[King Prout]

wierd... just last week I was asking my stepdad when the last such surrender occured...

[Defiant]

The last one that I recall was in the 70s. That was considered pretty amazing back then. The guy was in all the news magazines. If this is real, then these guys are way more nuts than that guy. I'm wondering if these aren't just guys who deserted and got a native girl and a hut and settled down, and who now want to go home.

[Nowhere Man]

wierd... just last week I was asking my stepdad when the last such surrender occured...

The only case I know of was in 1974 where one soldier did surrender. I remember reading it in "The People's Almanac #2" but I have to hunt the story down. I did a quick google and I found these on the case I'm referring to:

Second Leiutenant Hiroo Onoda
http://home.xnet.com/~warinner/surrender.html

If this story is true, it would be fascinating and I would love to hear the experiences these guys have to tell. I know there is an old joke, "there is always one man in the unit that has never heard the orders" but dang, this takes the cake. B-)

[Junior]

There was one about 10 years ago when a Japanese soldier offered to surrender, but only if his superior officer gave him the order. The lieutenant in charge of his unit was still alive and hauled out of retirement to order the guy to surrender.

[IonImplantGuru]

wierd... just last week I was asking my stepdad when the last such surrender occured...

You got me curious; the most recent I could find was 1980 at this site. There have been others reported since but either the reports were false, or they weren't true 'hold-outs' - rather military that knew the war was over, but just didn't care to go home to Japan.

[Cementjungle]

wierd... just last week I was asking my stepdad when the last such surrender occured...

Please ask your stepdad when the last Crusades were.

[Vigilanteman]

The last documented surrender was Sergeant Soichi Yokoi who hid in the jungles of Guam between 1944 and 1975 unaware that World War II had ended. The Guam tourism association brought him back on a paid honeymoon and his cave is one of the destinations of Japanese and other tourists.