to vindicate the freedom fighters.
The result was staggering. From gallows to glory was the change for the Red Fort heroes and their comrades.
* * *
On August 15, 1947, two years after V-J Day, India proclaimed its independence. There was no doubt that Japan, then at the initial phase of its recovery from defeat and disaster, was indirectly responsible for hastening the freedom of India and other Asian nations from colonial domination.
It was the saga of the wartime Indian National Army, closely followed by a mutiny in the Indian Navy, that ultimately influenced Britain's decision to quit India. British statesmanship realized that, if the Indian armed forces could not be trusted to remain loyal to the Raj, it was better to go while the going was good.
The British Commander-in-Chief in India had estimated that he would need a minimum of a quarter million British officers and men to sustain British rule in the country after World War II. That clinched the issue. Britain decided to withdraw from India, though the legacy of partition, on the eve of Britain's exit, still plagues the sub-continent.
The independence of other Asian nations followed in quick succession. Burma became an independent sovereign republic in January, 1948. The United States, which had already agreed to grant the independence of the Philippines, fulfilled the pledge immediately after that. Indonesia proclaimed its freedom and resisted the restoration of Dutch colonial rule. French power withdrew from Indochina in 1954, after a bitter colonial war. Malaya became independent in 1957. With the establishment of Malaysia in 1963, Hongkong and Macao astride the Chinese mainland became the only specks of colonial territory in this part of the world.
* * *
The growing pains of freedom still afflict most of the newly-independent nations of Asia. A new brand of imperialism casts its shadow over southern and southeastern Asia. It has spread strife and conflict in Vietnam and Indonesia. It poses a threat to freedom, peace and security everywhere else.
But the face of Asia has changed beyond recognition in the last two decades. And Japan, in its triumphs and tears between the assault on Pearl Harbor and the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay, has made a significant contribution to this change.
Probably the most amazing feature of post-war Asia is the Japanese miracle itself, the rise of Japan from the ruins of war to what it is today—one of the most prosperous nations in the world and a major force for peace, freedom, stability, and a better life in all Asia.
Looking back at the fierce, bitter conflict that raged in the Pacific and Southeast Asia region between December, 1941 and August, 1945, the parade of Asian events since the conflagration looks like a classic in the "glory of the vanquished."
* * *
In the annals of India's struggle for national independence, the period between Pearl Harbor and V-J Day has been most eventful, inside and outside India. In this book, I have tried to deal with one phase of the campaign —the story of the wartime Indian Independence League, the Indian National Army and the Provisional Government of Free India—and its impact on Southeast Asia.
At least inside India, a strange legend grew out of the exploits of the wartime Indian National Army, under the leadership of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. After the sensational court-martial at the Red Fort in Delhi, this was a natural development, accelerated by the upsurge of nationalism. Now that the passions of the freedom struggle have subsided almost everywhere, it is time for a close, objective assessment of the hectic events which have considerably influenced the molding of post-war India and Southeast Asia.
* * *
This, therefore, is the simple, unvarnished story of a very significant phase of World War II in Asia. It is based on cold facts, many of them hitherto unrevealed, some perhaps unpalatable to the major participants. Besides the story of the Indian independence movement in East Asia, this book provides glimpses of wartime Japan and several Southeast Asian countries and introduces the reader to men and affairs in the entire region during the war years.
This book is based on official documents and other authoritative material, besides my own observations, impressions, and experiences in a chequered career as a fairly important member of the movement. Almost the entire text is compiled from a diary which I had kept during the war years, while I lived through the events described in this book. And, in the heat of the moment, I had spared no one associated with the movement, including myself.
Viewed against the fast pace of world events since 1945, this saga of the Indian independence movement in East Asia has probably become part of history. But this is the story of an incredibly complex "liberation war," set inside a major world war between rival power blocs. And it may perhaps strike a strangely refreshing note, amidst the confusing melody of the new-fangled "liberation" campaigns that seek to enslave the free nations of Asia and Africa.
| New Delhi, India | M. Sivaram |
1
The Joy-Ride
WE WERE OUT on a joy ride that night. For us it was an unforgettable ride. For Asia and the world, it was an unforgettable night.
The sky was dim and overcast. There was a bleak stillness in the air. The river was calm; the scenery was obscure. And a dull crescent moon peered at us lazily for some time and then disappeared in the west.
It was not an ideal night for a pleasure cruise. We knew we would miss much of the thrill and glamor of the river trip—the quaint combination of huge ocean-going liners and one-man country boats in the river and the glittering spires of the Buddhist shrines ashore. But we welcomed it as an excellent opportunity to get together and to get away, at least for a little while, from the heavy spate of work on hand.
It was a jolly little party of the Fraternity of the Fourth Estate. There were men from many countries, working for various newspapers and news agencies of the world. There were Americans and Australians, Germans and Japanese, Indians and Italians, Thais and Taiwanese. Between them they represented America's Associated Press and United Press, Britain's Reuters, Germany's Transocean, and Japan's Domei, besides some of the leading newspapers of London and New York, Berlin and Rome, Tokyo and Shanghai, Sydney and Melbourne.
War clouds were gathering over Southeast Asia those days. Thailand, as a neutral country, was very much in the news, resisting the tactics of pressure and persuasion from the Axis and anti-Axis nations.
Foreign correspondents in Bangkok, however, respected Thailand's neutrality and got on well together, but for the normal rivalry for "scoops," the conflict in news "angles" and the urge to send out "trial balloon" dispatches.
We had not yet organized a regular Foreign Press Association in Bangkok but we used to get together once a week, usually on Sundays. After tea came the flow of gossip and good-humored cross-talk and the party dispersed only at a late hour in the evening. That Sunday, we were the guests of our Domei News Agency friends and they had arranged the program on a really grand scale.
Among that tribe of foreign journalists in Bangkok, I enjoyed a rather peculiar position. An Indian, but none too loyal as a British subject, I had closely identified myself with Thailand and the Thai people. Many Thais in high places had come to regard me as one of them. Most of the other foreign correspondents had come to Bangkok to cover the impending war crisis, whereas I was an "old hand" there and, in addition, the editor of a popular nationalist English daily, closely associated with the government leaders and the ruling party.
After
