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Mia's uncle bled to death. She wants to set the record straight about why
Hiroo Onoda, the man blamed for killing Mia Stewart's great-uncle, was hailed as a war hero in Japan. She says he was a soldier who went rogue, killing people long after the war was over.
Published 16 October 2022 7:55am
By Sandra Fulloon
Source: SBS News
Image: Mia Stewart in Melbourne. (SBS News / Scott Cardwell)
Emilio Viaña was having lunch on Lubang Island in the Philippines when a shot rang out from the jungle nearby. The bullet hit him in the leg, severing a major artery.
His sons, who were out farming sweet potatoes with him, rushed over to help as he bled profusely. They did their best, but Emilio wouldn’t make it. He was 42.
It was 1951, and Emilio's death would go on to impact his family for generations.
“Not only did [his sons] witness his murder, but as the heads of the family, they had to stay on the island and support their mother and younger siblings. So they could not continue their education in Manila,” says Mia Stewart.
Emilio was Mia’s great-uncle, the eldest brother of her grandfather. His killer was allegedly one of Japanese history’s most controversial characters: Hiroo Onoda.
Mia with school children on Lubang Island. Credit: Mia Stewart
The 37-year-old was born in the Philippines to an Australian father and moved to Melbourne as a child.
“When I first heard about my great-uncle’s death from my mother, I was shocked and angry because he was just an innocent person who was working on a farm. He was unarmed and he was basically killed in cold blood.”
He was just an innocent person who was working on a farm ... and he was basically killed in cold blood.- Mia Stewart
Mia is now living in Los Angeles, where she works in TV, and is piecing together a documentary about her great uncle and Onoda.
The legend of Onoda has been celebrated this year in the novel The Twilight World, written by German film director Werner Herzog, and in the recent film by French director Arthur Harari, Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle.
Mia Stewart moved to Australia as a child and now works a sound editor in the US. Credit: SBS / Scott Cardwell
Along with a small band of Imperial Japanese Army stragglers, Onoda allegedly killed up to 30 Filipino civilians on Lubang Island over three decades - during and after World War II.
Mia's great-uncle Emilio died on 8 March 1951, almost six years after Japan surrendered, and that’s where Onoda’s legacy becomes controversial.
Filipinos were part of the Allied campaign to defeat Imperial Japanese forces occupying the Philippines during the war. But why did Onoda and his men allegedly continue shooting civilians decades after the widely publicised Japanese surrender?
Hiroo Onoda as a young soldier.
Mia has returned to Lubang Island several times and interviewed the families of Onoda’s alleged victims over a 15-year-period, searching for clues.
“When my grandfather was shot, my father Protacio carried him to the seashore, to ride in a boat,” Emilio’s grandson and Mia's uncle, Emilex, says in an interview for her documentary, Searching for Onoda.
Emilio Viaña's grandsons, Emilex (left) and Millandro. Credit: Mia Stewart
Associate Professor Beatrice Trefalt from Melbourne’s Monash University has written a book about Japanese army stragglers and says Onoda’s behaviour was the result of his Imperial Japanese military training.
“Japanese soldiers were not allowed to surrender. Onoda was encouraged to continue fighting, behind the lines and engaging in guerrilla warfare.”
Japanese soldiers were not allowed to surrender. Onoda was encouraged to continue fighting.- Associate Professor Beatrice Trefalt
According to military sources, Onoda was posted to Lubang Island in late 1944, during World War II. He was ordered to undermine enemy American forces with guerilla attacks and await the triumphant return of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Professor Trefalt says Onoda's orders also stated that under no circumstances was he to surrender or take his own life.
Associate Professor Beatrice Trefalt. Credit: Beatrice Trefalt / Monash University
Although the Japanese army dropped leaflets, sent search parties and broadcast announcements about the war’s end, Onoda rejected the materials as enemy propaganda and his band continued to target civilians.
“They weren't just shootings, there were very violent killings that involved beheadings and mutilating bodies,” Mia says.
“We will never really know if Onoda knew the war was over or not. Regardless, he killed civilians. While I can't undo those deaths, I can change how we tell the story.”
She’s making her documentary, she says, for the descendants of those who were killed.
“Seeing their reaction while finally telling their stories for the first time, made me realise how important it is to be able to give them a voice.”
Hiroo Onoda surrendered in 1974, aged 52, and was pardoned by then-Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos. It was another blow to the Filipino families who had lost loved ones.
“Of course, people from Lubang were really upset that Onoda was pardoned so quickly,” says former Lubang Island mayor ‘Rudy’ Augustine Aguilar.
“Life was already hard here on the island and Onoda’s presence made life harder. People were really angry inside about what happened,” he tells Mia in her documentary.
Hiroo Onoda surrendered in 1974. Credit: AP Photo/Kyodo News
“Onoda was a hero that post-war Japan needed. But he is not the hero in the stories of my uncles and cousins, my grandparents and my mother,” Mia says.
Professor Trefalt says: “Onoda later claimed that he didn't know the war was over, yet [during his years on Lubang Island] he had access to newspapers. He was carrying a transistor radio”.
Onoda later moved to Brazil to farm cattle and wrote a memoir that became an international bestseller. It made little mention of the deaths on Lubang Island.
Mia's uncle Bernardo 'Nardo' Canals. Credit: Mia Stewart
"There was a lot left out of his book," he told Mia before his death last year. "Where are all the violations against human rights? It has been omitted from history."
Even in Japan, there were conflicting views of events on Lubang Island. Many saw Onoda as a bitter reminder of Imperial thinking and a war that was lost.
“When Onoda returned to Japan some people did ask: ‘what about the people of Lubang? What about the murders he committed? What about compensation for these families?” says Professor Trefalt. “But very soon those questions were overshadowed by a bigger story: ‘Who is this guy? Is he fantastic or is he in fact a terrible reminder of the war?'
“I do wonder if it was a sense of a shared psychosis, in a way, where two or three or four soldiers hang together and maintain an idea that they just keep wanting to believe.
“Even so, it is very hard to imagine, in the face of all other evidence, how [Onoda and the others] could not just hide, but actually attack local people, steal their belongings, kill their cattle, and ultimately kill people.”
Hoping to confront Onoda about his purpose, Mia went to see him in Tokyo in 2014 when Onoda was 91. But he was too sick to meet her and died days later, leaving many questions unanswered.
“I was very lost because I had messages from the islanders in my head,” Mia says. “And I was ready to confront him with all their pain and ask him about his time on the island and whether or not he knew the war was over.”
In an interview with Mia, director Arthur Harari describes his film about Onoda as "fiction inspired by history".
“It is the best possible film for me. It is a romantic point of view. Whatever way you take it, I take him as a romantic mythical figure.
“It is not possible to really depict somebody that lived. You can make the choice to try to be the closest possible. I projected on him a fictional character, which had to do with some of my obsessions and my vision of life."
Publicity materials for Herzog's novel say it reflects on the "purpose and meaning we give our lives". But Mia rejects any romanticising.
“Who paid the price for Onoda’s 30-year war? My great-uncle did with his life, and so did a reported 29 or more civilians and countless others who were maimed and injured.
“So no, to me Onoda was not a hero.”
The families of Onoda’s alleged victims still need answers, she says.
“There is a frustration and an anger simmering underneath the surface of the Filipino people.”
“In a wider context, these civilian deaths were swept under the rug, in favour of a different narrative.”
Professor Trefalt says naming Onoda's alleged victims is one way to honour their suffering and loss.
“We all feel outrage over how Japanese people paid little attention to Onoda’s impact. And we need to be mindful of who gets to speak, and who gets to record their point of view as history. It is always a story of power.”
“Onoda’s victims are not only my family members but other people who have suffered in silence for decades,” Mia says.
“For me, it is finally time to tell their story.”
Mia hopes to complete her documentary, Searching for Onoda, in 2023.
Would you like to share your story with SBS News? Email yourstory@sbs.com.au
Correction: a previous version of this story said Emilio Viaña's death came six months after Japan surrendered instead of almost six years.
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