December 1944: in the final months of World War Two, a Japanese lieutenant named Hiroo Onoda was stationed on Lubang, a tiny island in the Philippines. Within weeks of his arrival, a US attack forced Japanese combatants into the jungle – but unlike most of his comrades, Onoda remained hidden on the island for nearly 30 years. The Japanese government declared him dead in 1959, but in reality, he was alive – committed to a secret mission that had instructed him to hold the island until the imperial army's return. He was convinced the whole time that the war had never ended.
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After the end of World War II, an extremist group of Japanese immigrants began spreading the rumor that Japan had not lost the war. According to them, the news of the Japanese emperor's surrender in 1945 were lies spread by the Allies to undermine Japanese morale.