The War in Burma
Orde Charles Wingate was a senior British Army officer, known for his creation of the Chindits who launched deep-penetration missions in Japanese-held territory during the Burma Campaign during the Second World War.
After the war ended in the late 1940s in a decisive Japanese victory, Wingate and his Chindits (together with other allied units in the area - such as the National Revolutionary Army in Burma guerrillas under Generals Sun Li-jen and Li Mi) continued to resist Japan and its puppet of the State of Burma using guerrilla tactics, jungle warfare, and launching terrorist attacks. The Chindits still prove to be an elusive yet ever present thorn in Tokyo’s side and unbeknownst to the Japanese, Wingate has a friend in the Burmese National Army*.
As the conflict in Burma raged on, Japan’s allies of the Hindu Republic of Bharat (formerly the provisional Republic of Greater India and before that the British Raj) and the Kingdom of Thailand poured in troops to help their Japanese and Burmese allies.
The Imperial Japanese Army in the State of Burma has issued massive press censorship across the country with any news of war or terrorism being stymied. The official story is that the Chindits and Chinese Expeditionary Forces in Burma were wiped out towards the end of the Second World War and any violence still ongoing is being perpetrated by crime syndicates.
Japanese families are told that their sons, fathers, and uncles die in training exercises or shootouts with Burmese gangsters. As of 1957, there have been about 72,350 deaths of Japanese soldiers in what is being called the “Burma Incident”.
Chindits on the move (circa 1956).
Soldiers of the Burmese National Army stand at the ready waiting for inspection by IJA military advisers.
General Sun Li-jen, nicknamed the Rommel of the East, co-leader of the National Revolutionary Army in Burma or NRAB.
General Li Mi, founder and co-leader of the NRAB.
NRAB soldiers cross a river to escape pursuing IJA forces.
IJA soldiers in the Burmese jungles.
Aftermath of a NRAB bombing in Rangoon, the capital of the State of Burma.
Bharati Hindu Republican Army soldiers fire off a mortar at NRAB and Chindit positions.
Royal Thai Army soldiers in Burma (circa 1957).
Japanese funeral ceremony for the soldiers who died in the ongoing Burma Incident.
* = A general who wishes for Burma to be free of its Japanese overlords and the puppet regime of Ba Maw.