June 16, 2019 Sunday
Bedtime Story
It Could have Been a Japanese Empire in India
Niall goes on comparing the British Empire
to those of German and Japanese.
“In the twentieth century too it more than
justified its own existence, for the alternatives to British rule represented
by the German and Japanese empires were clearly far worse.
And without its Empire, it is inconceivable
that Britain could have withstood them.”
One must never forget that Japan came very
close to conquering India during the World War II, a fact that most Hindus are
unaware of since it is hardly discussed in our history textbooks.
Most Hindus - even the most uninitiated and
unmotivated readers of history and science – would be aware of the Normandy
Landings of June 6, 1944 and the Battle of Stalingrad of 1942-43 thanks to
their repeated dramatization in popular Hollywood movies.
Both the events are legendary for turning
the tide of the World War II against the Axis Powers, the axis being the
“Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis” (or even more simply and fancifully as “Roberto”).
But hardly anyone would have even heard of
the Battle of Kohima.
In March of 1944 the Japanese had launched
an offensive that is now known as U Go Offensive or Operation C whose initial
goal was to capture the northeastern regions of Manipur and the Naga Hills from
the British Empire.
By 1942 the Japanese had driven out the
British and the Chinese out of Burma and fortified it thereby standing right at
the borders of British Empire and knocking on it.
Had the British (supported with the Indian
troops) lost the Battle of Kohima it would not only have paved the way for the
Japanese entry to India but shown to the world the weakness of British Empire -
a major psychological affront to the famed British superiority.
This would have encouraged the Hindu
Nationalists – Japanese were already getting support from Subhas Chandra Bose
and his Azad Hind Fauj – for increasing their chants of ousting the British
from India.
Hindu National Movement had already reached
its peak by then within the mainland India using all the three strategies of
non-violent protests and boycotts, violent struggle and constraining politics.
Victory in this operation would have suited
the Japanese ambition of expanding their own Empire into South Asia by setting
up friendly governments who would promote Japanese interests rather than those
of the Westerners having lived through under their yoke.
To the commander of the Japanese Fifteenth
Army, Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi the U Go Offensive was merely an
embryo of a much vaulting ambition of invading India and overthrowing the
British Raj.
As the history showed that that did not
happen and it is for this reason that that the British value this victory far
more preciously than do the Hindus.
The British consider the Battle of Kohima to
be their “Stalingrad of the East” with the British National Army Museum voting
the battle as “Britain’s Greatest Battle.”
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Advertisements
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
No comments:
Post a Comment