Illumination

military a whole lot of headaches. Onoda had been stationed in the Philippines during World War Two. An intelligence officer by trade, he had been given strict orders to do everything within his power to hinder all enemy attacks on the island. The airstrip and the peers at the harbor became his primary targets, and should he be caught, he was to fight until death. Capture and suicide were not allowed.

Once Onoda arrived on the island, he fell in with a group of Japanese soldiers who had already been stationed there. He was of a lower rank than them and so had to follow their orders instead. His mission had stopped before it had even started, and it wasn't long before the United States took over the island with the Philippine Commonwealth in February of ninety seven, months before the official end of the war. The other soldiers had been given orders to fights, which they did, but they were no

match for the Allied forces. It would have been much easier had they allowed Onoda to carry out his original mission, but it was too late for that. All but a handful fell, leaving Onoda the acting commander. He ordered the remaining men to retreat into the nearby hills where they would be safe. He and three other Japanese soldiers lived in the Philippine wilderness for months, building huts out of bamboo and stealing food from local villages. When they got desperate,

they slaughtered cows and ate their meat. Time in the mountains, though, changed them, and the men eventually grew paranoid of anyone who dared venture near their camp. Stray islanders were often mistaken for enemy guerillas and killed without question. The soldiers managed to avoid all American and Filipino search parties for a time until their position was compromised and a shootout

killed two of them. A third surrendered to the authorities, while Onoda ventured deeper into the mountains, and no one heard from him after that. Lieutenant Onoda was declared dead by the Japanese governments in nineteen fifty nine. All search party efforts had failed to locate him. Then, after the killing stunted, they stopped looking, and then in nineteen seventy four, a Japanese student named Norio Suzuki set out to find

the missing soldier. Well, he set out to find three things really, in his words, lieutenant a noa, a panda, and the abominable snowman, And four days after his journey began, he found him alive. Suzuki tried to coax the soldier off the island to return to the modern world back home, but a Nooda wouldn't listen. He was still awaiting orders

from his commanding officer. Unable to convince the soldier to leave with him, Suzuki took some pictures as proof and let the Japanese government handle the recovery of their missing assets. Those government officials asked a notice superior officer Major Yoshimi Tanaguchi to fly out to the Philippines to deliver the orders as he had promised years earlier, and once those orders had been given a Noda surrendered and handed over all the weapons he had a mass during his time

on the island. For over thirty years, Hirou Onoda believed World War two was still being fought all over the world. He had no idea that Adam bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or that the Allies had won. The Japan he came home to was like an alien planet, with tall glass buildings all around him and cars clogging all the streets. He became a celebrity of sorts back home and eventually released a book about his experiences on the island, how he had fought his own war on

behalf of a country that had left him behind. But he found fitting into the new world difficult so much had changed while he was away. Unable to handle living in a modern Japan, he traveled to Brazil, got married, and established schools to help troubled kids both at home and abroad. Hiro Ona had been lost in time for most of his life. He'd missed so much and had come back to a world he did not recognize. Yet, despite his hesitation and wariness, he never forgot his primary

mission survive at all costs, and thankfully he succeeded. Its name instills mystery and wonder in those who hear it, it strikes fear in others. Its influence around the world is unmatched, as evidenced by the symbols and signs on our own currency. It has influenced political elections and, according to some, replaced popular celebrities with brainwashed clones. It's also been linked to the Freemasons and a clandestine organization known as the New World Order, which seeks to take over

the world by way of a global authoritarian government. Of course, I'm referring to the Illuminati. It's reputation has solidified it as one of the most influential and sinister organizations and history. However, well, it might seem like the Illuminati is a far reaching, underground society with a deeply historical foundation, The truth is a lot more ordinary. It all started when an eighteenth century German scholar named Adam weiss Hopped had an idea.

Growing up, vice hop found a passion for reading and philosophy, but philosophers he enjoyed studying went against the Catholic conservatism permeating Bavaria at the time. He started looking for others like him, folks who also believed that religion and the monarchy were stifling the growth of modern society. He thought about joining the Freemasons for a while, whose group was flourishing throughout Europe at the time, but Vice Hoped couldn't

get beyond some of their beliefs. Instead, he decided to create his own secret society, one that didn't renounce religion, but gave its members freedom from the prejudices and limitations religion seemed to impose. The goal was not to establish another theocracy. Vice Hopped wanted members of this new organization to find happiness and liberty without all the political trickery that he linked to the church. The Illuminatis first meeting was conduct it one evening in a nearby forest on

May one, seventeen seventies. Six five men gathered together and set the foundation for what would eventually become an association of three thousand members. Soon enough, big names started joining their ranks, including Baron Adolph von Koniga, a former Freemason whose efforts within the Illuminati not only brought it publicity

but also heightened tensions inside the group. He fought often with Vice hopt about the direction of the organization, encouraging him to behave more like the Freemasons by giving everyone secret names and organizing the members based on a hierarchy of thirteen complicated degrees. He eventually left the group, but his work added to the mystery that would eventually elevate it to the public consciousness and inspire numerous books, television shows,

and movies about its undercover operations. Except the Illuminati, as it was known during the seventeen hundreds never made it to the levels described by authors like Dan Brown or Burnto Echo. An edict issued by the Duke of Bavaria in sevent four put an end to all secret societies not previously sanctioned by a law. Anyone caught practicing as a member of an outlawed order was to be sentenced to death. VISs Hopt lost his job as a professor at the local university, and so he fled to Saxony,

where he ended up teaching philosophy. And that was the end. But if the Illuminati was forcibly disbanded over two thirty years ago, why does its name still crop up whenever someone mentions the Kennedy assassination or the Moon Landing. Well. For that we can thank one book series, No, not the one about secret messages in famous Italian paintings. We have to go back even further to the nineteen seventies, when popular culture was defined by counterculture like Robert Crumb

and the National Lampoon and Robert Anton Wilson. You might not have heard of him, but the work he did with his friend and partner Robert Shay could evaded much of the Illuminati lore that we're all familiar with today. It started while the pair were working at Playboy magazine as associate editors. They and some of the other writers started mailing in fake letters to the magazine about a

secret society called the Illuminati. Then they'd write more letters to contradict the first batch, adding an air of mystique and intrigue around the organization. Wilson and Shay turned their hijinks into a popular series of satirical books called the Illuminatus Trilogy, which flushed out the conspiracies behind the assassination of JFK and the meaning of the Eye of Providence on the back of the one dollar bill. The books

eventually influenced numerous films and stage adaptations. Only further spreading their misinformation to the masses. These stories took on a life of their own, and the fiction soon mutated into

rumors and eventually full blown conspiracy theories. Thanks to the Internet, those theories have now grown more elaborate over time, and thanks to a pray inc from two magazine editors, a failed German secret society was reborn as one of the most powerful and far reaching organizations in the world, well at least by reputation, that is. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show

by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.