Werner Herzog tells the story of a Japanese soldier who refused to surrender | Books

Werner Herzog is writing a book about Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who surrendered three decades after the end of World War II.

The famous German director’s film on the life of Onoda, The Twilight World, will be translated by poet Michael Hofmann and released next summer by The Bodley Head. A dissertation by Herzog will follow in 2023, reflecting his life and the decades he spent in the film industry, creating films including Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, and documentaries Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

The books are the first in many years by Herzog, whose previous title was a series of thoughts on Fitzcarraldo’s making, Conquest of the Useless, first published in 2004. Of Walking in Ice, his account of his walk from Munich to Paris when he learned that his mentor Lotte Eisner was dying, was originally published in 1978.

Onoda was a Japanese Army intelligence officer who emerged from his hiding place in the Philippine jungle in 1974. He refused to believe the war ended in 1945, calling it Allied propaganda. His former commander eventually persuaded him to surrender, going to his hiding place and convincing him of Japan’s defeat nearly three decades earlier. Onoda then emigrated to Brazil in 1975, where he became a farmer, before returning to Japan in 1984 to open nature camps for children. He died at the age of 91 in 2014.

“[Herzog’s] The moving portrayal of Onoda’s seemingly insane struggle offers a deep meditation on the human condition, ”said Bodley Head Editorial Director Jörg Hensgen. “Build an opera house in the middle of the jungle; walk from Munich to Paris in the middle of winter; descend into an active volcano; living in the wild among grizzly bears – Werner Herzog has always been intrigued by the extremes of human experience.

Hensgen added that the director’s later memoirs would be “filled to the brim with memorable stories and poignant observations” and “shed a fascinating light on the influences and ideas that animate Herzog’s creativity and shaped his unique vision. of the world “.