Every great feat taken on is inspired by the simple question, “how far can I push the envelope?” those who abide by pushing themselves to the limit must feel that their physical actions are breaking new ground in order to be motivated. They must be convinced that if they accomplish what they set out to, their legacy will be solidified and inimitable (at least in the near future). But sometimes you dont need to push yourself, circumstances do. Take for example Jose Ivan, he survived 16 Months in the Pacific Ocean drifting 8,000 miles in a broken down boat. The man, who speaks only Spanish, says he left Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012 with a companion, who died several months ago. He claimed he survived on their 24-ft fibreglass boat for 16 months by catching his food with his bare hands as there was no fishing gear. said he survived by eating turtles, birds and fish and by drinking turtles blood when there was no rainwater. Jose Ivan was found on Thursday 30th January 2014. dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/jose-ivan-castaway-lost-sea-3100163 Another inspiring story I heard in January was of Hiroo Onoda, an Imperial Japanese Army officer who remained at his jungle post on an island in the Philippines for 30 years, refusing to believe that World War II was over, and returned to a hero’s welcome in the all but unrecognizable Japan of 1974, died on Thursday 16th January 2014 in Tokyo. He was 91. Caught in a time warp, Mr. Onoda, a second lieutenant, was one of the war’s last holdouts: a soldier who believed that the emperor was a deity and the war a sacred mission; who survived on bananas and coconuts and sometimes killed villagers he assumed were enemies; who finally went home to the lotus land of paper and wood which turned out to be a futuristic world of skyscrapers, television, jet planes and pollution and atomic destruction. Japanese history and literature are replete with heroes who have remained loyal to a cause, especially if it is lost or hopeless, and Lieutenant Onoda, a small, wiry man of dignified manner and military bearing, seemed to many like a samurai of old, ultimately offering his sword as a gesture of surrender to President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philippines, who returned it to him. And his homecoming, with roaring crowds, celebratory parades and speeches by public officials, stirred his nation with a pride that many Japanese had found lacking in the postwar years of rising prosperity and materialism. His ordeal of deprivation may have seemed a pointless waste to much of the world, but in Japan it was a moving reminder of the redemptive qualities of duty and perseverance. It happened with a simple command. As he related in a memoir after he went home, Lieutenant Onoda’s last order in early 1945 was to stay and fight. Loyal to a military code that taught that death was preferable to surrender, he remained behind on Lubang Island, 93 miles southwest of Manila, when Japanese forces withdrew in the face of an American invasion. Lieutenant Onoda, an intelligence officer trained in guerrilla tactics, and three enlisted men with him found leaflets proclaiming the war’s end, but believed they were enemy propaganda. They built bamboo huts, pilfered rice and other food from a village and killed cows for meat; they were tormented by tropical heat, rats and mosquitoes, and they patched their uniforms and kept their rifles in working order. Considering themselves to be at war, they evaded American and Filipino search parties and attacked islanders they took to be enemy guerrillas; about 30 inhabitants were killed in skirmishes with the Japanese over the years. One of the enlisted men surrendered to Filipino forces in 1950, and two others were shot dead, one in 1954 and another in 1972, by island police officers searching for the renegades. The last holdout, Lieutenant Onoda, officially declared dead in 1959, was found by Norio Suzuki, a student searching for him, in 1974. The lieutenant rejected Mr. Suzuki’s pleas to go home, insisting he was still awaiting orders. Mr. Suzuki returned with photographs, and the Japanese government sent a delegation, including the lieutenant’s brother and his former commander, to relieve him of duty formally. In an editorial, The Mainichi Shimbun, a leading Tokyo newspaper, said: “To this soldier, duty took precedence over personal sentiments. Onoda has shown us that there is much more in life than just material affluence and selfish pursuits. There is the spiritual aspect, something we may have forgotten.” After his national welcome in Japan, Mr. Onoda was examined by doctors, who found him in amazingly good condition. I guess i have inspiration is all around us Reference; New York Times smh.au/comment/obituaries/hiroo-onoda-19222014-soldier-who-never-surrendered-became-belated-war-hero-20140128-31kj9.html
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 11:05:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015