The War Ended When?

This is your random fact/story of the day. For most of us, even those self-absorbed twenty-somethings born sometime in the 1980's, can answer when WWII ended (+/- 7 years or so). Or, at least, we can name the decade it ended (1940's). Apparently, a young 2nd Lt. of the Imperial Japanese Army didn't get the memo. Hiding in the jungles of the Philippines, Niroo Onoda never received formal orders to surrender. Leaflets were dropped, notes were left by locals that the war had ended, but the suspicious nature of both kept him in place. He was eventually declared legally dead in Japan in 1959. So, without formal orders, he continued to fight against the allied forces, evading local police, and subsisting off coconuts, bananas, and the occasional cow until 1974.

Yes, 1974.

Some of you reading this were born in the 70's. We went from wholesome oldies to dirty disco, the 1960's and all their hippie glory started and ended, the US was in the process of leaving Vietnam, and this guy was still fighting WWII.

The end of the war came for this guy when a young Japanese college drop out set out to travel the world. He wanted to find, "Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman, in that order." To his surprise, he found Lt. Onoda, and they became fast friends. Even though this presumably shaggy haired Japanese fellow showed up to tell him the war had long ended, he still refused to surrender. Upon returning to Japan and showing pictures to authorities, the government managed to find his commanding officer (now a bookseller). They flew him to the Philippines, where he ordered Lieutenant Onoda to lay down his arms. Upon surrendering, Lt. Onoda wept when he learned that the war was over, and not only was he still in uniform, they found 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand gernades still with him. Despite killing about 30 Philippine citizens during his 29 year ordeal, considering the circumstances, President Marcos pardoned Lt. Onoda, and he returned to Japan to a hero's welcome.

You gotta admire this guy, though; he remained dedicated and true to his orders and his country, and didn't let anyone convince him otherwise. You can read about his ordeal in a book he wrote soon after his return. No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War (ISBN-13: 978-1557506634) is available in paperback.

Lt. Onoda splits his time between Japan and Brazil with his wife.

Links:
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=253
http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/profiles/onoda.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda

Things About Philly

There are things I like and don't like about Philadelphia, such that the jury is still out as to whether I'll truly have a good time here, or will spend it holed up in my studio apartment after the sun goes down. It's that "bubble mentality" that six years in south Orange County will do to you. I feel as though my street smarts somehow disappeared, my urban awareness atrophied to the point that I've become one of them. You know who I'm talking about...can't figure out how to use a subway turnstile if their life depended on it, paralyzed with fright by the site of a few homeless people camped out on the sidewalk, etc... I'm sure it'll come back, slowly.

What I do like about Philly is its unpretentiousness, which is the complete opposite of its overrated/overpriced/overhyped neighbor to the north (NYC). It is what it is, take it, or go back to Jersey, you bum. The blocks are small, the streets even smaller, and there's plenty of places to eat that aren't either a Jack in the Box or Baja Fresh. You can stop in at Wawa at 2am for food (it's like a step up from a 7-11), or chat with the owner of his pizza place as he gives you all his food for cheap because it's closing time (true story). You can proudly proclaim your school has been around since 1824 (it has), or grumble that your apartment building built in 1924 is a rat hole; either way, when you think about it, chances are your previous place of residence was all dirt and no city.

In the end, I think I'll like it here, I'll just need to get used to a few elements of city life that I've been lulled into comfortable complacency with by living in Irvine. Somehow I've forgotten there exists poverty, crime, and funny smelling public transportation.

and an update on life

So since I last wrote in here, I got engaged =) Though if you're on Facebook, you probably heard the news/saw the announcement/saw the pictures...I thought I'd put it on blast up here, just for good measure.

We met our first year of college at UCI, but didn't really start hanging out until 4th year. To make a long story short, slowly but surely we made that all too familiar progression from friends, to close friends, to "oh shit, how did we get to this point?" friends. The only difference was...I think we actually said that! We soon found ourselves inexplicably drawn to each other, even after months and months, that fire still remained. The more I was with her, and the more I found out about her, the closer I found myself not wanting to let her go. We traveled the world... crossed the bridges of Venice (and hated it), craned our necks staring up under the dome of St. Peter's, walked barefoot on the beaches of Oahu, sat white knuckled while perilously driving on the winding cliffs of the Pacific coast, and traversed the mass humanity that is Yokohama station in search of food and electronics.

I had realized that I never wanted to do any of those things again without her next to me, ever. So on a summer's night in Del Mar, CA in a gawdy looking photobooth next to some grilled corn and underneath a bungee jump crane, I asked her for more adventures together, a lifetime to be exact. Well, actually, in the rush of things, I just asked her to marry me, but you know....same thing =)



So there she is, the love of my life, and she's mine!