with this terrifying edge, is that most people fighting in wars, they that most people fighting in wars, they're normal people. They're just taking directions from their so-called trusted leaders, which means a lot of normal people commit war crimes. I mean, how? What does that say about human nature?

What is war crime? It's when you're, during times of war, you go in and you start slaughtering people, destroying property for no reason. I mean, okay, bombings are one thing, but like just going into village, villages, houses or like a town's house and just destroying plummeting, ripping women and children, which is frequently common, cannibalizing remains. Those are technically considered war crimes.

Anything that wasn't necessary to the war, those just like a step above, but it's almost like this grey line. Torturing prisoners would be considered a war crime. I mean, what does that really say about human nature, though? Because there's a lot of war crimes out there. It's something we just don't really talk about, and if we do, it almost seems there was a survey done. A lot of people believed that war crimes were almost just a part of war.

Something that you had to accept if it was war times. That's it. A kernel in World War I said, you can't stimulate and let lose the animal in humans and then expect to be able to cage them up at a moment's notice. So the reason for so many war crimes is heavily rooted in psychology. I mean, think about it. You feel threatened either rationally or not. It doesn't even matter. Your way of life, your family, your business, your friends, you know, everything is under threat. Humans are more likely to get into this mindset of whatever it takes. I'm going to protect our family no matter what. You almost need this mindset during more times because how else do you put yourself in the line of fire without this intense, unwavering, ruthless state of mind?

Another thing about militaries doesn't matter which one, they're amazing at de-individuation of people. They strip you of you, your family, your morals, you're now a part of this big working machine that's whole purpose is to win the game and take orders, execute them as best as you can. You're not even really called by your first name. You're a last name. Maybe you're just a cadet. Maybe you're just an officer. Maybe you're a number. And what happens when you identify more as this group rather than yourself, you start adopting the morals and ethics of whoever you're being led by. Now the only similar analogy that I could

find was social media. Okay, just hear me out, I know it sounds crazy, are we really comparing war to social media? Just hear me out. Why does it seem like there's so many evil people online? Because there's so many trolls that are going to comment disgusting threats, threats against you, sometimes your family, I mean just really rude crude things. But it's weird because when you're walking around, do people just shout these things at you? Not necessarily, it's more so on social media. So is that that

social media exposes you to more people? Yes, but also social media can be anonymous. Or to some people, there's no connection between their real personal life and their social media life. And that's kind of the army. There's this anonymity, this feeling that you're just part of this big movement, part of this big group that's mad or angry or almost violent with something or someone, and it leads people to actually become more and more aggressive than they would ever be just in person by themselves in their regular day to day life. Makes sense, yeah. Because how do you take John Smith that's working a nine to five

and throw a gun at him until I'm to start shooting people on the other side? There's a lot of psychology at work. And the only reason that I'm comparing it is not because I'm saying war crimes are the same as social media trolls, I'm not. But sometimes it's hard for us to relate to war since most of us thankfully haven't experienced it firsthand.

So what are the ways that you breed war criminals? First, they have to have disassociative anonymity, meaning that there's a disconnect between the soldier and their real life. They don't feel responsible for their actions in war because that's not their real life. It's just a different persona that they had to take on. And they could easily say, well I had to, I was ordered to, it's during war times I needed to stay alive. The second thing is invisibility.

Most war crimes aren't recorded and logged super well. War is hectic. There's this era of secrecy. You feel like you're invisible and so are your crimes. Three, the ability to not see the impact of your crimes. Maybe you kill a prisoner. You just see, well, they are on the other side. They would have killed me too, if our positions were swapped. If I was a prisoner of their camp, they would have killed me.

You don't see the grieving families, you never see what they were ordered to do. You don't see them as a human. You just see it as, well, they would have done that to me. For you start turning this part of your life into some sort of game, it's not really you, it's who you are during war. When you're pushed into a corner, it's not you, it's what any person in your shoes

would do. It's human nature to fight for your life, it's human nature to do this, it's what you have to do, it's not actually what you want to do, then there's disassociative imagination. It's kind of like everything around you is more like a game, not a video game, but it's not real life. Because this isn't the life that you knew prior to war. I mean, I'm not saying you don't know the stakes,

but it's a better way for your brain to comprehend everything. And lastly, you were told to do so. You're under the impression that it's not illegal and it's just the way it is. Shit happens in war. If you don't like it, you know, get offline. That type of energy.

Now, disclaimer, I'm not going in depth on who did what or why or how it exactly happened, mainly because I don't think I'm equipped with the knowledge or the nuance as of right now, to do a deep dive. But all that really matters is one human, or a group of humans, did this to another group of humans, and that is essentially war crimes. I'm intrigued by it. I mean, it's seemingly a common human mentality. Is it really true that if any of us went into war times,

we could easily become a war criminal? How does that work? Maybe it's the secrecy. I don't know if this is true, but I did read somewhere that cannibalism is a lot more common than we think. And it happens frequently during war times, in present day. And it's just not talked about. War crimes also could be tried, but a lot

of the times they're less public. The files are not released to the public. They're kept under wraps. With that being said, have you heard of Unit 731? Unit 731 was responsible for some of the most notorious, atrocious war crimes in all of history. They mainly focused this entire unit, and it was run by a government, it wasn't a rogue unit, it was run by a government. A highly respected government by the way, it wasn't just, oh this one general decided to have drowned in a free time, and the president of that government had no idea what was happening, no, it was funded and run by the government. They mainly focused on human experimentation.

And their whole thing was, what are limits? We have no limits. They experimented on babies, children, pregnant women, elderly people, captured criminals, people that they just didn't like. Majority of the victims were Chinese, the lesser percentage of the victims being Russian, Mongolian, and Korean.

There may have also been a couple European, American, Indian, Australian, and New Zealander, prisoners of war. They dehumanized their captives. That was step number one. Because a lot of the people in Unit 731, they were just taking orders. So the first thing is they called all the prisoners logs. Not even a person, not even a unit, log, like a tree log. It started as a sick joke because the cover for the facility at first was that it was a lumber mill. So when they were in public, they would say, so how many logs fell today?

Okay, how many people died today? Oh, like 4,000 logs fell. Ah, cool, cool, cool. Wow. And it's estimated that unit 731 has taken the lives of half a million people. Half a million. So what did they do? Well, pretty much every sick twisted thing you could imagine.

Like they just went all out. If they had a question relating to the human body, instead of using their critical thinking skills, or I don't know, consulting a doctor, they just took a victim and started experimenting, like a free-for-all. A professor who saw the footage of the crimes, which are not widely distributed, by the way,

so don't go looking. A very prominent professor said, there was an air of playfulness to the whole thing. Some of the experiments had nothing to do with advancing the capability of germ warfare or medicine. There was just this curiosity. What would happen if I did such and such? What medical purpose was served performing

and studying beheadings? None at all. They were just playing around. They were playing around. They would have questions like, what would happen if you were to just slowly drain the blood out of someone? How would that someone feel? When would they start getting lightheaded?

When would they pass out? What would their organs look like? Is it torturous or do they knock out? Do they not feel the pain? Instead of, I don't know, sitting there thinking it out, they would just bring a prisoner of war, tie them up and drain them of their blood. Sometimes if that wasn't enough, they would do it without any anesthesia, and they would just cut open the victim. They're like, okay, this is our five of draining the blood at this many liters per minute.

Let's just open them up and see what's going on. So you would feel every single cut they would cut you from the collarbone down to your pelvis, and you had no anesthesia, you were completely conscious. I mean, I imagine that your arms and your legs were tied down, but you can still crane your neck and see your insides. Like, just even the mental trauma of that, not that you would actually survive any of

this later on, but the mental trauma of that in that very moment, I can't really, I can't even compare it to anything. They would feel every cut and they would say, oh, well, this organ looks like this. They would just literally take out organs while you're just sitting there completely feeling everything, just digging their hands into your insides. Then, they got a little bit more psychotic with it, if I'm being honest. They would just open up people, awaken alive, no pincillers, and take out a perfectly healthy organ just to see what happens.

How long they last. They would take out a slice of your liver, sew you back up and document it. They would take out parts of your brain, parts of your lungs, like a good chunk of it, and just see what happens. They would inject prisoners with horse blood or other animal bloods to see how people reacted.

Not well. I mean, I feel like I could have told you that. Not well at all. I mean, it was lethal. They would inject sea water straight into the bloodstream. Yeah, guess what? They're not gonna react well, either. Again, these are very...

Sure, I might not know the hour-by-hour decline of someone that's injected with seawater into their blood veins, but the end result is the end result. And I mean, like everybody else, the whole thing is, what did you even get out of this? Literally what did you get out of this? Let's say they had 100 prisoners. They would inject 100 of them with seawater though I believe it was probably more. They would then cut open each person by hour. So hour one this person gets cut open and their insights are studied.

So this is what the organs look like one hour into seawater injected. Then the second hour another one and another one and another one and they all died in agonizing pain. and their insights are studied. So this is what the organs look like, one hour into sea water injected. Then the second hour, another one, and another one, and another one, and they all died in agonizing pain. So here's what a former member of Unit 731 said. I led this man into the room, and I tied him down. But when I picked up the scalpel,

that's when he started screaming. I cut him open from the chest to the stomach, and he screamed so terribly, and his face was all twisted in agony. He made this unimaginable sound. He screamed so horribly, but then he finally stopped. I don't know where. This was all in a day's work for the surgeons there, but it really left an impression on

me because it was my first time. Obviously, it wouldn't be as last. Prisoners had limbs, perfectly healthy limbs, amputated without any anesthesia or pain killers, so that these people could study blood loss. Sometimes they would remove your left arm and reattach it right under your right arm. So you would just have two arms on one side. Okay, so the physical pain of an amputation like that

because you're not getting anesthesia, you're not getting pain killers, you're living in really unhygienic standards, you're in prison, you're in a fricking cell. I just can't imagine, and I don't know if I'm taking too much liberty in this aspect, but I can't imagine the mental trauma of waking up one day and your perfectly healthy arm has been moved to the other side of your body. I mean, that's got to cause some sort of body, mind, disconnect, and it, I mean, it feels like a horror movie.

Like even the thought of it, I don't even know what my reaction would be. A horror movie that honestly would be too gruesome and dark for me to even enjoy, it's like that bad. Some victims would have parts of their stomach removed, and their esophagus would be reattached straight to their intestines. Victims were deliberately infected with plagues and other deadly diseases like cholera, small pox, bachelors, buponic plague, they gave prisoners syphilis, gonorrhea, and then studied them. Prisoners were repeatedly raped by guards, unless the guards knew which ones were infected

on purpose with varying diseases. So apparently, women who were infected with diseases, not by their doing, but by Unit 731, were called by the guards as, jam-filled buns, because their private areas would leak pus. So they called them not even a human, not even someone who needs help medical attention, but jam-filled buns. Sometimes prisoners were forced to rip each other. One of them would have been purposely infected with a disease, and the other one was not,

so the guards would force them to have sex acts to study what would happen, while they sat and watched, of course. They would drag the prisoners out, tie them to a wooden stake, and from there they would use them as target practice. Sometimes they would just release pathogen-releasing bombs, so the whole point of Unit 731 was essentially biological warfare. That was the essence of their study. That was the reason that they were set up.

So they started using them as target practice. If they blow up a pathogen-releasing bomb, how long would it take for the affected tied-up victim to feel something? And it was like a football field of victims. So one foot away would be someone tied up, then two feet away, then three feet away. I mean, just imagine a bunch of people tied up and all these doctors are standing there

and taking note of which one starts feeling one. They used chemical weapons. One professor who witnessed a poison gas test said, there was a glass wall chamber about three meters square, two meters high. and inside of it was a Chinese man blindfolded His hands were tied behind him and this gas was released. They called it a sneezing gas, but You're not really sneezing As the gas filled the chamber the man went into a violent coughing

Convulsion and was suffering excruciating pain more than 10 doctors and technicians were present. After I had watched about 10 minutes, I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to leave. I understand that other types of gases were also tested. Unit 731 actually had these phone booths like tanks so that they were portable and they would just be used as gas chambers. More tests were described as psychopathically insane,

sadistic with no conceivable military application. Did the military really need to know the time that it took to slowly freeze a three-day old baby to death? Apparently, they did, because that's what they studied. Another former witness said they saw a Russian man vertically cut into two pieces, straight down the middle, while alive and obviously he passed away from this but his halves of his body were pickled in a

jar of vanilla hide and this was like during World War II so a lot of atrocities during World War II this isn't even this is just one country's work crimes that's not even get started on the Nazis that's a whole other book of work crimes, let's not even get started on the Nazis. That's a whole other book of war crimes, like a series of books. Sometimes in that field, remember they would put the pathogenic releasing bombs. They would just detonate a regular bomb and see how far the shrapnel would fly. How long it would take for you to live depending on how far you were from the detonation. Other people were starved and dehydrated to death to see hour by hour of how long it took in the symptoms.

They would place victims into low pressure chambers till their eyes popped out of their sockets. They would hang someone upside down till they died. Just to see how long it took. They would crush people with these heavy objects, they would electrocute them. They just wanted to know the relationship between temperatures, burns, human survival.

They would spin people to death in centrifuges. They would x-ray someone over and over and over again until they died. And some of them were just burned alive and buried alive. I mean, I really don't see the medical knowledge game from any of this. They also loved a good frostbite test. They would take captives, dip them in water,

add varying freezing temperatures, and completely freeze their limbs. Let's say their hands are completely frozen. Then they would take a stick and hit the lip. And they noted it sounded like a wooden board when you hit it with a stick. I don't know how this is really good or productive in any way. Like, I can't imagine.

Like, at this point, you know they're fucking around. Then they would drag the captive, and they would just pour scalding hot water on that frozen limb to see how they would react. Yeah, not well. Okay, I could tell you that. I know nothing about hypothermia. They would also be doused in fire sometimes. Other things just to see what would happen. I don't know why they needed to spend the time, the resources to test out something so horrible and inapplicable in war, but here we are. They put captives in sub-zero temperatures completely naked and they filmed the whole thing. Prisoners died.

They would get three day old babies and toddlers and freeze them to death as well. They would force these kids into salty ice baths to see what would happen. Do you guys know that old and day trick? Well, it's not a trick. It's something I remember a lot of people in my high school did, and I'm not sure why. I think I tried it once, and it was not fun, but you put a bunch of salt in your hand, and then you grab a piece of ice and you close your fist. And the salt in the ice burn you

It's really painful And it's supposed to be like that's crazy. Why does salt and ice burn you? It's supposed to be like a weird learning torturous moment and you do this that like I don't know your local chiles with all your friends But it's I imagine imagine that on your whole body salty ice baths I'm not talking Epsom salt and if if you're like, how are there so many children there? Well, when they run out of babies, guards would rip the female prisoners so they would fall pregnant.

Sometimes they wanted the woman to be pregnant so they could experiment on pregnant people. Sometimes they wanted the baby to be birthed so that they could experiment on the baby itself. Men were often only alive for about two months in Unit 731, whereas women were kept alive for over a year. And it's not because women got to live longer.

I mean, they were tortured ruthlessly for over a year, even when they were pregnant, they were injecting them with diseases to see if the baby would end up getting the disease. And when they wanted to wreak more havoc and really solidify themselves, you know, and when I say themselves, I don't mean the country. Well, I guess I mean the leaders of the country. I don't mean the people of the country because this country, I mean, from what I can tell online, every single citizen of this country

thinks this is one of the most shameful parts of the entire country's history. It's just nobody really agrees with. Nobody's gonna sit there and say, oh yeah, we did that. So when I say them, I'm talking the ones in Unit 731 and the ones that approved this, the ones that told them to do this.

When they were bored, they started breeding some fleas. They would infect the fleas with a plague and they would drop a flea bomb on millions of people in Chinese cities, typically in the Hunan province. I heard about this one. Yeah, tens of thousands were killed from the plagues. They would even go as far to spread typhoid and other diseases in the wells, the water

streams, houses of the cities. They would infuse diseases with snacks and let locals have free food because these locals were struggling during war times. The research concluded that part typhoid fever was the most effective in wiping people out. It said at least 12 large-scale bio-weapon field trials were carried out. And that wasn't even endgame. They were considered target practice, experimentation, the trials. Yeah, the lives of like half a million people were used as a trial.

Their main goal was to drop a plague bomb in San Diego, California. They wanted to send kamikaze pilots with plague bombs and drop it. But near the end of World War II, while they were getting it ready, they surrendered just five weeks earlier than it was planned. Now when they surrendered, all hell broke loose. They had 900 prisoners left. They were all shot or gassed and threw into a shallow grave. The files, a lot of them were burnt, torn up and destroyed.

All the unit members gathered together and were ordered to take the secret to the grave. They handed out cyanide files just in case any unit 731 members were captured. They would just commit suicide. They tried to blow up the compound to destroy any other remaining evidence, but some was kept. So you're like, okay, now what? They're going to get charged, right? They're going to face in prison time, right?

After the surrender, American officials decided to grant immunity to the doctors and physicians of Unit 731, including the leader, in exchange for all the information that they gathered during their experiments. And it's not only that, it's that America paid millions of dollars to get that data and information. In America's defense, if you could even call it that, but not really because what the fork is that they didn't want the Soviet Union to acquire the data on biological weapons. So the US got the data even paid for it according to some sources and let the war criminals

go. Some of the leaders of Unit 731 were tried in the Soviet Union and received time in a Siberian labor camp, but the US refused to acknowledge these trials. They were saying, oh, this is all communist propaganda. This is not real. This is not a real trial. They're fine. Also a side note, it said that some of the bad relations between China and the perpetrators

of this. I'm sure it's incredibly nuanced, and of course there's more history in all of these geopolitical relations, but you know, some of it says it stems from this as well. So there you have it. Some of the worst war crimes ever committed, and how America admittedly even by officials themselves played a really shameful part in the end. I mean, it's crazy, no? No. In another part of World War II, there were other human expectations that were really bad as well. So I don't want to make it seem like

this was like the only bad thing happening, not that it's a pain contest, but I mean, this wasn't about the Nazis. So the Nazis were like sowing twins together to create conjoined twins. Like it was bad. They were injecting people with dye in their eyes to see if they could change the eye colors. It was just straight up mutilation and murder all of this. What is that saying that they say no one wins a war. There's just varying degrees of losses.

This is that. So the backdrop of today's story is World War II. And we're talking about someone that has been oftentimes regarded as a war hero of sorts. But truly the question is, maybe he was just a war criminal. Let's explore. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us?

What a police. It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're gonna want some drug drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the

investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. So how did we get here? Hito Onada was born the fifth of seven children and they had a really big family, a really

big respectable family from being honest. From what I can tell Onada was raised with a lot of discipline. I mean, it's not like his parents were military-style disciplinarians. They weren't like, you got to wake up at 6am and do this, but they definitely instilled in him the value of hard work. Do what you're told. This is what you need to do to make a living. It was a pretty regimented household. Another way that this was pounded into Onada was that he loved a sport called Kendo. Kendo is like Japanese fencing.

Onoda loved it so much. He would always practice with a bamboo stick. He had this teacher that he looked up to, really respected above all else. He identified with his teacher, because his teacher was also a really small guy, but he was one of the best in the sport. Onoda was a really small boy. By middle school, he was the smallest boy in his class, coming in at just five feet. It didn't matter to him, though, as long as he could beat the bigger boys at Kendo, I mean, what does it matter?

He believed that brute strength is nothing compared to strategy. He starts practicing the infamous Dodge and Attack combo. So this is whenever the opponent would bring down the sword onto your head. You see it coming. Now your first reaction would be to instantly duck. You're like, oh my god, this guy's putt to it. Bunk me on the head.

But, um, no, you're supposed to stand there. You're supposed to stand there till the very last millisecond when there's already too much momentum in their arms to stop going down on your head. You duck, you take them by surprise and since the momentum in their arms are already dragging downwards, their chest is wide open for you to take a shot at. Sounds easy. Why doesn't everyone do it? Well, it's very difficult. If you duck too soon, your opponent sees it coming and retreats to a guarding position. Then you just lost your shot at their chest. You duck too late, you get bonked on the head. You lose. It's a very humiliating combo. I mean, not only did you lose, but like bonk, it's not fun. So, Onoda took years to fully grasp this.

He even had this crazy scar on his arm in an attempt to duck in, stab, not stab, but you can duck in poke at the other person. He's got this nasty scar. But with enough dedication, Onoda was the best in his class. There was only one boy he couldn't beat. So I guess second best. Kobai. Now Onoda was so stubborn, so pissed off by this. Honestly, great sportsmanship, but you get what I'm saying. He was bothered. On the last day of school, he begged for a chance.

He said, Kovai, I just, I can't graduate without beating you just once. Now, he's fought Kovai like a million times, and so he's like, okay, I'll take you on as many times as you want. Or not, I like you're not gonna beat me, but sure. Everybody gathers around to watch her not a try to lose for the million times just one last time before school graduation. Koby always beat him.

I mean, it wasn't even a fair game. The years of practice after school paid off. And O'Nada beat Koby. He did his signature duck and attack, and he won. And he felt like he could now graduate. This is the type of guy O'Natta beat Kobai. He did his signature duck and attack, and he won. And he felt like he could now graduate. This is the type of guy O'Natta was. Now, I'm not saying that this isn't admirable or that it is. I mean, at this point, it kind of is, yeah.

Like, to be that dedicated to a sport at that age, it's a good indicator that this person might be a hardworking, determined, goal-oriented person, right? But later, we kind of head into this extreme territory. After graduation, Onada gets sent to Wuhan, China for a job. He's just 17 years old. He would be without his parents. Thankfully, his brother is already working in Wuhan.

It was still this huge move. I mean, huge freedom. Onada was just not used to it. He immediately starts relying on his brother. I mean, this kid is just irresponsible. He's knocking on his brother's door in Wuhan. No warning. No calling. Hey, brother!

Same's Tadau, by the way. Hello, brother. How you doing? What are you doing here? Why are you in China? Oh, I'm gonna make it in Wuhan. I'm so excited. You're gonna what? Do you know how dumb you sound right now? This isn't the safest place right now. And you sound so naive. You're gonna what? Do you know how dumb you sound right now? This isn't the safest place right now, and you sound so naive. You're gonna get yourself killed.

What do you mean you're gonna make it in Wuhan, China? You're gonna start at the bottom, and you're just gonna put your head down and work as hard as you can. Yeah, yeah, but don't be so down. I mean, if a man is not prepared to take a few risks, brother, he's gonna get nowhere. I'm gonna make it. Now, Tadal is looking at this guy like he's lost his mind. Okay, what's wrong with this kid?

Why are you 17 with this big old dream? Like, you have no sense of reality. What are you doing here on my doorstep then? Why don't you go get a job and make it if you still want it? Well, brother, thanks for asking. I know you're curious. I left Japan with nothing but just this itty bittiesu case. This one right here.

And I figured the first thing I should do is get a decent pair of suits Right, so I cannot do job interviews and start working So I'm here to ask if you would be interested in buying me a suit This guy the audacity. I mean his brother was not rolling in it He wasn't doing well at all suits were and still are quite pricey, but even more so then Like you really only have like one good suit as an employee. So he's like, okay fine, I'll buy a suit for you. Go find a tailor and get out of here. Oh no, that was so excited.

He rushed to find the best tailor and demanded a woolen material suit. Like the ones they wear in London. The tailor is like, it's gonna cost you extra. Like a lot more, is that okay? Yeah, of course, but I want to look like a man from London. Bill it to my brother. Tadau's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he got the invoice. It was so much money! Maybe like a home went salary. Meanwhile, Onada is strutting downtown Wuhan

in his fancy English suit like he owns the place. He felt like the greatest businessman in the entire freaking world. A new suit really does work wonders. Now, to be fair, Onoda was a great businessman, especially at just 17. His advantage was that he was amazing, great at adapting to news surroundings. He was incredibly resourceful, for example, when he moved to China, he had to learn Chinese, which is a lot of people considered one of the hardest languages in the world. And he had to learn it fast. Not only that, but he had to learn it in a way that it wasn't obvious to most when he just got there. Well, there's that me.

Nobody wants to do business with someone who doesn't even know the native tongue. Nobody wants to do business with someone who just moved from Japan. You know, because you'd like a long-standing business who's built a web of connections, who has a lot of reputation in the area. So he had to make sure his accent didn't give it away. So he worked really hard. The problem was he left a party just as much as he left to work. If not more, he blew through all of his money at local bars. He loved to smoke. I mean this guy could put smokes 50

cigarettes in one sitting, especially if he was playing my song. Onoda said during this time in life, he just wanted indulgence. His upbringing had been so strict, he just wanted to experience wild things, but his fun didn't last, because World War II had begun, and Japan was officially in war with the United States. And Onoda knew that he was going to be drafted, so he had to stop going to the bars. Not because he was getting ready per se for the war, which he was, but because he was branded that any Japanese person who was still engaging in fun play like bars and entertainment

were considered the rats of Asia. Yeah, you would bring shame and dishonor to your family. You would be looked down by everybody else how dare you be having fun when your brothers and sisters are being killed on the battlefields. I mean, kind of makes sense, I guess. Kind of makes sense. Okay, so Onoda gets inducted into the 61st Infantry, the Regime of Wakayama, and he's thinking, well, if I already have to serve, there's no way around this army. I'm not as well getting into good shape. Before he was formally trained by the army, he starts spending his time swimming in the

ocean, practicing kendo non-stop just all night long. And it paid off. During basic training, they were forced to march 3.5 miles in an hour, sometimes 5 miles in an hour, wearing all their gear, their boots and their uniform. A lot of the recruits would whine, or they would show resentment towards these harsh conditions, but Not or not, uh, he liked it. He was in great shape. He was a little bit on the shorter side He was 5'4. He weighed 135 pounds, which was just pure muscle it seemed. He was considered the perfect weight That's what they said in the army because you had to carry around 60 pounds of weight in gear as you march

Sheesh 60 pounds. Yeah and gear as you march. Sheesh, 60 pounds. 60 pounds? Yeah. Are you kidding me? Wow. See, every time I see those army recruit videos, I'm like, you know what, my toxic trade is? Thinking I could survive basic training.

And then I think about 60 pounds. I don't even think I can hip thrust 60 pounds. So if you weigh about double the 60 pounds, you're in great shape, because those who weigh less would struggle with an additional 60 pounds, and those who weigh more would be held back by carrying just overall too much weight in total. So there's like a perfect ratio, there's a method to this madness. Now I don't know if it was the perfect weight to gear ratio or the fact that it'll not have worked hard.

All of Onauta's superior is expected great things from him. They even encouraged him to apply for the officer's training unit, which is further training. So instead of going into the trenches, maybe you have a more specialized job. It's kind of like not special ops, but kind of like a vague impromptu wartime special ops. So I'm not comparing it with Japan's special ops because I'm sure those people have been

heavily highly trained prior to war times. This is like a impromptu. He was accepted and he said there he really learned what it meant to be in the army, the discipline that you needed. Even when his brother saw him, because yeah his brother was drafted too, he's like, oh not what happened to you. What do you mean? You look like a real man now.

So the war is gearing up, and all I not I wanted to do was go back to China and eat Chinese food again. That's what he kept telling all his comrades. Listen, when the war is over, I'm flying my ass back to China and just stuffing myself with Chinese food. But quickly, he was sent to further training. And this, this was an anti-training.

It was secret guerrilla warfare division The real name of the school was kept a secret and the handpicked trainees were to get rid of any ideas any hopes of Achieving military honors during the war they said you're not gonna get any honors here because it's secret warfare Everything you're gonna do is in secret. You'll never revel in the glory of being someone special in the war But that's okay because you're serving your country. Oh, not always shocked. This is not what he signed up for. Everyone in the room, they were anxious.

Secret Camilla warfare, what does that even mean? Those are like three scariest words and you just put them all together. What are you talking about? So, naturally, the curious guber that I am, I googled, what is spy training like? Yes, because real spies, they're gonna make an in-depth YouTube tutorial about it. I did stumble on some interesting articles though, from former CIA agents. And I forget where I saw this. I think this part is a take talk, so this one, take it with a grain of salt, the sources, trust me bro.

Okay, there was a former not spy per se, but I think an intelligence officer of some sorts who said that for the CIA, they had to write down any time they ever interacted with anyone that was foreign. So even if you said hello to a Korean cashier, you would have to write that down the time and date and where. And kind of like a brief description of them. If you went to a Canadian friend's house for a quick little dinner party, you would have to write that down.

Even the smallest interaction with anybody foreign, you had to write it down. I just think that's so fascinating. No. I mean, my question is, how do I know if you're American or foreign? Like, I'm Korean-American, so that's confusing.

Would you consider me foreign? Also, how do you tell the difference between someone who's from Canada and the US? Someone's gonna be like, oh Canadians are nicer and smarter. That's rude. Maybe that's how? I don't know. Anyways, Google said you learn a lot of wild things during spy training. It sounds so dumb now that I'm saying it. But apparently driving is one of them. Not just driving, but like you do for a license, no. That's dumb. But intense defensive driving. How to check if someone is following you, how to lose someone who's on your ass, how to flip a car over in case you get ambushed. And I'm just thinking, what you probably have to have some test cars, right? Like how much is

the budget for spy training and test cars? Apparently, and I don't know if this is true, but there's a fake town. What? If someone near the headquarters, it's a fake town. And you go there as training and everything there is fake. Okay, actually I can see it. So you have. Well, you just consider it like a military base. Yeah, exactly.

So you have fake civilians and then you have the bad people and then you're in CIA training and you get woken up. You're their sleep deprivation involved or there's crazy high-tent situations and you gotta shoot have the bad people, and then you're in CIA training, and you get woken up, you're their sleep deprivation involved, there's crazy high-tent situations, and you gotta shoot down the bad people, but you can't hit a civilian. I mean, it's not real guns, obviously. Apparently, there's like a whole spy town you gotta go to.

I think it's called the farm, which is terrifying. I really hope this isn't true. I mean, I guess I do, because it's great defense for our country, but also terrifying. I never want to imagine you're just on a road trip. You end up there one day and you're just stuck in this weird and they just think you're a civilian or you're a bad guy there.

No idea. These are CIA training. Someone's at a huge part of training for spies is just to learn how to withstand captivity and torture. Apparently, some of them will even be briefly tortured, just so they have an idea of what the pain tolerance will be. You know, so you're just gonna get water-borted on a random Tuesday.

Have fun with that. One big thing is they want you to practice observing details at a glance, using your peripheral vision and remembering as many license plates, as many many faces as many little details as possible which I think is so fascinating. One spy said that he and his wife lived in a CIA bug department to see if they would ever slip up before they were sent to the USSR. All the while, psychologists are also evaluating every single move that they made.

I mean, you're going to be under immense pressure, but you can never give away these telltale signs that you felt immense pressure, because it's like, why do you feel pressure? Huh? What's going on? Listen, I don't know if any of this is true, but it's so fascinating. And it just reminds me that there's so many lives to live. So anyways, these guys get sent to spy school and immediately upon arrival, they're asking all the pertinent questions. When you got here, what was the impression of the place? If the troops are stationed here, how many army men do you think that there would be? What is the principal industry of this area? What kind of town is this? How much food do you think that there would be? What is the principal industry of this area? What kind of town is this? How much food do you think the town could provide for army troops? What's the average cost of houses here?

Nobody had any clue on how to respond to these questions. And they would say, this is why you're not a spy yet. The biggest lesson is to be aware and gather until quickly and discreetly. You need to know as much about any area as possible, the people, the locals there. Even if it's something as mundane as running errands, you need to know everything about the area. The instructors went on to teach. You'll have to learn to notice everything around you and evaluate it from the viewpoint of military intelligence. And with that, O'Notta started Spice School. Listen, I'm sure there's a formal name for it and it doesn't sound as super lame,

but I'm calling it spy school. In spy school, he had four hours of training in the morning, four in the afternoon, they had two 15 minute breaks, and when class was over, they had homework. Since war was raging, the spies, and like I said, these are not Japanese elite spies, they've already been trained, I'm sure, probably in preparation for the war, but these are Japanese makeshift seasonal worker spies. A little above the regular army man. These are the ones that were considered

to have quote unquote good minds. Maybe they can bring a little more to the table, and I'm not discounting how hard it must have been, but I just don't want anyone to get the impression that this is Japan CIA. So the spy kids, they had to finish their spy school in three months rather than the intended war times six month training that the superiors were hoping for.

Onoda said one of the hardest things he had to learn was that prior to this, nothing mattered except Japan winning the war. It didn't matter if your best friend died, it didn't matter if your wife died, it didn't matter if you died. It doesn't matter how many Japanese people die in the battle. The Army was supposed to never give up. They were supposed to slaughter as many as the enemy as they could before they themselves dying. The aim is to fight for as long as possible and if you're going out you better take some Americans out with

you. I'm sure America was the same, you know, I'm just saying, I don't know, okay. I'm sure most armies think and talk like this, right? Especially during war times. If you take any weird measures to stay alive, you were considered disgraceful in Japan. So for example, if a soldier was taken prisoner after the war, their return to Japan alive, he will probably be sentenced to death in the court of law anyways.

And their whole family would be looked on in shame. So you might as well take the enemies out while you're on a suicide mission or die in enemy prison camps. That's kind of how the culture was back in potentially still lingering here and there. For example, I mean, I think the most prominent example of this would be Harakiri, which is when Japanese samurai commit suicide by cutting open their own stomach. Now, typically a samurai person would only do this if they did something shameful.

They didn't want that shame forever associated with them and their families, so they would commit Harak kitty and all would be forgiven. On a shame are very important things in Eastern culture. I think not just with Japan, but I think also maybe not as strongly, but I see it in Korean culture as well. So in Spice School, O'Nata is now being taught, you have to do whatever you need to do other than betray Japan and your fellow men to stay alive. Because you're gathering intelligence. We need that intel to make our next steps. You're not just one of the aren't you're not brute strength on the field. So they want they want these people to survive. Yes. So even if you're considered a shame when you get

back to Japan, it doesn't matter because you are a pivotal part in us winning the war. So you need to stay alive. You need to do whatever it takes. It's okay to be taken as prisoner of war. I mean, yeah, that's a death sentence for other people, but for you guys, we're going to protect you when you get back, don't worry. And in fact, we recommend you be taken as prisoner of war if you need to gather until that way.

If you need to communicate directly with another Japanese official that has been taken prisoner. In short, the lesson that was pounded into their heads were the end justifies the means. It's the name of the game, secret warfare. And just like a side note with this whole thing, what's interesting and I don't think one is better than the other. I do think that shame culture can very easily skew to mentally dangerous, right? But Japan and a lot of Eastern cultures are shame-based cultures, where it doesn't matter if your guilt here or not, any shame upon the family is not good.

Whereas America is more of a guilt-based culture. You're innocent till proven guilty. At the end of the day, if you're not guilty, then there's no shame. Shame is directly associated with guilt. That makes sense, yeah. Whereas in Eastern cultures, even maybe being associated with something, not even being guilty, but knowing of something or partaking in something or accepting something might bring shame onto you.

So it's very interesting. So after three months of spy school and essentially being indoctrinated to a degree, I know, okay, unpopular opinion, but I do think that most armies have a process of indoctrinating the recruits, especially during war times, regardless of what country we're talking about. And like, I know, before anyone says anything, I'm an American citizen, but you should do some deep dives into American war crimes, because there's a lot, even till this day, so I'm just saying I'm just saying We're not completely innocent in this so after this Oh, not a and all of his comrades that we're trained with we're gonna be sent to the Philippines

And oh, not it just comes to term with his life He's probably gonna die in the Philippines not even in his home country that he was fighting so hard for but it didn't matter He's said if I'm the slightest used to my country I shall be happy Originally they were supposed to head to Manila, but the US was bombing Manila, so the crew had to be sent to Lubang Island instead, which is a beautiful place. I mean, they've got beautiful beaches. Overall, there's this magic quality to the island.

I mean, think rich, green, vibrant vegetation, coconut trees, bananas, sandy beaches, very picturesque tropical place. A lot of the residents, a lot of them at the time were farmers, they were living off the land, but Onada had no time to revel in this beauty, he had to get straight to work. The minute that he lands on Lubang Island, his superiors give him his orders, our objective is to destroy the Lubang airfield and the pier at the harbor. Should the enemy land and try to use the airfield? We gotta destroy their plans. We gotta kill the crews.

We gotta make sure Lubung Island is not occupied by the U.S. Now, typically, I would send two leaders for these Gorilla missions, but we can't spare another man so or not you're gonna be the only leader. And you have to watch out for yourself because remember, when you do something for yourself for the first time your bound to slip up so keep your eyes open because if you slip up you will die. So he's a loner he's with a team. He's with a team but this is where it gets confusing. He's given this order right and done. Oh his superior also tells him you are absolutely forbidden to die on your own hand. It may take three years it may take five years but whatever happens will come come back for you till then so long as you have one soldier

You are to continue to lead them You may live off coconuts and if that's the case live off coconuts Under no circumstances are you to give up your life voluntarily? So Onada was there with hundreds of Japanese troops, but he's not necessarily leading them. So a lot of them are just from the regular army. Like I mean, he's part of the army, but they didn't go through the spy school like he did. Oh, okay, so he's not leading them.

He's just one of them. Yeah, and there, he has a higher rank, but he has no authority to lead them. It's really confusing in the army, it's really weird. OK, that makes sense though. Yeah, so, you know, O'Noura's excited. He stands up taller, his chest held high. I'll do it.

Even if I don't have coconuts, even if I have to eat grass and weeds, I'll do it. These are my orders and I'm going to carry it out. He was given a camouflage outfit, a few bombs, some landmines, some hand grades, and some cash for special expenses, whatever that meant. Now, Luang is a relatively small island, about six miles from the northern tip to the southern tip, and about 18 miles east to west.

So not as like, why do I need so many bombs? Now anyway, the Luangarison had about 50 Japanese soldiers already there, waiting for it, and more to come. And none of them liked what Onada was telling them to do. They're like, what are you talking about? We want to get the fuck out of here. We even stole some boats from the locals. We're trying to leave this island.

You're like, okay, wait, why can't Onada just shut them down and take charge? What's not that simple? Like I said, someone might have a higher rank than you, or they might even be a platoon leader, but they might not have the authority to give you, or they might even be a platoon leader, but they might not have the authority to give you specifically a command. So technically, nobody had to listen to Onada. Onada would have to talk to the highest people in charge,

and even though he was technically higher in rank to them, he would have to convince them, beg them to give orders to their men to listen to his words. In other words, if the 50 men that were already there wanted to leave, Onada had no way of stopping them. So he's like, let me blow this shit up by myself. The soldiers declined. They don't want to destroy the landing. They're like, we're, our friends are going to pick us up. The Japanese Air Force is going to pick us up. You can't destroy the freaking airfield because where would they land? Then we're just stuck

on this island and we hate this island. We wanna go home, we wanna fight somewhere else. So is this some sort of mix up with the command? Because they're supposed to be doing the same thing, but their orders are completely different. Yeah, and it was so hectic. So technically, O'Notta was on a gorilla mission, which is, guerrilla warfare is like, technically, not on the books per se.

Okay. Like, when I say it's a war crime, I don't know. You know, it's not something politicians would's a war crime, I don't know. You know, it's not something politicians would come out and say, guerrilla warfare. We did it. It's a little bit more aggressive. Maybe not as marketable.

So he was kind of on like a different order for guerrilla warfare. These guys were just on regular army orders like, hey, stand your ground. Make sure the Americans don't come. Oh, Nata was on orders of blow that shit up. Kill anybody that tries to land. Very different orders, right? Very different type of energy. So these guys are like, well, if we blow it up, how will we leave?

We want to leave. So Nata threw his arms up in desperation and he decided, it's OK. OK, I do it myself. I don't need to depend on any other idiot. This is dumb. So he starts hauling all the explosives in the dead of night, foreign the morning. He's tired.

He hadn't slept in the past 48 hours. He's taking power naps in the grass. And just a few days later, the Allied powers start to invade the Philippines. It was just bad news for everyone on the island. It was really bad news for Philippines, um, and innocent civilians, but in terms of the story, bad news for Onada innocent civilians, but in terms of the story, bad news for Onada and his men. A lot of the men stationed on the island had been surviving off coconuts for a while, so

they were all really weak. They could only carry about 35 pounds at a time. They also did not have the equipment that they needed. It looks just like, I mean, most of these men had lost the will to fight. That's what Onada was looking at. So he keeps urging them. We got a prep for guerrilla warfare. It's our only answer. Guerrilla warfare, guys, come on, come on.

And they all scoffed at him. They're like, what are you talking about? Nobody took him seriously. In fact, they thought that he was loony tunes. They nicknamed him after a famous brand of soy sauce, which I know, you're like super cool to be named after soy sauce. Maybe it means you're full of flavor. But it was demeaning. The implication was that Onada was not the big fish. He's not the main course. He's only a little bit of seasoning in the grand scheme of things. Nobody took him seriously. So he comes up with another plan other than blowing up the airfield mainly because he found out

that the US has these giant steel plates that they can make a runway in no time. So even if they blew up the airfield, the US had steel plates to make a runway, so there was no point in wasting the explosives. O'Nara starts putting all of his energy into delaying the enemy invasion on the island, and that's when it came to him, the story of Samurai Kusunoki. It had been a really difficult battle for the samurai. And he decided to create a ton of straw men. Bodies made out of straw, And he would disguise them in uniforms. I mean, they were made out of straw, but it looked like army men from afar.

And the enemies which shoot all their precious valuable arrows at them, which would result in the enemies losing their precious arrows on a bluff. So that's what Onaudah wanted to do. He gathered up pieces of airplanes that had been destroyed on the island, and arranged them to look like they were still working airplanes. He covered it up with and arranged them to look like they were still working airplanes.

He covered it up with vegetation to make it look like it was a real plane that was functioning and someone tried to hide it from view of whoever flew over. And sure enough, the US came and would just shoot up the planes. O'Natha felt really good because he felt he was wasting the enemy's ammo. The only problem with that though was that O'Natha probably didn't know at the time that US factories had cranked out 41 billion bullets during World War II, 10 for every man, woman, and child on the planet. So you could have

killed every single person on the planet and still miss 9 times per person. And that's not including the bombs. That's just regular ammo. Yeah, and at one point, he did study the bullets and he realized the US was wasting naval ammo, which was considered highly coveted and more precious and more powerful in the Japanese army. And the US was just f***ing around. Just shooting everything up with really precious, expensive ammo, because they just had so much ammo.

And that's when he's like f***ing kind of in over my head right now. Like I got 50 dudes here who just want to go home. And the US is shooting at us with some precious ammo. Like they're just using it like water. So it was only a matter of time before the US touches down on Lubong Island and invades the Philippines completely. And or not is prepping for that dreadful day. He ordered the mayor of Lubong. Yeah, there's still civilians on the island because where are you going to go just because it's war times where are you going to go? It's terrifying and scary for them.

Listen, I don't know. The nuances, the every little thing that's going on. But I imagine the civilians must have had some anger of like what? We got Japanese troops here, American troops shooting at like everybody. Hello, like as a civilian and you're not involved in politics, you're just like, hello? We don't even have much skin in the game right now. What's going on?

He ordered the mayor to give them 50 sacks of rice, which is a lot. These islanders are not doing well. They're just regular farmers. Every sack of rice is, it could be life or death in their livelihood, But the mayor agreed. But after that, they said we're done. We're not gonna help the Japanese troops anymore.

Not that they wanted to in the first place. I mean, the islanders would make excuses. Like, we can't transport the rice to you during the day. The Americans are gonna kill us. At night, we only work during full moon because we can't see. It's like a 25 year old thing, so I can't go out tonight.

I'm grounded. Like, you know, it's an excuse, but what can you say? So they're just being cornered. Let's just say it's not going great for the Japanese troops in Luba, and I think that's another reason the islanders didn't feel that intimidated anymore. Because they didn't really know which side was winning, and to make it worse, Onauta found Japanese soldiers striking up deals with the islanders, and it was by far some of the worst deals he had ever seen. An entire sack like a 10 pound bag of rice for a small packet of sugar.

Yeah, the troops wanted sugar. Oh, they want sugar. Yeah. So they were giving up one of 50 packs of rice for a small packet of sugar. Like, are you kidding me? At one point, O'Notta just wish the enemy would invade. At least maybe that way, the men would come together

to fight for Japan because they were acting like a bunch of teenagers and not men in war. A month later his wish came true, about 50 American soldiers landed on Lubang Island, and O'Notta was confused. Only 50 men? I mean, they've heard stories about how big and vast and powerful the US military is. 50 men, I mean sure it's a small island, but they've got soldiers for days. What do you mean 50 American soldiers?

Is this a trap? Surely it's a trap. They would send more than 50. The great American army that he had heard so much, no, where the rest? One of the other, lieutenants was eager though. 50 Americans? I only need 15 of my best to wipe out all 50. He's like no, don't do it.

You can bet that another crew is gonna land at another point in the island and we're gonna be ambushed. We're gonna be separated and ambushed. We just need to wait and see. Ah, don't worry, Lieutenant O'Nata, 50 or 100 Americans. Well, he used a slur instead of the word Americans, he used. Listen, I don't know if it's a slur. I think it's a debated slurs, so I'm not going to use it, but it's Y-A-N-K-E-E, like the baseball team, but I don't know. He said 50 or a hundred of them don't matter, they all amount to a small fart, we'll wipe them out at no time. And with that, the lieutenant hopped into his car with 15 men and left O'Noughta in the

dust. Each one of those men only had one rifle and they shared one heavy machine gun. That is not good considering how much Americans love their machine guns. I'm literally American, okay? So we can't take digs at ourselves now. What's going on? Don't be mad. So that night, the bombs came and they came so hard O'Noughta said he shook the entire night from the vibrations.

The ear splitting sound was so much. He watched the whole town closest to him go up in a smoke. He saw chunks of palm trees, houses just flying up in the air. Wait, how did they do that? America was bombing the island, just throwing a box. I see, I see, it's not the 50 people. No, just air strikes. The raid lasted two hours. They opened fire and the Americans opened fire on O'Noughta's camp. They tried to hide as best as they could, but the US Army was dropping 200 pound parachute bombs onto the nearby areas. O'Noughta was shocked just at how aggressively they were being attacked, and again, the machine guns that they had. I mean, the fact that they had so many machine guns, or not, I was like, do they just

can have like five machine guns per army soldier because this is ridiculous. He was shocked that the US was waving machine gun ammo to fight minimally armed foot soldiers. They weren't even the top of the crop. Like, they're not even fighting tanks. You're shooting at us with machine guns, and all I have is a revolver.

Like, that's he was shocked. And like I said, it was another moment for him to realize, OK, the US just has equipment in ammo to throw away. When it finally ended, a Japanese soldier ran to Onada, and he was one of the 15 that went with the other lieutenants. And he said, I'm the only one alive. They got us all. So Onada and the rest of the survivors,

they waited for the attacks to slow down and they found a way to sneak out. Now the way that this was happening is the US was not trying to kill everybody on site. They're just trying to listen, I'm not sure what they're trying to do because a lot of civilians were dying and infrastructure was being blown up, but they were just trying to take over without risking their own lives, if that makes any sense. So they're not trying to kill Onada in every single person that they see. So Onada finds a way to slip out and they try to look for the rest of the Japanese troops on the island. Onada said it was of the essence to get them organized or else they might as well all surrender together.

But they were just met with death. One group of 22 Japanese soldiers were lying out in a tent, bleeding to death. Their eyes were glazing over, their empty stairs. They got captivated or? One group of 22 Japanese soldiers were lying out in a tent bleeding to death. Their eyes were glazing over, their empty stairs. They got captivated or? They were just shot at. They were begging Onada to let them kill themselves and Onada agreed. He even made them promise though, don't detonate the dynamite that I'm leaving for you until you see the Americans.

That way I know if the Americans found our old base or not. Because, you know, they still had food there. So if there's food, they might go back for it. But if they see the base intact, that means maybe the Americans never came. They may be, maybe they don't know this place. But if the Americans did come and they see this gaping hole, then they know it's not safe to go back. Because there's probably troops nearby waiting for someone to come back. Oh, Nada would later return, and he would not find a tent or even 22 corpses. He would just find a gaping hole in the ground. As O'Nada went to find any other surviving Japanese members,

he saw gum wrappers on the ground, and he said that he was pissed. Now, again, I'm not taking any sides. I wasn't even alive for World War II, but just like think of this as a human standpoint. He was very pissed because he's seeing all of his fellow comrades dying and the enemy, which is the US at the time, they were just casually chewing gum. It was like a very weird feeling for him, he said.

Now, regardless of what side you're on, right? Obviously, we're all American here, but like you get what I'm saying. Like just a human feeling of imagining you're fighting for your life, and you know whoever's trying to kill you is chewing gum. That's terrifying. Now, Onoda learned that he was only about 60 Japanese soldiers left on the entire island, and he was the only officer left alive. The other higher ranks were killed during raids,

died of illnesses, or were killed in attempts to storm the Americans. And like this, things went quite for a month. So I know that sounds like a long time, but like I said, during one of the raids, a US soldier was killed. And the US took it really hard. I guess they didn't think it was worth it to rush the ambush of such a small island that was so minuscule in terms of their strategy and war that they didn't really want to go so hard. They don't want to go all out. They wanted to play it safe so they didn't lose any men. Onoda agreed with their plan. He said it was a smart plan even. And besides, he had to admit, his troops were truly pathetic at this point.

They were about 20 soldiers remaining, so out of the 60, a lot of them separated, a lot of them were surrendering themselves, a lot of them were trying to sneak off the island, a lot of them died. It was getting to the point where these remaining 20 soldiers, they would count out the grains of rice and if someone got a few more grains, a fight would break out. And soon enough, Onada found himself alone with private class official Kuzuka and Shimada and Akatsu. Now, I'm going to call them K-S and A. So Shimada S was kind of the glue of the group. He was super talkative and surprisingly cheerful considering the circumstances. He loved to talk

about his pregnant wife. He wondered out loud about what kind of gender or baby they're gonna have. He already had a daughter. He was dying to know the gender of a second baby. Sometimes he would just look down at his feet and say, my daughter, wow, I guess she's at the age to like boys now, when you would just stare off at his feet. S was also the best shooter of the group, he had come from a farming family and they had to learn to offend for themselves. He also knew how to weave straw sandals and he taught onada. K was the opposite, he wasn't open nor talkative. He only talked when someone asked him a question,

but he also came from a farming family. A well-off one, actually. He had a race horse, which at the time is like owning a race car. A race horse. Not a working horse, but a race horse. And then a katsu. A katsu is a city boy, and that's not a good thing in war. He was the weakest of the bunch, and they always worried about him because you're only as strong as your weakest man. Yeah, so the group thought A was bringing them down and he could feel that tension for sure. They lived on coconuts, and I know it's given Palmyra Island, remember that? They lived on coconuts, they tried to ration out whatever remaining rice that they had. Sometimes they were able to gun down a cow of one of the locals. Yeah, just took one of the cows out. It sounds like not a big deal in times of war, but that farmer could lose everything by

losing one cow. Like they could lose their house, their family, their business, everything. They could starve to death. So I digress. After about 10 months of being on the island, Onada saw his first leaflet, a flyer of sorts. The flyer came down from the sky, like airplanes were flying by just releasing flyers into the mountains. And the flyer was urging Japanese troops to surrender.

They're like, what the heck? No. Soon after, when they passed by some locals, so at this point, they still think the locals are on their side. You know, that's why the Japanese army was even in the Philippines in the first place. But then they were given a note by the locals that said, the war ended August 15th, come down from the mountains. And onada was like, what?

No, it didn't. No, the war didn't end. Nobody believed it. What are you talking about? We just heard gunfire just a few days ago. A few Japanese soldiers were gunned down by the US troops. I mean, what else was that sound? Why else would that happen if it wasn't still wartime? I mean, sure, the gunshots were getting fewer and further in between, but this was all psychological warfare and ONADA knew it. They were trying to lure the remaining soldiers out of the woods to their death, to capture them. ONADA found another flyer, and that one said,

anyone whose surrenders will be hauled back to Japan. ONADA thought that was strange.ers will be hauled back to Japan. Oh, not at all strange. They're gonna haul us back to Japan. Like where cargo? The other three guys, they agreed. Your only cargo if you're dead. They all agreed that all the flyers were propaganda. Warfare.

And this is how they kept getting flyers in leaflets. Sometimes they just saw them laying around. Sometimes locals handed it to them. Sometimes they fell from the sky. They were told over and over and over for the next 30 years that the war was over, but each time they disregarded it as propaganda, as fake news. This case is often studied as one of the most extreme forms and examples of confirmation bias. Do you guys know what that is? Let's say I think a lot of it is used in politics, but we won't go there.

Let's say I think that my dogs are the smartest dogs in the world. Every time that my dogs do anything remotely smart, it confirms my bias that I believe they're the smartest dogs in the world. And then if I see another dog on the street who happens to be rolling around and I'm like, oh, not a classy dog, not as smart as my dog, it only confirms. Everything that I see in the world, I'm trying to make it fit my story. My bias that my dogs are the smartest dogs in the world. So that's what they're doing. They're finding other evidence that says otherwise, but they're saying, no, no, it's fake because they worded it like this or they said this or this is that. They're just constantly finding ways to confirm their belief that the war is still raging. But they're saying, no, no, it's fake because they worded it like this or they said this or this is that. They're just constantly finding ways

to confirm their belief that the war is still raging. Even when presented with the exact opposite evidence, it's crazy. Onada would disregard them for the next 30 years. He wouldn't believe a single one. But others did, about 41 Japanese soldiers surrendered due to the leaflets. They had been hiding out in the mountains.

Onada and his group would even hear the voices sometimes. It'd be in Japanese. Come out, come out! Nobody's searching for you, except for us! It's the Japanese, we're part of you, like, come on out! Onada didn't believe it. Neither did it as men. If they were Japanese, because they did sound like native speakers, it's because they

were working for the other side now. Or maybe they had a gun to their head when we're forced to say these things. They believed that they were the last ones to provide any resistance to the island of Lubong. They were Japan's hope to make sure that the island wasn't taken over by US troops, and they held on to this belief for 30 years. All four of them. Wow. Well, they would all be picked off one by one. So I mean sure they weren't

doing a good job, but they were the only hope. That's what they kept telling themselves. So the four of them tried their best to stick to their mission. They kept track of every single day that they were in the mounds, which was surprisingly accurate. In close to 30 years, Onada was only off by six days. The group moved around regularly. Shimada was doing all the hard work, a caught suit taking charge of gathering chores and firewood and bringing water. Onada and Kozuka made tools, stood guard, planned the next moves. Onada was the highest rank and leader by default, but he was very careful to never give orders. He thought the most important was for everybody to stay alive and stay healthy. Onada also cleaned his gun every single day, 365 days a year for 30 years, in case he had

to shoot at people. Which he did. Oh yeah, we'll get into that. So each man had two hand grenades, two pistols, and that's really all they had to arm themselves. When they ran out of their three-month supply of rice, they raided local's houses. It was pretty bad. They were also mad at the locals for acting like they were on the other side now.

Suddenly it seemed like the locals weren't friendly towards them. That they were swayed by the Americans. I mean it got to the point where Onada was more careful around the locals than if he saw an American walking around. So they stole from the islanders for food, but also fabric if they needed to patch up their clothes. They stole tires and sneakers. They would make their own sandals with it.

They took the souls of the sneakers and made straps from the tires. But still, food was their biggest concern. They were mainly eating bananas and coconuts. They would eat the banana peel and all. If the bananas weren't ripe enough, they would slice them into little medallions, wash them thoroughly in a running stream to get rid of the bitterness, boil them with coconut water, and the result was that of kind of like the taste of overcooked sweet potatoes. It wasn't great, but it was better than starving. Salt was a real treat to them. They called it magic medicine, which salt is good for you in certain quantities. But you know, they only could get a cup a year per person. For

reference, the average person consumes over 3 pounds of salt per year. So they're just using tiny pinches of salt. Whatever meat they could get, they would. I mean, if that meant killing a local farmer's cow or trying to kill a wild iguana, they did it. Then unlike it, though, they also targeted buffaloes and horses. Buffaloes had a weird taste to them and horse meat had a very strong unpleasant odor. That's what he said.

But then in came the ants. There were so many different varieties of stinging ants on the island. Some of them stung as painfully as bees. They always exaggerated and said, Loubang Island was a giant ant hill. But the ants were better than the rats and the centipedes. O'Natta was bitten by centipedes a few times and he said they were the worst. They would make your entire body swell, oh I'm getting itchy, and it would take months for you to heal the bite of a centipede.

Oh, and don't even mention the snakes. Some of the snakes were as thick as grown man thighs, like a ripped guy, a shredded thigh, the thigh of an Instagram model that has never skipped a leg day. Thankfully water was never an issue since they always had fresh running water on the island, which they regularly tried to brave in. They didn't have soap, but they tried to be as clean as possible. If they could find kelp, they would rub it on their bodies. It was pretty rare, but it felt good. They would brush their teeth with palm tree fibers, which acted like a dental floss of sorts.

I mean, they were resourceful, but it was an intense, probably horrendous way to live. Constantly thinking about not only survival, but where your enemies were, the thought of being ambushed and killed at any given moment. And that's why I think none of them were surprised when a katsu left the group. He told them this kind of life was too much for me, even in the beginning, like just war was never my forte. I'm going to turn myself in. Later they actually received a letter somehow, um, whether it was left at an old campground, I don't know, but somehow

they got a letter from Akatsu and it said, When I surrendered, the Philippine troops greeted me as a friend. Okay, yeah, not gonna lie, this letter was a little strange, but it only got weirder. Three days later they could hear a voice through loud speakers. The voice set in Japanese yesterday, we dropped leaflets from an airplane, you have 3 days, 72 hours to come out. In the event that you do not come out, we will probably have no alternative but to send a task force after you. I mean what? Sure, the voice spoke in Japanese, but it couldn't be a true Japanese person

because no Japanese person would say 72 hours. That's some shit that Americans say. Sounded suspiciously American to them. And then they saw it. Akatsu walking around with loudspeakers on his shoulders with islanders through the woods. And they felt betrayed. Because remember they thought the islanders were against them. They were working with the Americans, and now Akatsu is with them.

Trying to catch them. That wasn't true. Akatsu came out, realized the war was over and the islanders were like, let's help get your friends out. And he was like, yeah, good idea. They're going to be so excited that the war is over. And then the three of them were like, oh my god, they're working with the Americans. This is crazy. Yeah. So Kazuka said, they can't take us prisoner with a force of 50 or even a hundred men. We know this island better than anybody else in the world now.

The three felt even more passionate and determined not to surrender. And now that they knew that the islanders were working against them, they wanted to open fire on any islander that came near them because they were dangerous. They were as dangerous as American troops. This is why I'm like, I think that they're just war criminals. I don't think that they're war heroes. From being honest. Then an aircraft from the Philippine Air Force circled the island and another loudspeaker

sounded like they were calling names out into the field. They dropped leaflets from the sky and Onada picked one up and it was a letter from his brother. What? His eldest brother. Onada couldn't believe it. Tosio said that the war had ended. Their parents were doing well

and all the brothers were now out of the army, except O'Natta. He even included some family pictures. There were letters for even the other two men. They had been in the mountains for seven years now. They said the war ended seven years ago. They hadn't seen their family in so long. And first, O'Notta thought, wow.

The Americans have really done themselves. I wonder how they got these photos. They all believed it was some sort of hoax. Another scheme to get them out of the mountains. They ignored it. And a month later, another voiceover allowed speaker. It was a man's voice. He kept repeating that he was Japanese

and he wanted to talk to the men. He worked for a big Japanese newspaper station. And of course, they ignored it. And a newspaper dropped from the sky, not like directly onto them, because they don't know the location. But airplanes would drop leaflets and flyers near where they assumed a lot of these Japanese hideouts would be, which was closer to freshwater.

So they find this newspaper, and they read it. It talked of the war being over. And they agreed, this is poisoned candy. It's a fake newspaper. So sometimes the men would stumble upon nude photos of women. They're like, I knew it. I knew it. All of this has been the American way.

The Americans, they always did love sex more than anyone else. They truly think that we're going to be lured out by some sex and some sexy pictures. Dumb Americans, only Americans would be lured out by some nude and some sexy pictures, dumb Americans, only Americans would be lured out by some nude photos. Now we know for sure, now this confirms in our heads that anything left behind was by the Americans. Could it just been a 14 year old Islander who's like, I can't hide these from my mom. But um, yeah. Remember how Akatsu left? Well, the other two they were killed one by one over the next 30 years Till O'Nada was completely alone

Shimada was killed first and it was about 10 days after his death more loud speakers came on and leaflets O'Nada, Kazuka, the war has ended and this really infuriated the two men because they thought obnoxious Americans You need to stop playing stupid tricks. Our friend just died. This is real life. This isn't gonna work. In fact, if anything, we're more pissed and determined now. How do he die? He was shot by a local, I believe, because, yeah, well, I'll explain why.

So they even tried playing the Japanese national anthem and, like, these ideas, I don't believe you, but then a voice came on. And the voice felt like it was drowning the mountains, even though surely it wasn't, but it was his brother's voice. Onada's brother's voice, Toshio. Hito, come out. This is your brother. Kazuka's brother is here with me.

We've been looking for you. It's our last day on the island before we have to go back to Japan. Please come out. We need to see you. Onada thought it was a voice actor. He would not fall for it. It's not Toshio and he knew that. Onada would not learn until decades later

that it really was his brother. So looking from the outside perspective, it's obviously insane that Onada, Shimada, and Kazuka never surrendered. But it's also important to remember, and I don't think that this justifies anything, but it is some context. In the early 1940s, Japan had been gearing up

for a glorious victory. When he went into the woods, Japan seemed from their perspective to be winning. And every country wants to win, and Japan was very intense in their training. They were always taught this saying during the army trainings, 100 million souls dying for honor. It made the younger generation swell with pride and determination.

It literally meant an entire Japanese population would die first before surrendering, because they had one million civilians, one hundred million civilians. So they genuinely thought, no way would Japan ever surrender to the US. There's just no way. So this all sounds like a crazy lie. It's just not going to happen. Like Japan would die before they surrender. That's what they were taught. And they felt like if Japan had surrendered, it meant that every

single Japanese citizen had died. And now that means they're the only Japanese citizens alive, which means Japan didn't really surrender then, till they surrender. Yeah, I know. It's a lot. That was the mindset at the time. And I think all these leaflets and flyers that were targeted towards them even confirmed This feeling of like you know, they're really betting on us to surrender because we're the last Japanese people alive in the entire planet Would Japanese citizens alive in the entire planet? Wow Yeah, uh-huh and every single one that they got because they got a lot

They started convincing themselves that it was fake. They would say things like, oh, this one is written by my cousin, but my cousin's name is Nori. Why did he sign it his full name, Noriko? That's just too much. I never called him Noriko. And why did they write Onada-san's family? I mean, Onada's family could have just suffice. The son adds nothing to it.

It's too formal. It's like no Japanese person would write it this formal. They would just write Onada's family, not Onatasans family. Unless whoever wrote it is not a native Japanese speaker. I mean, it was like these small things. They were analyzing every single detail. They also thought that the quality of the paper was bad. Maybe the Americans were doing this to other Japanese soldiers that potentially were holding it out in the woods to lure them out. As to how they got the family pictures, well, the families were probably forced to hand them over,

but they always had another family member in the picture. So, O'Nada's family pictures wouldn't just be his mom and dad and brother. It would be like his mom, dad, brothers, and an uncle. So to him, maybe the family was sending him a signal. By including an uncle, it would never tip off the Americans, but it would tip him off. Neither of them would ever dream that two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan, and that the Japanese navy

fleets had been sunk. So you're like, but it's suspicious that they wanted them so bad, like the, you know, why would the Americans want them so bad? Well, let me explain. Oh, not because you could work committing war crimes. I mean, straight up, it's that were committing war crimes. I mean straight up. It's that they killed at least 30 locals for no reason. The Philippine President knew about them.

They were like, we need to get these cars out of here. They're just killing my citizens. They refused to leave our land. They're breaking into local homes. They're killing cows for food. They're destroying these farmers' businesses during harvest time because they thought they were in a time of war. They would pile up rice that was harvested, these farmers. And Onada and his guy, Kazuku, they would go and just burn the rice grains. For no reason. They fired at farmers who were just innocently living their lives on their land. At one point, they took a villager hostage and innocent villager. They took a hostage. They let him go eventually, but they took a hostage.

Once a nice villager fed the two a nice hot meal, and they still tried to kidnap him in his daughter. Like, none of this makes sense to me. Completely unjustified. They were really ruining the locals' lives. They refused to leave their land, the locals' land, and accept that this war is fucking over for the past couple decades. It was terrifying, it was frightening, and accept that this war is fucking over for the past couple decades.

It was terrifying, it was frightening, but it was also insane. Like get out, dude. That's what they're thinking. And Japan was trying hard to get them out because it was not a great look. You know, the Philippines is like, hello, can you do something? This is insane. They also couldn't just send people in there because these two guys think it's wartime And they're gonna shoot everybody up. So it's a very tricky business

Yeah And if you ask a nada, don't you think it's weird? That if they're powerful enough to get pictures of your family that they would just send a task force to come kill you He would say it's because they want to take us alive. We have valuable information. They want to capture us So nada and Kuzuka even made a pact. If they were surrounded, they would initiate a suicide mission to take out as many of the enemy as possible. Like I get PTSD, I get that war times are not normal times.

It does things to your brain. It really shapes your brain. But 30 innocent lives who had nothing to do with the war, the lives of locals taken on their land by some dudes that even with countless attempts to tell them that the war is over Refused to listen to stubborn to listen at this point. I think like after a year or two like maybe a local could be like You know what that's not okay, but I can see how it happened But after 20 something years you like get them out. I don't care, get them out. I mean, that's war crimes to me, no? The locals call them mountain devils, and they hated them.

Once the two guys broke into a local's home, turned on the TV, and all the radio stations were talking about the rebuilding effects of war, because you know, yeah, it had been two decades, but still, you need a lot of time to rebuild after the war, especially in the eastern part of the world, like in Asia and stuff, there was a lot, but it insinuated the wars over. And even then, they just assumed that the American somehow manipulated the radio waves. They, I mean, the amount of mental cartwheels they were doing,

and then, Kuzuka was killed by the police when they were trying to raid a farmer's house. And O'Neato was was shocked, Kazuka was gone, and for the first time ever in 28 years, he was now alone. Soon after, another search party came for Onada. Onada-san, wherever you are, come out, we guarantee your safety.

He heard his brother's voice, then his sisters, but he refused to believe it was them. He believed the Americans hired voice actors that sounded like his siblings. After 28 years. I think in the beginning, they genuinely believed it. Like this is fake. But I think at some point, it went from not even genuinely believing that this is fake and they're being lured out, but having to believe that because what was the last seven years

then? What was the last 10 years? What was the last 20 something years? Like now you just have to go with it. I just can't imagine your brain would suddenly be like, wait, you know what, let me forget the last 20 years. I literally willingly put myself through this. And maybe it's real. So he, this was the time that he said he was somewhat tempted to come out, but he couldn't.

He said he knew it was a trap. So he spent his very first new years alone. It was incredibly lonely. And then another voice. His other brother, who used the nickname that he used to call him as a kid. We're looking for your brother. If a soldier points their gun at you, I will step in front of it to prevent him from shooting. I swear we're trying to help. I know Kuzuka was killed in front of your eyes and you won't believe anything I say. But please, if you don't get in touch with us, there's nothing we can do. Be brave!

Act like an officer! Onada took this as a secret message. Be brave. Act like an officer. His brother was telling him to stay put. Do not surrender. Onada was now 52 years old. His dad even came by and dropped off more clothes for him in the woods with a note.

Or at least that's what the note said like, Hi, it's your dad, miss you. So now onada is middle aged and kind of starting to doubt his own conspiracy, just a little bit, but not enough. And after 14 months of being alone, he runs into a Japanese tourist, a tourist, a Japanese tourist. A tourist? A tourist, a photographer tourist.

And he had heard of Onauta hiding in the woods here. I mean, everybody in Japan knew this story of like some mountain devils refusing to come out of the woods in the Philippines. It's like an urban legend. So he's like, is this real or you own not a son? Yeah. Oh my god, really like lieutenant Onauta. This is real like that, I was an urban legend. Oh my god, really like lieutenant. Oh, not this is real. I thought I was an urban legend. Oh my god This is crazy. I know you've had a long time, but the war is over. Truly. Will you please just come back to Japan with me?

No, I cannot the war is not over not till I'm relieved of my orders. There must be proper orders I'd refuse to believe the war is over sir. What do you plan to do here like die? I will if I don't have orders to not die here They give you so much order. Yeah So so if I get orders for you, will you leave? Yes, from my commander. Major Taniguchi is my immediate superior. I won't give it until I get direct orders from him that the war is over. Sir, the people of Japan and the Emperor, they're very worried for you. But they will not believe that I met you unless I take a picture. Will you allow me? Or not I was suspicious, but he allowed it.

And without the tourists left and they had this meeting spot that they would go to one day if the tourists could bring back the major. In less than three weeks, they would meet at that spot and they're in a tent. Major Taniguchi came out and he stood before Onada. And Onoda said in that moment he was looking for something. A secret message, a secret code to tell him, this is all the rules. The tourists is our enemy, stay in your position. But nothing, there was no conspiracy.

There was no secret message. Japan had lost the war. They had surrendered. Thirty years ago. Thirty years ago. Okay, what was he thinking? What was being said? He felt so humiliated and shocked and like why did I waste my life for 30 years?

Onoda had met with the president of the Philippines who I guess on good relations with Japan Decided to pardon him for the murders of the locals He said he was surprised nobody tried to kill him for all the trouble he caused. I am surprised too. Onoda went back to Japan where this part is very questionable. He received a hero's welcome, which like is weird because the guy killed a ton of people. He was awarded a military pension and signed a $200,000 contract for his book No Surrender, which is why I don't know if I recommend you reading it because this is technically a war criminal, right? He tried to live a normal life after that, but it was

hard. He hated the New Japan, that's what he called it. He hated all the tall skyscrapers and cars in Tokyo. He hated TVs. He hated that this is what he fought so hard for, which is such a weird thing to say. In older years, he moved to Brazil to be with his brother. There he wanted to start a farm, and I don't know if that happened, but he did die in 2014 at the old age of 91 years old.

He died of fart, fart failure, heart failure. And yeah, this is the craziest story of confirmation bias I've ever heard. I mean, as someone aptly put it, this guy wasn't fighting the war. He was fighting reality. I think there is a lot of psychological things that play. I would love to see someone who is a lot more educated in psychology than I am, like I'm self taught on Google and barely that. But it's fascinating to see not only the confirmation bias, but there is almost a strong ego mania at play at believing that he is someone so important in the grand scheme of things. The same in Japan. Exactly. There is almost like this.

The suffering is not meant for nothing. And I am bound destined almost to be somebody that is gonna save Japan. So there's a lot of... Yeah, there is the egomania aspect to it. I also think that later on it becomes just the sheer thought your brain can't go back. Your brain has suffered enough. I mean, how can you truly go back and say, I was dumb. That was dumb.

It's like when you're in a fight and you realize halfway through, you're so wrong, but you already fought so hard for this. Now you're like, damn, okay, I have a choice. I either apologize and not humiliating, or I fight to the death on this one random issue that I really don't care about and I was wrong anyway. And I think he chose to fight to the death. I'm just surprised, but a lot of people, um, they post about him like he's a war hero. It's kind of crazy. He's more so a war criminal if anything. Listen, I have sympathy.

I have sympathy for anyone that survived a war. Well, maybe not anyone, but I sympathy for most people that fought in a war because just the PTSD alone. But this one is weird. And I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye! just the PTSD alone, but this one is weird. And I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye.