6. Hiroo Onoda's Guerilla Campaign
One of the all-time craziest stories from history has to be Hiroo Onoda's thirty year guerilla campaign after World War Two that he continued without realizing that Japan had long since surrendered. Onoda was sent to the Philippines late in 1944 under orders to do whatever he could to hamper U.S operations in the area and was told that under no circumstances was he to surrender or to commit suicide. Onoda's unit was soon reduced to a mere four soldiers because of casualties. After the war, leaflets were dropped for years ordering Onoda's unit to surrender but they refused to believe Japan had lost the war and decided the leaflets were allied propaganda. Onoda's unit continued their guerilla campaigns for the next thirty years although Onoda was the only one remaining by 1973. In 1974, he was discovered by a college student who brought pictures of him back to Japan where his old superior officer was found. The officer then flew out to Onoda and finally convinced him to surrender. Onoda's thirty year campaign could be portrayed in many different ways. It could just as easily be a Coen Brother style farce or be a Herzogian descent into madness and both approaches would work just as well.