Japan Surrendered
Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, but Onoda and his team were not aware of this. Everyone back home assumed they were dead. But they were very much alive and attacking Filipinos. Then in October 1945, Onoda found leaflets that told him the war was over, but he refused to believe that Japan would have surrendered, so his team continued to attack people randomly for several years. And the Filipino government knew they had to convince these soldiers that they were no longer enemies.