India's biggest cover-up

by Anuj Dhar

  Hachiya proposed that Bose should fly to Saigon and contact Field Marshal Count Terauchi Hisaichi, the commander of the Japanese forces in South East Asia. Bose was OK with it. He gelled well with Terauchi, and Hachiya and Isoda were offering to accompany him to Saigon—the Ho Chi Minh City of today. At noon on August 17 two planes landed at a deserted Saigon aerodrome. Bose, Ayer, Pritam, Rahman and a Japanese officer arrived first, followed by Hachiya, Isoda, Col Gulzara Singh, Debnath Das and Major Abid Hasan, the man who had travelled with Bose in a German submarine to Japan. As Bose deplaned, a photograph—his last—was snapped.

  [Image taken from “Challenge to the Empire-A study of Netaji” by SC Maikap]

  At the aerodrome, Isoda was informed by Lt Col Tada Minoru, a staff officer from Terauchi’s HQ, that they had made arrangements to fly out Bose in the very first plane which was to leave in the evening. Dissatisfied, Isoda and Tada left for the HQ. That was in Dalat, roughly an hour’s flight away from Saigon. Col Yano Muraji, chief of the India Section in Terauchi's HQ, met Isoda in Dalat and reiterated Tada’s position.

  At around noon Isoda and Tada met Bose in Saigon at the residence of local Indian Independence League head. “Terauchi had received no orders from Tokyo in connection with the surrender of the INA and, therefore, he was not in a position to give any advice on the matter.” [7] The only option left was to fly to Tokyo. Bose sent for Rahman and in his presence

  the Japanese officers informed that it was not possible to get a separate plane for the party as was originally expected because the Allies had issued instructions to the Japanese government, which had surrendered on the 15th August 1945, not to fly any plane without their permission. They said, however, that one plane was leaving soon in which one seat was available. [8]

  Bose broke the meeting to consult with his other aides. Gulzara, Pritam, Hasan, Ayer, Debnath and Rahman were against Bose’s travelling alone. Accompanied by Rahman and Ayer, Bose rejoined the meeting and the Japanese somehow managed to secure one additional seat. In Rahman’s words,

  all three of us then returned and met the rest of the party. Here Netaji informed that now he had two seats to avail of. Netaji then asked as to who would accompany him. He looked at each of us who were standing and while he looked at me he said, “You will come with me....” [9]

  Bose told Ayer, Hasan and Gulzara to come to the airport with their luggage just in case more seats were made available. For the rest, he had already requested the Japanese to fly them to Tokyo as soon as they could.

  At the Saigon airport a Mitsubishi Ki-21 bomber—the Allies called it “Sally”—was already on the taxi strip with its engines running when Bose and others reached at 4.30pm. The door clunked open and from it emerged a Japanese general the same age as Bose but appearing younger due to his glassy face, set off by a luxuriant moustache. Lt Gen Tsunamasa Shidei, staff officer of Terauchi’s HQ and just appointed deputy chief of staff of Quantung Army, greeted Bose and showed him in. Bose, donning his now trademark INA cap, khaki bush shirt and trousers, bid his men goodbye and got in, followed quickly by Rahman. Ayer, Hasan, Pritam, Gulzara and Debnath stood transfixed as the plane took off and then faded into the sky.

  Comfort flying was the last thing Bose and Rahman could expect in a bomber doubling as a transporter. The half a dozen passengers squatted on the floor for there were no proper seats. In the cockpit beneath a greenhouse-type arrangement made of celluloid were Pilot Warrant Officer Aoyagi Juzaburo and Associate Pilot Major Takizawa. Lt Col Tadeo Sakai, Lt Col Shiro Nonogaki, Major Taro Kono, Major Ihaho Takahashi were in the rear. Bose had been invited to the co-pilot’s seat on the starboard side, but he found it cramped. Shidei took it up and Bose preferred to sit behind the pilot. Behind him was Rahman, just opposite to Shidei, and next to him protruding from the ceiling was a petrol tank.

  Around 7pm the plane landed in Tourane, now Da Nang, on the south Vietnamese coast. Bose and other officers checked in at the largest hotel in the town. On the 18th morning they resumed the journey to Tokyo and at 2pm had landed at Matsuyama aerodrome in Taihoku, Formosa—today’s Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

  Rahman emerged shivering; he had been feeling cold as the bomber notched up to 14,000 feet during the flight. He held out a pullover but Bose said he did not need it. Rahman put on a full sleeves bush shirt, coat, breeches and top long boots. It struck him somewhat odd to see Bose standing there and “looking into the distance”.

  This was Rahman’s third stopover at the scenic city surrounded with hills. The allied straffing had reduced the Matsuyama aerodrome into a picture of devastation, though. Bombed-out buildings were no longer in use and no hangar or any other plane was in sight. Only a skeleton staff comprising some groundcrew personnel was around. The only visually appealing site at the aerodrome was a colourful tent, where a light lunch was being served.

  We also helped ourselves to sandwiches and some bananas. All this took us about half an hour when we were signalled again to emplane. [10]

  And then the most contested air disaster in the history of India happened.

  At 2.30pm the nosewheel lifted off the ground gently and the plane began its climb. Captain Nakamura, the maintenance officer at the Matsuyama aerodrome, first heard a terrifying boom. He turned and saw something fall off the plane. It was the propeller and the port engine. On board, Rahman too heard a shattering boom.

  As soon as the noise was heard, the plane started wobbling with its nose downwards and I heard a wailing noise usually heard at the time when a plane makes a nose dive. My immediate reaction was to cover my face with both hands and at that time our heads were downwards and I remember having been struck by the packages at my back. [11]

  The pilots made desperate attempts to control the plane but couldn’t. The joystick trembled and the needles on the dashboard flickered wildly. Plunging 300 feet in three seconds, the plane impacted the ground at nearly 300 kmph. It swerved violently and screeched to a halt after hitting a heap of rubble.

  Rahman tumbled over. His forehead got ruptured after hitting the floor and right knee bruised against something hard and sharp. Nonogaki was thrown out to safety but Shidei had been flung to his death. The general hit the starboard in front of him and then the fuel tank struck him from behind, smashing his head. Sakai, Takahashi and Arai regained consciousness in time to run out. Major Kono made desperate rescue bids. The fallen fuel tank had cut him off from Bose and Rahman. He saw pilot Takizawa slumping down with his bloodied face pierced by the joystick. Kono couldn’t dare to take a look at Aoyagi, also face down. He broke through the cockpit windscreen and jumped out.

  The front portion of the crashed plane was now ruptured and enflamed. Habibur Rahman “thought that the end was only a matter of seconds” for the rear had been blocked by tumbling packages.

  Netaji was injured in the head but he had struggled to his feet and was about to move in my direction to get away from the fire and to get out of the plane through the rear. But this was out of question. There was not an inch of passage through which we could get out. So I said to him ‘aage se nikliye, Netaji’. [12]

  Bose staggered to the front to find the entrance door blocked by a firewall. “It was touch and go,” Rahman later recalled. Bose leapt through the flames.

  With both hands he fought his way through the fire…. When the plane crashed, Netaji got a splash of petrol all over his cotton Khaki and it caught fire when he struggled through the nose of the plane…I followed him through the same flames. The moment I got out, I saw him about 10 yards ahead of me, standing, looking in the opposite direction to mine towards the west. His clothes were on fire.

  I rushed and I experienced great difficulty in unfastening his bush shirt belt. His trousers were not so much on fire and it was not necessary to take them off. He was not wearing the sweater. He was wearing khaki drill. I laid him down on the ground and noticed a very deep cut on his head, probably on the left side. His face had been scorched by heat and his hair had also caught fire and singed
. The cut in his head was a long one, about four inches. [13]

  Exhausted Rahman collapsed next to Bose. He looked around and saw the crashed plane on fire. Another survivor was sitting on a boulder and moaning. This place was 1-2 miles outside the field in an open land with no habitation in sight. Rahman looked at Bose. His carbonised skin was hanging off him in shreds. He was in terrible pain but still composed.

  Just then, Netaji enquired from me in Hindustani: “Aap ko zada to nahin lagi?” (Hope you have not been hurt badly.) I replied, “I feel that I will be alright.” About himself, he said that he felt that he would not survive. I replied, “Oh! God will spare you. I am sure you will be alright.” He said, “No, don’t think so.” He used these words: “When you go back to the country, tell the people that up to the last I have been fighting for the liberation of my country; they should continue to struggle, and I am sure India will be free before long. Nobody can keep India in bondage now.” [14]

  Minutes later, Bose was shifted to a lorry which took him and Rahman to Nanmon (South Gate) military hospital, a small branch of the main hospital. The aerodrome staff had already sounded the hospital. At around 3pm the victims were rushed in.

  As soon as we were taken to the hospital, the doctor came to dress me because I was still in uniform. I told him to attend to Netaji at once. [15]

  This was Capt Taneyoshi Yoshimi, the in charge of the Nanmon hospital. His initial observations revealed that badly burnt Bose’s temperature was 39 centigrade and the pulse rate 120 per minute.

  When he was laid on the bed, I personally cleaned his injuries with oils…. He was suffering from extensive burns over the whole of his body, though the most serious were those on his head. There was very little left on his head in the way of hair or other identification marks. [16]

  Yoshimi’s colleague Dr Tsuruta Toyoshi applied white zinc ointment and bandaged Bose all over. According to Rahman, who remained throughout by the side of his leader, Bose

  was taken to the operation theatre room. There the doctor gave him a white transfusion which I think was camphor. I enquired of the doctor later on. He said that it was a very deep injury [on Bose’s head] and his heart was affected by the burns. [17]

  To aid Bose’s stressed heart pumping thick, burnt blood, Yoshimi let out 200 cc of it and transfused fresh 400 cc. Rahman said after Bose was brought to the ward from the operation theatre, he “did not talk too much” and was semi-conscious. “After about an hour, he fell into complete coma.”

  The doctor was sanguine in the beginning but after about three hours he was not so hopeful. Once or twice Netaji asked for water. Once he mentioned the name of Hasan. I said, “Hasan is not here” and I gave him my name. He asked for water at that time. Thereafter, I think he was completely unconscious. [18]

  English-speaking Juichi Nakamura, who had on previous occasions interpreted for Bose, arrived a little before Bose succumbed to the burn injuries. The end came in the presence of Dr Yoshimi, Rahman, Nakamura and some nurses. It was 9pm Japan time.

  On August 19 morning Rahman told Nakamura and a Japanese staff officer that Bose’s body should be taken to Singapore. In the afternoon, a coffin box of camphorwood was brought in. “The body was wrapped in a white sheet of cloth with cotton padding underneath and the coffin was nailed… The body was fully dressed and no part of it was visible….” [19] In the evening Nakamura told Rahman that “the Japanese commander was very sorry that they could not arrange for the transportation of the coffin” because it “could not be placed in a bomber”. Rahman argued with Nakamura, which was all he could do.

  Next morning i.e. on the 20th, the Japanese staff officer from the headquarters, whose name I do not know, came and expressed their inability to help at this juncture for the transportation of the body and said that they had in fact measured the size of the coffin and the space into the plane and they found that the coffin, as it was, could not be put into the plane.

  I asked as to why they could not arrange for a bigger plane. But the officer informed that they did not have a bigger plane at that place. Then the officer asked me as to what I wanted to be done with the body. I said, “Can’t you arrange for the embalming of the body?” After consultation with the officer commanding the hospital, I was told that they did not have the necessary medicines available with them for this purpose. Finding no alternative it was decided that the body should be cremated. [20]

  At that time a photographer arrived.

  Then the lid of the coffin was removed and the body was uncovered. ...The head was bandaged; the face was open. It was swollen and disfigured. It was coated with white ointment for burns. ...The face could be recognised by me. …The photo of his body (excluding the face) was taken at my request. [21]

  Rahman was then told that preparation for the cremation had been made. At the crematorium, which was about four miles away from the hospital, the coffin was offloaded from a lorry that had brought it here. A car carrying Rahman, Nakamura and Major Nagatomo pulled up behind it. Inside, the crematorium had two rows of about a dozen incinerators with metallic doors with bolts outside.

  The body was taken out of the coffin, laid on a sliding tray and pushed inside. The door of the incinerator was shut by a somber-looking priest holding incense sticks. He held out one to Rahman who somehow grabbed it in his bandaged hand. For about half an hour Rahman stayed there as fire started consuming his leader’s body. He returned the next day with Nagatomo and Nakamura. The hood was opened and the sliding tray pulled out. Following Buddhist custom, Major Nagatomo “first picked a bone from the throat with two chop-sticks and placed it in the box”. He was followed by Rahman.

  I saw the ashes of Netaji’s body inside it. We had a wooden urn to collect the ashes. We collected some ashes from the head-side, nearest to the door, and placed them in the urn. I remember distinctly that a little piece of gold, which was from the filling of one of Netaji’s teeth, was removed and placed in the urn. [22]

  The urn containing the ashes was eventually flown to Japan on September 5 by Rahman, Sakai and Tatsuo Hayashida, a young officer posted in Taipei. By September 7 the urn had reached the Imperial HQ in Tokyo and the next day it was handed over to SA Ayer and Munga Ramamurti, a leading member of the Indian community in Japan.

  Before this happened, Ayer was told of Bose’s death on August 20 by Colonel Tada. Ayer wouldn’t believe it then. “Not a single Indian in India or East Asia will believe this story unless you produce conclusive proofs,” he told Tada. “I must see Netaji’s body with my own eyes. ...Do not tell me afterwards that Netaji’s body has been disposed of.” [23] Ayer was not taken to Taipei and he never saw Bose’s body. But the doubting information minister of Bose was persuaded by the Japanese to co-draft the news of his death. It was then released to the world through the Japanese news agency Domei on 23 August 1945. In India the news first appeared in the late editions of some papers on August 24. It fell like a hammer blow in Kolkata:

  In its story datelined August 23 from London, the Times of India reported:

  Mr Bose, head of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind left Singapore on August 16 by air for talks with the Japanese Govt. He was seriously injured when his plane crashed at Taihoku airfield at 2 PM on August 18. [24]

  The Hindu and Hindustan Times on August 25 carried verbatim the statement co-written by Ayer and the Japanese that said that Bose had “left Singapore on August 16 by air for Tokyo”.

  In Japan too the news made it to all major newspapers. Shidei’s wife was devastated. The Quantung Army personnel in Manchuria mourned the death of the general who never joined them. If he had not died, Shidei would have been there when his superior General Otozo Yamada surrendered to General Alexander Vasilevski of the Red Army in the Manchurian capital on 22 August 1945. Ironically on the same day, the news of his death was announced.

  In Poona, Gandhi was informed. He made his first public appearance during the regular evening prayer. Looking grave, he told Congress volunteers to bring the Congress f
lag down and said nothing. Nehru broke down after being informed by the Press reporters in Abbottabad. “A mixed feeling of deepest sorrow and relief enveloped my soul for the present—sorrow because the great selfless leader passed away and relief because the brave man met with a brave and sudden death.” [25]

  “Now he belongs to history. And yet there will be deepest sorrow and gloom in every house in India,” said Congress leader Kiran Shankar Roy in Kolkata, where students organised several condolence meetings on the streets. The Amrita Bazar Patrika on 25th gave an overview of all India reaction: In Amritsar, all major markets did not open the previous day, a shut-down was to be observed in Ahmedabad on the 25th; in Karachi people were called upon to observe 26th as “Subhas Bose Day”. Hindustan Times had the details of the immediate reaction from the West.

  The death of Mr Subhas Chandra Bose reported by the Japanese has—if true—relieved the British authorities of a difficult problem, but has undoubtedly caused new pain in the heart of millions of Indians, writes Preston Groer, Associated Press of America staff correspondent…. At the same time many questioned whether the Japanese had co-operated in giving him an opportunity to “go-underground” and escape punishment for opposing Allied forces. [26]

  Not just average people, the timing and inordinate delay in relaying of news had raised suspicions at the highest level in India. Viceroy Field Marshal Archibald Wavell recorded his disbelief in the Japanese announcement in his diary. “I suspect it very much, it is just what should be given out if he meant to go underground.” [27]