Читать книгу Burmese Connection - Ashish Basu - Страница 4

Aung Lung was not happy. At barely twenty, he was still young, but he was already quite frustrated. Aung was deeply troubled by the Japanese occupation of Burma and the tacit approval of that occupation by its leaders. The tribal leaders seemed to welcome the Japanese even though their own people were against it. Aung thought the hill tribes of Northern Burma and his generation of youth deserved better.

Unfortunately, he was in the minority. After he completed his high school and intermediate college in Rangoon, he had hoped that he would go to that exclusive college in India where other Chaofa (Shan ruler) children went. He had even completed the entrance examination that was mandatory for that college. But his life went in a different direction. He was not happy because he was seeing his father and many of the other tribal leaders reading the political situation incorrectly and bowing to the Japanese. Collectively, the leaders of Burma were unable to understand that Japan would not win the war. Apparently, most of them loved Japan because it was an Asian power.

Of course, his father and the other leaders did not see it as “bowing.” They saw it as “cooperation” with the Japanese for liberating Burma from British rule. He often felt that his father was forgetting that his grandfather was the Chaofa of his Muang (kingdom). He could not imagine how a descendent of Khun Lung and Khun Lai could be a follower of the Japanese Imperial Army. Since he had failed to convince his father, Aung tried expressing his views to his brothers, cousins, and extended family. He even tried to remind them of their proud Shan heritage. Most of them were equally adamant. They would not even listen to Aung’s reasoning once, so the conversation could not even start.

Neighboring Thailand had chosen the Japanese side, and Aung thought that they could have influenced the Burmese leaders. He was shocked to see so many tribal leaders so inspired by the Japanese Imperial Army and its recent successes in the battles in Southeast Asia. It had a lot to do with that outspoken Japanese officer Suzuki. Aung had heard that Colonel Suzuki often called himself Bo Mogyo and claimed that he was connected with Myingun Min, the Burmese prince in exile.

Most of the elders had started believing in the concocted Minami Kikan stories of Burmese independence. They thought Suzuki’s “thirty comrades” would actually create a strong Burmese National Army that could have the capacity to stand up to the British. Aung could not pinpoint where that admiration was coming from. But he reasoned that it could be because of the recent Japanese wins against the British—everyone was surprised by Japan’s military prowess. Perhaps the leaders had seen those as Asians finally conquering mighty Europeans!

If the Japanese could defeat the British, so could the Shan or the Karens, just with a little help. Japanese support for the fledgling Indian National Army (INA) assembled with Indian Prisoners of War (POW) in the Malay Peninsula and other parts of South Asia was something the leaders would always use as an example to illustrate their point—as if that one isolated example meant everything in the context of Burma.

He had overheard his father present the case as, “Japan wants countries like India and Burma to be independent from British rule. Aren’t the Japanese going to go to Imphal and Kohima with the Indians? We know they are. Aren’t the Indians using the Japanese to get rid of the British? We know they are. If the Japanese can do it for India, they can do it for Burma too. After all, Japanese are Asians like us. Just like many of us here, Japanese are Buddhists too; they understand us.

“They would naturally want all Asian countries to be independent, outside European influence. I have to agree with Colonel Suzuki. It just makes a lot of common sense.”

The other tribal leaders around his father who were listening nodded their heads in agreement. Just by being Asians and Buddhists, the Japanese were suddenly trustworthy to most of the Burmese leaders! They suddenly understood the Burmese.

Aung was shocked. The Shan leaders were convinced that once independence was achieved, the Shan, Kachin, Lisu, and the other tribes would be well integrated into the Burmese society, and their homeland would see lasting peace, prosperity, and development. Aung knew that several Shan tribal leaders were visiting Rangoon often in their efforts to secure the future of their tribes under Japanese rule. Many of those leaders thought that the Japanese were in Burma to emancipate the Shan, Kachin, Karen, and Lisu people. It seemed that only a minority, like Aung, disagreed with that viewpoint. Aung did not have a problem with being in the minority. He was just mortified by the extent of brainwashing colonel Suzuki and his Minami Kikan team had done.

Aung had been told that Colonel Suzuki was personally involved in the military training of the Burmese National leaders in Japan. To Aung, that meant that Suzuki was serious about pushing the British out. It did not automatically mean that Colonel Suzuki was for Burma and its indigenous people. To Aung, he was not. He was looking after Japan’s interests, while telling the Burmese what they wanted to hear.

Aung himself was well read. He studied Japanese Imperialism with great interest because he was initially fascinated by the rising Asian power. His views on the Japanese approach started changing only after he studied the Japanese attacks and atrocities in China and Manchuria. Aung did not believe that the Japanese had any incentive in making Burma independent and training or supporting its armed forces.

In fact, if Burma became an independent country with a strong army of its own, it could become a problem for Japan. He thought the political views of the Shan leaders on the Japanese intent were naive. He knew that the Japanese Army occupied Burma mainly for its strategic location, oil, and minerals. Once they plundered the oil, rubies, sapphires, and jade, they would have no interest in Burma or the well-being of the Burmese. It did not matter to them.

Historically, the Japanese never occupied a country to help and emancipate its people—Aung could not think of one example. Aung’s indignation reached its peak when two weeks ago, he secretly saw his father handing over some of the treasured family heirlooms to that local Japanese major from Suzuki’s division. He was the local tribal liaison for Colonel Suzuki’s team. Aung had heard that the major’s goal was to bring the Shan Chaofas and other tribal leaders together.

Those treasures should not have been given away just because someone talked about Shan unity or showed fake respect to the Shan or even learned a few words of their Shan language. Aung asked his father, “Pho, you did not have to give away our family treasures to the Japanese. Those objects were symbols of our Shan cultural heritage. Money cannot buy those objects. The Japanese do not respect our heritage, but you are a leader—you have to. Grandma loved those two objects very much; she used to tell me so many stories about those objects.”

His father got very upset and responded, “I don’t have to take lessons on Shan culture from you, Aung. I do not need it. If you understood our Shan culture, you would have learned to talk to your elders with respect. You consider yourself wiser than you actually are. I think that school in Rangoon has made you very arrogant. I will do what I, and I alone, consider good for my tribe and my family.

“I gifted the Jade Buddha and the Jade marriage bowl to as tokens of goodwill for a good reason. Colonel Suzuki and Major Morita are trying very hard to unify the tribes of Northern Burma. For a strong and independent Burma, the tribes must unify—they cannot remain fragmented with their limited perspective and narrow agenda. If other tribes know of my action, they will also fall in line, and the whole effort will succeed. Burma and the Shan homeland can benefit a lot from the Japanese. After all, we are both Asian and Buddhist cultures. For our tribe, I have to evaluate all options we have in a pragmatic manner. This is not your decision, Aung. Your agreement or disagreement on this matter is not relevant at all. If you are smart, you should know that.”

Aung could not believe that his father would ever be like that. He was almost sixty, and he was educated in that famous college in India—he should know better.

Aung said, “But Pho, I think you are reading the situation completely wrong. The Japanese have no real interest in helping Burma; just read what they did in Manchuria and other places they occupied. They are here only for Japan’s selfish interest; they do not care about Burma or the Burmese, Pho. The Japanese have a track record of destroying other countries and cultures. You should know that, Pho.”

His father got even angrier and barked, “I have had enough of you. Get out of my sight and get out of this home; I do not want to see your face in this house again.” Aung felt deeply hurt and departed.

When Aung was very young, he had heard stories about that Jade statue of Buddha and that Jade marriage bowl from his grandmother while sitting next to her on a sofa. She always said that those objects brought good luck and blessings to the Chaofa family. The Jade was mined by the Kachins from the Jade mines near Hpakant, and the best carvers of the day carved those. To her, those were almost spiritual and clearly objects of Shan pride; the Jade bowl was used in their family for many generations of marriages. No amount of money could replace those.

The value of those objects could not be measured in monetary terms. Those objects were part of a century of Chaofa family history. His grandmother had passed away, and his father did not seem to care about the Shan heritage. Aung could not tolerate it anymore—he knew he had to do something. After getting banished and leaving his father’s Muang, Aung wandered in the jungles for several weeks. He eventually decided that the best way to get rid of the Japanese would be to join the Kachins and their armed resistance against the Japanese occupation.

With that burning desire to expel the Japanese from his homeland, Aung joined the Kachin scouts and started assisting the Allied forces. The Kachins were already helping the British and American forces. Unlike the Shan, they were against the Japanese because of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army against ordinary Kachin villagers. The Kachin tribal leaders never forgot that violence and never forgave the Japanese Army. As scouts and rangers, they would observe and share information on Japanese troop strength and schedules of trains with supplies and ammunition storage, as well as pinpoint targets for accurate air raids. They also helped in rescue operations behind enemy lines.

Aung decided that he would reorganize that effort and help the Allied forces in a more predictable way by getting informers employed in a Japanese base and by appointing locals as lookout and spotters. He knew his language skills would come in very handy during the war. He was fluent in Shan, Kachin, Karen, and most importantly, English. Over a period of time, he would add a band of dedicated Shan and Kachin fighters; some of those were already experienced in the guerrilla tactics.

These fighters would participate in small arms skirmishes to harass the Japanese Army in the hills—Japanese patrols were targeted often. Initially, his was a very mobile group of scouts and fighters. They never stayed in any one place for long, but their efforts were concentrated around Myitkyina in Northern Burma. Aung and his Kachin scouts chose Myitkyina because it was strategically located; it had the biggest Japanese base and the most important regional airport. The airport was used as a hub for Northern Burma by the Japanese. The British also used the Myitkyina Airport in that manner before they left Burma.

Aung knew that the biggest battle of World War II (WWII) in his homeland would be fought in Myitkyina sometime in the very near future. He wanted to influence the outcome of that battle for his people. When Aung was not in a battle or in a crossfire while scouting, he would incessantly talk about the preservation of Shan tribal heritage and culture if he found a receptive audience. He would also talk about how the Japanese were plundering rubies, sapphires, and jade that belonged to the local tribes. The Shan, Kachin, and Lisu people of the hills were being deprived in every way; the Japanese did not care about the tribes. They knew they had the Burmese tribal leaders on their side.

The Shan cause had become an obsession with Aung. He was also realizing that as a minority ethnic group, the Shan and the other tribes could not remain isolated. Their best option was to engage in the politics in Burma’s national and regional levels—they needed a seat at the table. Most of Aung’s 1942 went in scouting for the British, but the British efforts were disorganized—mostly unsuccessful because the Japanese were well settled in their defensive fortifications. The Japanese forces could not be threatened because of their control over the Irrawaddy River and the railway track. The river and the railway gave a tactical advantage to the Japanese; those were the best transportation options.

By the end of that year, it was seeming unlikely that the British would ever cross the Irrawaddy River or launch a viable attack on the city of Myitkyina. Aung’s hopes were dwindling fast because an ever-increasing number of local leaders were moving over to the Japanese side. To Aung, an Allied victory in Burma seemed like an insurmountable challenge for the British. They were not able to cope; Aung was getting very concerned about the future Burma under Japanese occupation.

Around that time, through his contacts among the locals who worked with the Japanese forces, he was hearing rumors that Colonel Suzuki was being recalled to Japan with a few of his aides. Apparently, the Japanese war office thought Colonel Suzuki and his Minami Kikan were getting a bit too cozy with the Burmese national leaders. Aung was afraid that the Japanese might take the Shan treasures with them to Japan. Aung felt helpless—all he could do was to vent his frustration to his war hardened Kachin comrades in their mountain camp. They were among the few in the whole world that understood his agony.

One day, Aung heard a rumor that the British forces were almost ready to launch an extended campaign in Burma out of Assam and Nagaland in India. His source was a general contractor in the Japanese base, so the information had to be of high quality. He hoped that the British and other Allied forces had learned from their past mistakes. From his side, he decided that he would do everything to get his Kachin scouts ready. He rounded up more scouts, imparted weapons training to them, and surveyed the Kachin Hills for hidden caves, new trails, and streams.

All those measures would come in handy during the Allied campaign. Some Kachins were formidable guerrilla fighters by then; they became very effective in training other Kachins. As a result of those initiatives, the size of the scouts’ force grew to several hundred rapidly. Next year, 1943, was very different for Aung. That year brought new promises. The first of those promises were in the form of specially trained British forces for jungle warfare. These were special forces trained as long-range penetration units that were supported by supplies dropped from the sky by parachutes. By design, they did not have any support infrastructure on the ground. These British columns would penetrate the jungle on foot, mainly relying on surprise to target enemy lines of communication, road infrastructure, and supply depots.

Their mobility in the hills was their biggest asset; they were not large in numbers but were seasoned fighters. It was neither easy nor effective for the Japanese heavy armor to run after these forces on the Kachin Hills. Some of the trails were so narrow and steep that soldiers could only manage to march in single file. Even if the Japanese patrols knew of their presence, the topography made it hard for them to take action quickly. The British forces and the scouts became very good at using the terrain to their advantage—they managed to adapt really well.

Kachins were born trackers, they used those skills really well. The special forces carried everything they had and needed for jungle warfare on their backs. That technique worked well in the steep and scrubby hillside of Northern Burma. When the supplies were parachuted to these forces, local Kachins would assist them with load carrying mules or other animals that could negotiate steep inclines. Aung thought this was payback because the Japanese had previously used the same strategy to devastating effect against the British forces there. In the early stages of the war, the British were a bit unprepared; as a result, the Japanese Army advanced and captured Rangoon quickly.

Aung’s scout team with its intimate knowledge of the hills and the trails was very effective with these special forces teams. For the first time, Aung thought his scouts were making a difference. By the end of 1943, the British were disrupting Japanese communication lines on a regular basis. These attacks were not lethal blows to the Japanese yet but these were causes of constant irritation. The attacks were draining valuable resources; some resources took a long time to replenish in wartime. By this time, Allied air forces and navies were threatening Japanese supply lines on air and water all over Asia Pacific. Life was getting harder for the Japanese; it was not easy to sustain supply lines.

If the British destroyed a bridge, the Japanese could repair it in a week or two. But for those two weeks, local logistics were badly stretched. In time, that became the norm, and the Japanese were worried. In some cases, the guerrilla warfare would cause continuous strain in the Japanese supplies and pin them down. The Japanese were faced with a dilemma. If they stayed in the safety of their base, their infrastructure was attacked. If they came out of the base, the casualties went up dramatically. These were very difficult choices for an army that was used to easy victories against the relatively unprepared armies of South Asia in the early days of the war. They had to adapt to the new ground realities.

The Kachin scouts earned a good reputation as fearless fighters and for their assistance to the British special forces. After the British, the American special forces detachments started working with the Kachin scouts, and they reported good experience too. Aung had heard one story in which Kachin scouts found a parachute drop with hundreds of thousands of Indian Rupees in sacks. They had returned the entire lot to the Allied forces. The British and the Americans talked about their honesty, integrity, and commitment. That was how the world came to know about the highly effective Kachin scouts in the Burma campaign. No story of the WWII Burma campaign can be considered complete without mentioning the contribution of these honest, simple, hardworking, fierce fighters from the high hills of Northern Burma.

Kachins were very simple, straightforward people—they were also fiercely loyal. One British commander had written in his diary that what he liked most about the Kachins was their simplicity. They were not manipulative like the Burmar and Mon people of the river valleys. The Kachin tribal leaders had to prove a point to the Japanese Imperial Army. They were determined to teach a hard lesson to the Japanese. When the Japanese Army attacked innocent Kachin villagers and burned their homes, they did not anticipate any retaliation. They had grossly underestimated the ability and the resolve of the proud Kachins.

One morning in early 1944, Aung was asleep in his base camp in the Kachin Hills. It was February, so mornings were chilly in the hills. He had also returned pretty late the previous night after scouting work on the Japanese base. He suddenly woke up with a jolt in his hammock because of a noise. It was like a couple of people shouting in the local Shan and Kachin dialect. Aung’s scouts knew making noise could expose them to the wandering Japanese patrols—that is why they were trained to operate quietly. Noise in the hills can be very dangerous.

That was what had surprised Aung. His scouts were forgetting their basic training and shouting; their actions could endanger the whole scout camp! Aung was on his feet in a flash with his gun to investigate what was happening. When he got closer through the dense bushes, Aung found a Japanese person in an American type of uniform being held captive by two of his scouts at gunpoint. The captive was being interrogated by two of Aung’s new scouts, and they were not understanding a single word of his rapid-fire responses. Aung’s scouts were getting frustrated and threatening him by raising their voices in Shan and Kachin. They thought their raised voices would do the trick.

The two scouts were trying to scare the captive by telling him that he would be hung from a tree branch, and then certain parts of his body would be fed to the animals slowly. That graphic description did not have the desired effect on the captive because he did not understand Shan or Kachin. The two scouts were getting agitated. Aung listened to the exchange for a few minutes and realized that the captive was responding in fluent Japanese; he looked like a person of Japanese origin too. But because of his American style uniform, Aung looked at him and asked him in English very slowly, “Who are you?”

What followed was something completely unexpected! The man answered, “I am a Japanese American member of the American special forces who just entered Burma from India. After we entered Burmese territory, we were told by the British special forces that you were camping on these hills. I came looking for you when your people captured me.”

Just to make sure that he was not dreaming, Aung pinched himself and asked, “Why were you constantly responding to my people in Japanese? They are local Kachins with no Japanese language skills. They do not look like Japanese soldiers, do they?”

The American responded, “No, they certainly do not. I thought I might have run into locals working with the Japanese Army, so it felt safer to respond in Japanese. At least initially till I knew who they were. In the worst-case scenario, I could pretend to be a Japanese soldier who got separated from another unit. There are many divisions of the Japanese Army fighting in Burma, so they might not know one another. I was hoping they would not.”

Aung asked, “What about your uniform? Japanese soldiers do not wear that uniform.”

The captive answered, “I could say that on my way to the hills, I found a dead American soldier and stole his full uniform, so that I can blend in.”

Aung told him, “Good story, but you could not have sold that story to the Japanese. They are smart. If they found you, they would have killed you after interrogation. You are Japanese, so as a favor, they might not have used their own blades on you—they would have ordered you to do hara-kiri instead. You don’t know how the Japanese treat their prisoners; I have seen it myself.” The man shook. Aung’s next question was, “Why are you alone? Where is the team?”

He responded, “I am the advance lookout. I am ethnic Japanese—that was why I was selected.”

He informed Aung that the other members of the team were hiding near the nearby stream. Aung said, “First tip, never hide near a stream; that is the first place the animals and the Japanese would check. Anyway, take me to them immediately and walk ahead of me. Please be as quiet as you can; you should not be noisy in the hills; trackers can hear your footfall and plan an ambush from a long distance. Noise draws the wrong kind of attention from the Japanese in these hills.”

While walking down to the stream with the American soldier, Aung learned that this special forces unit under General Merrill was new. It was called the Galahad. This unit also had a Chinese detachment with it a mile down the stream. The Chinese and the Americans planned to take on the Japanese together. Aung thought that might work well tactically. The combined forces planned to attack the Japanese lines very hard in parallel, at multiple strategic points.

Once they reached the stream, Aung found nine other Americans in similar jungle uniform waiting. After the introductions, they went further downstream and met with the Chinese. There, only the commander, a twenty-year-old like Aung, spoke or understood English. That day, Aung spent the whole day briefing the Americans and the Chinese commanders in detail. He briefed them on enemy formations, transportation infrastructure, supply lines, and positions of heavy artillery. Aung returned to his mountain camp late in the evening.

The role for his scouts was clearly defined by the Galahad high command; Aung thought it would make them more effective. It seemed the Galahad had taken the scouts into account after talking to the British and then made its own tactical plan. Aung explained to the Americans how the Kachin scouts carefully planned an ambush, using their hand-made pungyi sticks. Pungyi was a smoke-hardened bamboo stake that the Kachins used in combat. The Kachins were sons of that soil—they could use the foliage to camouflage themselves very well. Being natural trackers, they could spot a Japanese patrol many miles ahead of the place of ambush. Those types of actions were not as easy for outsiders, more so for the Japanese soldiers. They could not do it.

In preparing an ambush, the Kachins would select a good site and camouflage the site to appear as natural as possible to casual observers. They would then position their automatic weapons, ready to rake the trail with bullets. After that, they would plant the pungyis in the foliage alongside the path. Once the Japanese entered the area, the fire of the automatic weapons would scatter the Japanese into the undergrowth, where they impaled themselves on the pungyis. The indigenous pungyi stick became a feared and deadly weapon in Burma. Having inflicted heavy damage, the lightly armed Kachins usually disappeared from the area, within minutes, avoiding prolonged engagements. Regular soldiers often displayed too much enthusiasm to stand and fight. Kachin scouts never did that—they knew how to survive. By the time Japanese reinforcements arrived, the Kachins would be long gone.

The Japanese could not follow the scouts all the way to their jungle hideouts. The Galahad forces quickly learned some of the tactics used by the Kachin scouts. General Merrill’s Galahad forces had entered Burma from India to build on the successes the British special forces had. These soldiers were well equipped and well-trained US Army special forces adapted for long-range jungle warfare. Some of the Galahad commanders had seen actions in other theaters, so they brought a lot of real-life combat experience with them to the Burma front.

They provided extensive weapons training to the scouts. Participation of the Chinese soldiers was a force multiplier even though they were inexperienced at the beginning of the campaign. Aung liked several of the Chinese commanders and became very good friends with them. This time, the combined American and Chinese forces were able to take the battle to the heart of the Japanese occupation. Many of the Chinese soldiers were in their early teens, really young, but they never gave up and kept fighting. In terms of sheer headcount, the Chinese X Force soldiers were much larger in numbers.

A few members of the Galahad became good friends too. One of the Galahad captains used to say, “When you fight alongside someone in the Kachin Hills, you have to know him really well because in these hills, death lurks in every trail and every stream.”

The Americans had a great deal of difficulty in adapting to the altitude, rain, humidity, heat, leeches, and diseases. The terrain was really unforgiving. In the initial stages of the campaign, they were losing more men to diseases, exhaustion, and accidents than firefights. The hills of Northern Burma were essentially the southernmost tip of the Himalayan mountain ranges, among the tallest in the whole world. Some the peaks were really tall, and most of the ravines on the way were thousands of feet.

No amount of training in the plains could prepare the American and the Chinese for what they were faced with in real life. The Kachin scouts taught them a range of survival techniques. They also had difficulties with food supplies and rations because parachute drops were difficult and irregular. The Americans and the Chinese understood the challenges and adapted. Navigating tall mountains in torrential monsoon downpour with heavy loads on their backs was not easy. Initially, it was very hard for the Americans and the Chinese; gradually, they adjusted. Some of the trails were so steep and so slippery with rivers of mud that the load carrying mules would slip and fall in ravines thousands of feet in depth. There was nothing the soldiers could do other than use self-preservation. Some sections of the terrain were so high in the mountains that when they woke up in the mornings, they could see clouds floating below, obscuring the view.

On some occasions, parachute drops went haywire because of the cloud cover below their positions. Sometimes, they fell in the wrong hands, and the Japanese enjoyed the food and rations. It took them a while to adapt to the harsh ground realities in the Kachin Hills. Aung and his scouts were battle hardened and ready to assist the Americans and the Chinese. During the first half of 1944, the Americans and the Chinese hit the Japanese hard where it hurt. The Japanese took heavy casualties everywhere and lost a lot of their communication infrastructure.

In about six months of combat, the combined forces advanced hundreds of miles through the harshest jungle terrain in the world, fighting hunger, malaria, blood dysentery, and the Japanese at the same time. Living out in the open in heavy rain and heat took its toll on the human body. Often, the soldiers developed chronic health issues that never went away. None of the battles were easy because Burma’s natural topography always favored the defenders. The defenders could easily use the high ground and the river to their tactical advantage.

In the early days of the engagement, several Chinese X Force formations had deadly friendly fire incidents because of poor communication. Aung regretted those unintended tragedies the most—many lives were lost. If there was one thing that held tight till the very end, that was the spirit: the rag tag multinational force knew that they had to win—they had no other choice. Aung remembered several major engagements in places like Walawbum, Shaduzuo, and near his home base in Myitkyina during that period. There were many other battles that he heard about. The American and the Chinese forces with the help of Kachin scouts engaged in combat with the Japanese Army on thirty-plus occasions. Most of the outcomes were against the Japanese.

Most military observers were surprised by the success of this hurriedly put together coalition of fighters against the more organized Japanese. The momentum of the war had shifted. Perhaps the only difference was that these Allied forces knew that they had to win, and by then, the Japanese resolve was slowly weakening. The Japanese confidence was shaken to the core—they were, in fact, afraid of the Allies by that time. Aung saw the tide turning against the invincible Japanese Army in front of his eyes. Battling Japanese soldiers, hunger, and disease did not come cheap; casualties were high among the Americans and the Chinese forces. During those fading days of the war, Aung was often reminded of his grandfather. Granpho used to talk about Burma’s geography protecting its flanks from enemies from the West.

Food and supplies were scarce. In the battle at Myitkyina, the Americans suffered over two hundred soldiers killed. In addition, about a thousand were wounded, and another thousand evacuated for disease. By the time the town of Myitkyina was taken, only a couple of hundred members of the original Galahad forces remained standing. Finally, by early August 1944, the entire town of Myitkyina was taken from the Japanese. The losses and injuries were much worse for the Japanese Army. The Japanese lost more than four thousand soldiers in the battle of Myitkyina. They had realized that the war was lost, and hurriedly organized groups of soldiers were retreating to Thailand.

At an overall level, the war was unraveling for the Japanese government in multiple fronts. By October of 1944, not long after Myitkyina fell in Northern Burma, the tables had turned. The United States 6^th Army led by General MacArthur landed on Leyte and eventually liberated the islands of the Philippines. In addition to Allied air forces owning the air over Eastern India and Western Burma, the Allied navy submarines had started dominating the seas completely by this time.

Those were undermining Japan’s supply lines in a major way. By the end of 1944, US Marines were threatening the Ogasawara Islands, inevitably getting closer to the Japanese mainland and islands of Okinawa. As bits and pieces of these news items started reaching him in Myitkyina, Aung was thrilled. He tried his best to locate Colonel Suzuki and his men in Rangoon. He wanted to call them out on their false promises, but they had all disappeared. By the end of August 1944, Aung knew that the war was coming to an end in Burma very soon, and the post war alliances would start settling down. Tribal leaders were already making plans. Suddenly, alignment with the Allies was in great demand. The Japanese Imperial Army, their vision of Minami Kikan, and praises for their Asian culture were all but forgotten. Aung had become wiser by then, and he told himself, “Such is the irony of life.”

For the first time since 1941, Aung Lung was optimistic about his and Burma’s future!