Today in History - December 18: Last holdout from World War II made 'one simple wrong judgement'
Suniuo was viewed as a curiosity but not given a warm welcome on his return to Taiwan. US Naval Institute
A soldier on a remote island who hadn't been told World War II had ended surrendered to authorities on December 18, 1974.
Attun Palalin, also known as Suniuo, had spent decades in isolation on the Indonesian island of Morotai, still believing the war was raging on.
He frequently saw military planes flying overhead, believing them to belong to either the Japanese or the Allied forces.
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Molotai is an isolated island in the north of Indonesia. Adobe Stock
"I made one simple wrong judgment, and it cost me 30 years," Suniuo said later.
They actually belonged to the Indonesian Air Force, who had a base nearby.
Suniuo had joined the Japanese army in 1943.
An indigenous Taiwanese man, Suniuo did not speak a word of Japanese.
When Morotai was overrun by US and Australian forces, Suniuo and a group of others avoided capture.
He was declared dead by the Japanese army at the end of 1944.
Suniuo had written off leaflets dropped on the island announcing the end of the war as Allied propaganda to trick them into surrendering.
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Australian troops coming ashore on Morotai Island in modern-day Indonesia. Australian War Memorial
After spending more than 10 years living with the other soldiers, he set off on his own.
He lived in a hut on a diet of fish, bananas and sweet potatoes, cooking in the dark to avoid being spotted.
It was not until 1974 that locals on Morotai became aware of him.
Indonesian officials approached him bearing a Japanese flag and playing the Japanese anthem so he would not attack them.
In the end he surrendered.
He was given the option of going to Japan or returning to Taiwan, which was now an independent nation.
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Suniuo meeting his now-adult son for the first time, flanked by his supposedly widowed wife. Getty
He went back to his homeland to find out his parents were dead, his supposedly widowed wife had remarried, and his infant son now had four children of his own.
In that time, Taiwan had been established as the base of the Republic of China and had been settled by non-Communists from the mainland.
As a result, the people of Taiwan largely spoke Chinese, a language he didn't speak.
Suniuo arrived to find his name had been charged to Lee Kuang-Hui.
He was offered $889 in back pay from the Japanese government (in today's money).
After substantial public outcry, that sum was lifted to nearly $100,000.
And the government in Taiwan viewed him as a Japanese loyalist.
He died of lung cancer in 1979.
As a non-Japanese soldier, he was not received as warmly as Hiroo Onada, the second-last longest holdout.
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Onada had surrendered a few months before after decades in the Philippines jungle.
Onada only surrendered after his commanding officer Major Yoshimi Taniguchi ventured to the island to order him to stand down.
For more from our Today in History archive, click here
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