TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Major (ret.) Rahmat Shigeru Ono, also known as Sakari Ono, passed away earlier today, Monday, August 25, 2014 in Malang, East Java. Ono, the last remaining Japanese soldier in Indonesia, died at the age of 95.
Ono was born in Furano, Hokkaido, Japan, on September 26, 1919. He joined the Indonesian Army in December 1945, five months after the Japanese surrendered to the Allied Forces. During the independence war in 1945-1949, Ono, along with two other high-ranking Japanese military officials Tomogero Yoshizumi and Tatsuo Ichiki, became members of the Special Guerrilla Troops (PGI), one of the Indonesian army's elite units at the time.
To honor his service in the independence war, President Soekarno awarded Ono with the Veteran Star and the Guerrilla Star in 1958. Ono will be buried at the Batu Heroes' Memorial Cemetery as a tribute to his service.
Based on records from Yayasan Warga Persahabatan—a group of Japanese soldiers who stayed behind to fight in the Indonesian independence war—in Jakarta, there were over 903 Japanese troops that joined the Indonesian guerrilla wars. Of the figure, 531 persons (59 percent) were killed in action and declared missing, 324 persons (36 percent) survived and became Indonesian citizens, and 45 people (5 percent) repatriated to Japan.
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