Hiroo Onoda became a World War II hero in Japan for doing this.
Masterminding Pearl Harbor attack
Being killed at Iwo Jima
Not surrendering for 30 years
Evacuating people from Nagasaki
Not surrendering for 30 years. Onoda, a second lieutenant, stayed on Lubang Island 90 miles from Manila. Officially declared dead in 1959, he was found in 1974. He would not leave until his former commander came to the island to relieve him of his duties. He died in Tokyo in 2014 at age 91.