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Japan confirmed Netaji’s death month after Taipei crash
LONDON: Japan officially confirmed Subhash Chandra Bose’s death as early as a month after the air crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945, according to a document recently
LONDON: Japan officially confirmed Subhash Chandra Bose’s death as early as a month after the air crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945, according to a document recently sent by Japan’s Parliament to a veteran Indian journalist in the US. The document is another piece of evidence that adds to the belief the iconic leader perished in the crash. LONDON: Japan officially confirmed Subhash Chandra Bose’s death as early as a month after the air crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945, according to a document recently sent by Japan’s Parliament to a veteran Indian journalist in the US. The document is another piece of evidence that adds to the belief that iconic leader perished in the crash.
A section of Bose’s extended family and others have insisted over the years that he survived the crash and lived incognito as “Gumnami Baba” in India. Investigations and reports since the crash, however, have suggested Bose died in Taipei.
The 1945 document with the confirmation of Bose’s death was sent by the library of Japan’s National Diet or Parliament to veteran editor Govind Talwalkar, 91, who is now based in the US. Talwalkar, who has been investigating Bose for several decades, shared the document with HT and Bose’s London-based grandnephew Ashis Ray. It is considered perhaps the first official document confirming Bose’s death.
The document shows Japan conveyed the facts to the US nearly 11 years before submitting an investigation report to the Indian government in January 1956. The information was sought by Louis Mountbatten as commander of the Allied forces in India (then still under British rule) and Southeast Asia.
Japan’s communication to the US in 1945 was an interim report and a prelude to the final report handed over to the Indian government in 1956. The context of the communication is this — Japan surrendered in World War 2 on August 15, 1945, and Bose died in the crash three days later.
On August 30, 1945, or 12 days after the incident, the commander of the Allied land forces in the South West Pacific, US Gen Douglas MacArthur, through the Yokohama division of the Japanese Army, sought information from Japan on the “Reported Death of Chandra Bose”.
