“PENANG Shimbun newspaper cuttings,” my friend beams happily as he hands me a large brown envelope at the flea market. Aware of the large crowd around us, I decide against spilling the contents in front of prying eyes. Instead, I just take a quick peek inside.
My heart skips a beat when a large stack of printed material, all yellow with age, meets my gaze. Penang Shimbun is one of the few Japanese Occupation era newspapers that was started in 1942. Serving primarily as a Japanese propaganda vehicle, the English language daily ran articles that recorded important events that took place in Malaya during that time.
“How much do you want for them?” I ask, wondering if I had enough money in my wallet to pay him. My friend shrugs off my question and tells me I can have it all for free. “Last year you gifted me a stack of vintage postcards for my collection so... one good turn deserves another, right?"
With the envelope in my hands, I soon lose interest in the rest of the items on display at the flea market. It’s time to head home and see what I have.
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE
My entire living room floor is now plastered with the newspaper fragments. Although it’s time consuming to arrange them in chronological order, my hard work starts to pay off when I manage to grasp the main underlying theme connecting the articles.
All the cut-outs are about the Indian National Army (INA) and the Indian Independence League (IIL). I also noticed that the name Subhas Chandra Bose is featured regularly. Curious to know more, I start scouring for related books in my study with the hope that they can help shed light on this person whose prominence in the news clearly underscores his importance.
It’s not long before I realise that the Indian National Army was one of the most important independence armies created by Japan in Southeast Asia during the Second World War.
However, the events leading to its formation clearly shows how ill prepared Japan was in formulating policy towards India.
In the months leading up to the Second World War, officials at the Tokyo Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ) were just starting to gather intelligence on the country.
In April 1941, IGHQ heard from Consul General Okazaki in Calcutta advocating contact with a radical Bengal political party and its leader, Bose who was living in exile in Berlin at that time. While advising tangible Japanese aid like weapons, Okazaki felt that the movement could burgeon into a popular revolt.
THE GREAT LEADER
Halied as “Netaji” which means “Great Leader”, Bose was the charismatic president of the Indian National Congress in 1927, president of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee and Mayor of Calcutta. He rejected Mahatma Gandhi's strategy of non-violence to achieve Indian independence and advocated armed struggle.
Bose once famously declared at a rally: “Give me blood, and I will give you freedom!” He was eventually convicted of sedition and imprisoned by the British in 1941. With the help of sympathisers, Bose managed to escape custody and went into exile in Nazi Germany.
Japanese contact with Bose couldn’t have come at a better time. Despite helping Germany to organise an Indian Legion of former prisoners-of-war (POWs) from North Africa while in Berlin, Bose had begun to despair of German aid for his Indian independence struggle and responded positively to Japan's call to rid Asia of Western imperialist control. He was enamoured by Japan's “Asia for Asians” propaganda.
While Bose contemplated the terms of his cooperation with the Japanese from his Berlin base, Japanese troops were on the verge of their first assault on Malaya.
At around the same time, Major Fujiwara Iwaichi was despatched by the IGHQ to Thailand and Malaya. His highly secretive intelligence mission involved contacting the Malay sultans, overseas Chinese and the Indian independence movement with the view of encouraging friendship and cooperation with Japan.
In Bangkok, Fujiwara met Pritam Singh, a religious leader and teacher who headed the IIL in Malaya and Thailand, and Mohan Singh, one of the first British Army Indian officers captured by the Japanese.
Fujiwara convinced the two men that the opportunity to fight for Indian freedom had arrived and they should start persuading their respective counterparts to support the cause.
The establishment of the INA at the end of December 1941 turned Mohan into a passionate revolutionary.
He began training units to work beside groups already operating under Pritam's direction in the jungles of Malaya and Thailand. Mohan organised the officers into a single class that helped transcend traditional communal antagonisms and rivalries. The insignia in their uniforms featured a springing tiger.
MALAYAN INVOLVEMENT
Fujiwara's efforts eventually caught Tokyo's attention. Two powerful generals were despatched to assess his progress.
During their meeting, Fujiwara spoke of the creation of a huge army of 100,000 men and expressed hope that Bose could be persuaded to lead it. Fujiwara's prediction became a reality when more and more Malayan towns were captured by the Japanese Imperial Army.
During skirmishes in the Muar-Yong Peng sector in January 1942, for example, Indian soldiers belonging to the British Army were said to have lined up to surrender and volunteered for the INA.
The fall of Singapore on Feb 15, 1942 saw Fujiwara accepting the surrender of some 45,000 Indian troops. Almost half of the POWs joined the INA when they heard Mohan's rousing address at a mammoth rally at the old Race Course in Farrer Park. The other half, beset by conflicts of loyalty and inability to abandon family traditions in the British Indian Army, refrained. Some eventually wavered after the arrival of Bose.
DEADLY PLANE CRASH
A month later, representatives of the IIL and INA in Malaya and Thailand attended a conference at a Tokyo hotel. Unfortunately, one of the two planes carrying the Indian delegates crashed en route and all on board, including Pritam, perished.
It was generally believed that Pritam's demise and the widening rift between the Indian communities in Tokyo and Southeast Asia threw a spanner in the works for a successful invasion of India during the spring and summer of 1942. That period was considered most optimal as Japan was then brimming with confidence after a string of successes in Malaya and Burma.
The Tokyo Conference failed to reach any definitive decisions and the delegates agreed to meet again in Bangkok in June 1942. The meeting in Thailand was more fruitful, resulting in the adoption of a 34 point resolution.
These included demands for the Japanese to accord the INA with full army status and for all Indian POWs to be absorbed directly into it. The delegates also wanted assurance that INA wouldn’t be asked to march for any other purpose than for the liberation of India.
MISSION IN PERIL
Mohan and his supporters were infuriated when Tokyo was unable to ratify all the points raised in the resolution. The dissatisfaction escalated into open confrontation and Mohan was eventually arrested and detained for the duration of the war. With that, the INA was paralysed and Japanese aspirations for Indian conquest were in peril.
By February 1943, rumours began spreading that Bose had left Berlin in a German U-boat. At a rendezvous point in the Indian Ocean, he boarded a Japanese submarine and headed for Sumatra before flying to Tokyo to meet leaders including Prime Minister, General Hideki Tojo.
Bose arrived in Singapore, which was then renamed Syonan, in July 1943 and managed to almost singlehandedly resuscitate the Indian independence movement with his rousing speeches. Three months later, the imprisoned Mohan was brought to a bungalow on Pulau Ubin to meet Bose but the duo failed to reach an agreement.
AZAD HIND FAUJ BORN
Left with no other alternative, Bose announced the formation of the Free India Provisional Government (FIPG) with himself acting as Head of State, Prime Minister as well as War Minister at an awe-inspiring rally held in front of the Cathay Cinema (renamed Dai Toa Gekijo at that time) on Oct 21, 1943. Bose also declared his decision to resurrect the INA as the Azad Hind Fauj or Free India Army.
My attention shifts to a rectangular newspaper cutting which reports of a rally that Bose held at the Penang Hoso Kyoku (Radio Station) on Dec 27, 1943. The mass gathering saw several thousand Indians, who came from all parts of Penang including Province Wellesley, renewing their pledge to fight until they achieved victory.
My excitement is heightened when I realise that the article also features a group of young Indian girls listening intently to Bose's stirring speech. After referring to my reference books, I come to the conclusion that they could be volunteers in Azad Hind Fauj's newly-formed women's unit, the Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
WOMEN'S REGIMENT
The Rani of Jhansi Regiment, an innovation introduced by Bose, was initially not well accepted by the Japanese who felt that women had no place in the army.
Bose, however, persisted and won over his critics after successfully arguing that the women's unit gave Azad Hind Fauj a national character and improved its revolutionary image.
After several months of intensive military training, Bose felt that the Azad Hind Fauj was ready to do battle with the British. In March 1944, the Indian freedom fighters marched towards northeastern India together with the Japanese 18th Division.
On the military front, however, Japanese support for the Azad Hind Fauj wasn’t completely whole-hearted. The attack came at a time when Japanese supply lines were severely overstretched. There was an obvious inadequate supply of weapons and food.
Furthermore, the Japanese fear of possible Indian soldier desertions were proven correct the moment the battle for Imphal, the capital of the Indian state of Manipur, began. Mass cross overs instantaneously broke Azad Hind Fauj and the remaining attackers were forced to retreat.
Back in Malaya, Bose tried raising more men to breathe life into Azad Hind Fauj. His attempt to get recruits from the Indian Welfare Association failed miserably as many of its members no longer believed in his cause. Despite the setback, Bose continued his anti-British propaganda broadcasts and hoped for a change in fate.
CONTROVERSIAL END
Instead, things went from bad to worse. Bose received the devastating news of the Japanese surrender on Aug 12, 1945.
Five days later, he left Singapore for Bangkok and later Saigon by plane. In Saigon, Bose accepted a seat in a Japanese bomber destined for Russian-occupied Manchuria, where he hoped to gain Soviet support for his nationalist movement.
Unfortunately, the plane crashed near Taipei airport at 2pm on Aug 18, 1945. According to the official version, Bose was badly burnt and subsequently died at around midnight in a Taipei Japanese military hospital. After cremation, his ashes were brought to Tokyo and placed at the Renkoji Temple exactly a month after his death.
Soon after, controversies over Bose's death began to surface when his body couldn’t be properly verified. Certain quarters said that he wasn’t even on the ill-fated aircraft while others believed that he survived the crash and that the death report was a mere subterfuge by Bose, his aides and the Japanese to help him escape safely to Manchuria. It was speculated that Bose reached the Soviet Union but his request for support wasn’t only turned down but the freedom fighter was interned for the rest of his life in a gulag.
While housing the newspaper articles in individual plastic sheets, I’m overwhelmed by the fact that our nation played a large role in Bose's quest for independence for his beloved India.
While Azad Hind Fauj didn’t directly free colonial India, British treatment of those nationalists after the war did put more pressure on them to finally leave the country on Aug 15, 1947.
Imphal didn’t give Bose the glory he so craved but his men who lost their lives there will forever be remembered as heroic fighters of independence.