Abstract
The Burma Revolutionary Party had felt the need for getting arms and assistance from some friendly foreign power, but they could not be sure about who that power would be. In fact the ‘BRP’ itself was a vague and formless body of young thakins who met in secret places or on a secluded corner on the University campus at dark nights and dreamed their dreams aloud. Thakin Mya was the oldest among them. A leader of the first students strike of 1920, Thakin Mya practised law in Tharrawaddy and drifted into politics, winning a seat in the House of Representatives on the ‘Komin Kochin’ ticket. He was the unemotional, unflustered kind, and the younger thakins learned to look to him for counsel in crisis. There was also Thakin Chit, or Saya Chit, the schoolmaster, who was also looked upon by the younger set as teacher and guide.1 There was Thakin Kyaw Nyein, intellectual as well as energetic, working in the customs department by day, to earn enough to feed himself and his friends and the BRP, the provider and the brains. Ba Swe who was a student leader in the Tavoy high school, had also been specially brought over by the Rangoon University Students Union, to organize the student body and the BRP. Aung San, of course, a thakin leader now, and Secretary of the Dohbama Asiyone, after having ousted Thakin Ba Sein and Thakin Tun Ok who went and formed their own Asiyone, Secretary of the Freedom Bloc.
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References
The events in this chapter and sketches of the personalities appear in the following profiles in the Guardian magazine: U Kyaw Nyein, March 1955; U Ba Swe, March, 1956; General Ne Win, October, 1954; Bo Khin Maung Gale, July, 1954; Thakin Chit Maung, September, 1954; Bo Hmu Aung, May, 1954; U Nu, May, 1955; U Tun Win, October, 1955; Thakin Than Tun, October, 1956. The facts are also gathered from interviews. Notes of speeches made on the subject by Colonel Maung Maung, Colonel Aung Gyi, and Colonel Kyi Maung, who actively took part from BIA to the resistance, and remained to build the new Burma Army, at a briefing of a visiting Yugoslav military mission in Rangoon in 1953, have also been consulted by the author. Comments and interpretations are, of course, the author’s own responsibility.
Profile of U Hla Maung, now Burma’s Ambassador in Peking, Guardian magazine, July, 1955.
Profile of U Ba Swe, Guardian, March, 1956.
Colonel Maung Maung is now, perhaps appropriately, Director of Military Training in the Burma Army, and Professor of Military Science at the University of Rangoon. Colonel Aung Gyi is Colonel, General Staff.
Burma’s Challenge, by Aung San.
A History of the Minami Organ, a diary written by Mitsuru Sugii in Japanese; translated into English by H. Takahashi who, as ‘Colonel Kitajima’ came in with the Burma Independence Army; Mr. Takahashi is now assisting in the work of the Burma Defence Services Historical Research Institute.
Ibid.
The ‘thirty comrades’ were: Thakin Aung San (Bo Te Za); Thakin Shu Maung (Bo Ne Win); Thakin Tun Ok; Thakin Hla Pe (Bo Let Ya); Thakin Aung Than (Bo Set Kya); Thakin San Hlaing (Bo Aung); Hla Maung (Bo Zeya); Tun Shein, (Bo Yan Naing); Ko Shwe, (Bo Kyaw Zaw); Thakin Hla Myaing, (Bo Yan Aung); Thakin Ba Gyan (Bo La Yaung); Thakin Tin Aye. (Bo Phon Myint); Thakin Tun Khin, (Bo Myint Swe); Thakin Khin Maung U. (Bo Ta Ya); Thakin Tun Lwin. (Bo Ba La); Thakin Aung Thein. (Bo Ye Htut); Thakin Kyaw Sein, (Bo Mo Nyo); Thakin Saw Lwin (Bo Min Gaung); Thakin San Mya, (Bo Tauk Htain); Thakin Than Nyunt. (Bo Zin Yaw); Thakin Thit, (Bo Saw Naung); Ko Hla, (Bo Min Yaung); Thakin Tun Shwe, (Bo Lin Yon); Thakin Soe, (Bo Myint Aung); Ko Saung, (Bo Htein Win); Thakin Ngwe, (Bo Saw Aung); Thakin Aye Maung, (Bo Moe); Thakin Maung Maung, (Bo Nyana); Thakin Than Tin, (Bo Mya Din); Thakin Than Tin (died on Formosa island during training). Of the last-named six comrades, the five besides Thakin Than Tin died in the field either on entry into Burma, or during the resistance. Prominent among the survivors are: Bo Ne Win, General, and Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces; Bo Aung, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies; Bo Min Gaung, Minister for Transport in the Union Cabinet; Bo Let Ya, one-time Deputy Prime Minister, now in business; Bo Set Kya, one-time Member of Parliament, now in business. Besides Bo Ne Win only one more of the ‘thirty comrades’ remains in the Burma Army, and he is Bo Bala, a major. Bo Kyaw Zaw attained the rank of Brigadier, the second highest rank in the Burma Army, and was retired out for certain leakages of vital information in his possession to the communist insurgents. Bo Zeya, Bo Yan Aung, and Bo Ye Htut are with the communist insurgents.
The Burmese tabaung or soothsayer’s song had it that the last of the Burmese dynasty would be destroyed by the British, who in their turn would be hit by the ‘moe gyo-’ (lightning).
Bo Zeya remained with the Army to the resistance and, in the new Burma Army, reached back to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, then led some troops in mutiny and joined communist insurgents.
Profile of General Ne Win, Guardian, October, 1954.
Sir Maung Gyee was appointed Defence Counsellor to Sir Archibald Cochrane, the first Governor of Burma under the Government of Burma Act, in the latter part of 1940. Sir Archibald visited Burma in 1957, died at his home in Scotland in April, 1958.
The Burma Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and the Burma wing of the Royal Air Force distinguished themselves in war service after evacuating from Burma. The Vice Chief of Staff (Navy) of the Defence Forces, Commodore Than Pe was one of the first ofiicers recruited for the BRNVR; the Vice-Chief of Staff (Air) T. Clift, and several senior ofiicers of the Burma Air Force today also served in the RAF.
Bandoola was the Burmese general who fought the British in the first Anglo-Burmese War, and won the admiration of British field ofiicers by his generalship.
In Burma under the Japanese, U Nu, MacMillans, London, 1953.
Profile of U Kyaw Nyein, Guardian, March, 1955. An approved version of the escape appeared in the Bamakhit newspaper (then published by the Government) on August 1, 1943.
Dr. Ba Maw called himself Prime Minister, but General Tojo referred to him as ‘Chief Administrator’. The role of the Administration was, in strict law, advisory; the Japanese commander-in-chief and his military administration were the rulers. Dr. Ba Maw’s ‘Ministers’ were Dr. Thein Maung; Thakin Mya; Thakin Than Tun; (Bandoola) U Sein; U Hla Pe; U Tun Aung; Thakin Tun Ok; Thakin Ba Sein, and U Ba Win. (Financial and Economic Annual of Burma, July, 1943, Government Press, Rangoon, 1943).
Sir Mya Bu now lives in retirement. Sir Ba U became Chief Justice of the Union on independence, and President of Burma, 1951–56. (His autobiography, My Burma, has been published by Taplinger, New York). Sir Maung Gyee has retired after serving as Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s. Dr. Myint is Dean of Law, University of Rangoon. U Chan Tun Aung is Chief Justice of the High Court.
In Burma, published in September, 1944, by the Foreign Affairs Association, Rangoon.
The experiences of a senior official who spent the war years trading in rice are recorded in ‘River Journey’ in the Guardian, August, September, and October, 1954.
Political Memoirs, by Thakin Thein Pe, Taingchit Press, Rangoon, 1957, (in Burmese).
New Order Plan, in Burma, 1944.
Quoted in Financial and Economic Annual of Burma, 1943.
Burma’s Challenge, by Aung San.
See profile of U Thein Maung, Guardian, September, 1955.
Burma Legislative Council, Proceedings, vol. I. No. 7. p. 273.
See text of the constitution, appendix II.
Substantive articles of the treaty read: Art. 1. The Japanese and Burmese Governments, for the purpose of prosecuting the Greater East Asia War, agree to co-operate in military, political and economic matters. Art. 2. The Japanese and Burmese Governments agree to co-operate in the construction, advance and common prosperity of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. Art. 3. Matters of detail regarding the execution of this treaty will be negotiated when necessary. Art. 4. The Treaty will come into force on the date of signature. (Bamakhit, August 1, 1943; Burma during the Japanese Occupation, vol. I, October, 1943, Government of Burma, Simla.)
The Ministers of the Cabinet were: Dr. Ba Maw, Prime Minister; Thakin Mya, Deputy Prime Minister; Dr. Thein Maung, Finance; U Tun Aung, War-Cooperation; U Ba Win, Home Affairs; Bandoola U Sein, Propaganda and Prosperity; U Hla Pe, Forests and Mines; Thakin Than Tun, Land and Agriculture; U Thein Maung, Justice; U Mya, Commerce and Industry; U Hla Min, Education, Health, and City Development; U Aye, Revenue; Thakin Nu, Foreign Affairs; Major-General Aung San, War; Thakin Lay Maung, Transport.
The first meetings of San Po Thin, Kya Doe and Aung San are described in Grandfather Long Legs, by Ian Morrison, Faber & Faber, London, 1947. An account of a goodwill mission among Karens appears in the Guardian, June, 1947, under the title, ‘My Karen Diary’, by U Mya Sein.
Profile of the Adipati Dr. Ba Maw, by Htin Fatt, in Burma, 1944.
Col. Aung Gyi, Brig. Tin Pe, Col. Chit Rhine, and Lt-Col. Aye Maung are serving officers in the Burma Army. So are Lt-Col. Win, and Col. Maung-Maung. Ye Htut is a leader among communist insurgents. Bo Khin Maung Gale is Minister of Finance. U Ba Gyan, after resigning as Minister, now practises law. T. K. Boon is also a practising lawyer.
In December, 1951, when the first course was started, his theme being that party politics must severely be shut out of the Army.
Daw Khin Kyi, widow of Aung San, is permanent head of the Social Services Commission. Daw Ma Ma Gyi, wife of Thakin Than Tun, is with her husband in the jungle.
A typical Burmese group which stole out of Burma into India in 1944 was led by Thakin Bo and Mahn Win Maung. Thakin Bo, Ba Thein and some colleagues died in an aircrash on their return journey into Burma. Mahn Win Maung parachuted back, and broke a leg. He became Minister in the Union Cabinet, and was elected to the Presidency of Burma in March 1957. An account of the group’s adventures appears in the speech of the President-elect, Joint Session, Proceedings, Parliament, vol. 7. No. 1. March 11, 1957.
A fuller story of the Burma Independence Army, the Resistance, and the Burma Army will be told when the History of the War, being prepared by the Defence Services Historical Research Institute, is published. An account of the aim and purpose of the resistance was also given by General Ne Win in his broadcast from Rangoon on May 7, 1945. (Text of broadcast appears in The New Burma, Nay Win Kyi Press, Rangoon, 1946, and the Guardian magazine January 1954).
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© 1959 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Maung, M. (1959). War and Japanese Occupation. In: Burma’s Constitution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-8890-6_2
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