Japan, 1944. 22-year-old Hiroo Onoda, trained for the intelligence service, discovers a philosophy that goes against the official line: no suicide, stay alive no matter what, the mission is more important than anything else. He is sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines, where the Americans are about to land. His mission is to fight a guerrilla war until the Japanese troops return. The empire will surrender soon after, Onoda 10,000 days later.