Secret of All Triumphs
Life is a series of sacrifices. A parent will go without for the sake of their child. A person will work around the clock for the benefit of their family. A soldier will sacrifice for their country. A religious soul will sacrifice for their beliefs.
Sometimes though, sacrifice takes an unusual form. Take for example the story of Amar Bharati.
Until 1970 Amar was an average Joe. He was a middleclass Indian man with a normal life. He had a job, a home, a wife and three children. One morning everything changed.
Amar had found god. The Hindu god Shiva to be precise. Amar left his family and all the trappings of the material world to wander the back roads of India. He became a Sadhu - an Indian holy man.
He wore only a simple robe and carried nothing but his trusty trident. For three years he wandered and dedicated himself to god. He decided it wasn’t enough. He still felt trapped by the pleasures of the physical. He still felt saddened by man’s inhumanity to others.
Amar wanted to do something to symbolize his separation from the material world. He longed to do something in the name of peace. In a symbolic act of sacrifice, Amar raised his right arm to the Heavens. He kept it there for four decades.
His arm is now withered from being held in the same position above his head all these years. If he now decided to use it, he wouldn’t be able to. It has become a useless piece of bone.
At first, Amar experienced intense pain and great discomfort from keeping his arm aloft. He now has no feelings in the lost limb.
Amar has no regrets. His actions have become an inspiration for Shiva worshippers across India. Many other Sadhus have imitated Amar. They have raised their own arms in a show of solidarity.
Like it or not, such an extreme sacrifice also took great perseverance. The famous author Victor Hugo once said, “Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.”
World record breaking runner Glenn Cunningham knew a thing or two about perseverance and triumph. On a cold morning in 1916, seven-year-old Cunningham’s two-mile trip to school ended in a tragedy which would define his life.
What should have been his crowning glory, ended with a brutal beating from his father. Glenn’s dad thought sports was a form of showing off. He told Glenn to never run competitively again.
Glenn disobeyed his father. He had two healthy legs and wanted to use them. He kept running and chasing his dreams. He broke records at his High-School and Kansas University for the fastest mile. And then in February 1934, he ran the world’s fastest indoor mile in Madison Square Garden. In four minutes and eight seconds, Glenn proved that determination and perseverance are everything.
In later life, Glenn would teach children the secret to his success. He told them, “Belief influences action, and action influences belief. Act as if it were impossible to fail.”
On the other side of the world, Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda also refused to fail. He believed in perseverance and discipline. He believed in following orders. And he believed in carrying out his duty.
When Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, it marked the end of World War Two. Not knowing the war was over, Onoda spent another 29 years in the jungle.
When the global conflict ended, Onoda was on Lubang Island with three other soldiers. They had orders to never surrender. They vowed to obey with honor.
The four military men continued to wage war. In 1950 one of the soldiers could not go on. He left the jungle, returned to Japan and told the world about his neverending war.
One of Onoda’s remaining comrades died of natural causes, the other was killed in a 1972 clash with Filipino soldiers.
Over the years, Onoda killed over 30 people on the island who he mistakenly believed to be enemy soldiers.
For nearly three decades the loyal soldier refused to believe the war had ended. The Japanese government sent search parties and dropped leaflets by air to tell him the war was over. Onoda thought it was a trick by the US government to get him to surrender.
He explained, “The leaflets they dropped were filled with mistakes so I judged it was a plot by the Americans.”
Over the years, as Onoda continued his war against the locals, various groups of Japanese went searching for him. He suspected they were prisoners of war being forced to trick him into surrender. He stayed hidden.
Finally in 1974, a young Japanese adventurer named Norio Suzuki heard that Onoda was still in the jungle. Suzuki traveled to Lubang to find him. In just four days, he succeeded where everyone else had failed. He found Onoda and befriended him. He explained to him the war was really over. Suzuki tried to bring Onoda back, but Onoda refused. He could not forget the words of his commanding officer, Major Taniguchi. He said, “It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we’ll come back for you.” Suzuki knew that Taniguchi was the only one who could reason with Onoda, so he tracked him down. Taniguchi had become a bookseller in Japan, but when he heard about Onoda, he kept his word and returned to the Philippines to get him. In a face to face encounter, Taniguchi ordered the old soldier to finally stand down. With his uniform in tatters and tears in his eyes, Onoda obeyed. He saluted the flag of his country and handed over his gun and sword.
Onoda explained, “Every Japanese soldier was prepared for death. As an intelligence officer, I was ordered to conduct guerrilla warfare and not to die. I became an
officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame.”
Onoda was pardoned by the Philippine government, but many of the local people in Lubang could not forgive him. His blind obedience to military orders and loyalty to his country resulted in the needless death of their friends and family members.
Onoda returned to Japan and was given a hero’s welcome. However, he struggled to settle back in the country he had sacrificed over three decades of his life for. He believed that post World War Two Japan had taken a turn for the worse. The values of his homeland were no longer his values. Onoda then moved to Brazil and became a farmer. In 1984, he returned to Japan and opened several nature survival camps for children.
Onoda died in 2014. He is remembered by some as foolhardy, but by others as a symbol of loyalty, sacrifice, and perseverance.
