October 24, 2024: Fall Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/24/2024
Here's the most unique signed baseball we've ever handled or seen. It's a single-signed Hiroo Onoda OAL Budig baseball, which is signed in both Japanese and English and inscribed "No Surrender." Onoda was a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and one of the last Japanese holdouts who continued fighting after the war's end in 1945. For almost 29 years, Onoda carried out guerilla warfare on Lubang Island in the Philippines, on several occasions engaging in shootouts with locals and the police. Onoda (who initially held out with three others who surrendered or were killed in 1950, 1954, and 1972) was contacted in 1974, but refused to surrender until he was relieved of duty by his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who was located and flown to Lubang. Onoda surrendered on 10 March 1974, and received a hero's welcome in Japan. This one-of-a-kind item is authenticated by PSA/DNA with a basic COA.
Hiroo Onoda Single-Signed OAL Baseball "No Surrender" (PSA/DNA)
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