Road to Delhi. M. Sivaram

Road to Delhi - M. Sivaram


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the outside world was closed; and my job as a correspondent meant nothing. On the other hand, it meant that I had lost contact with my family indefinitely. Besides, my job as a newspaper editor depended, if at all, on the pleasure of the Japanese military authorities. The question was whether the Japanese would put me in a concentration camp as an enemy subject. And, from that arose another question: how about trying to make a getaway?

      Even with this thought in the background, the immediate urge was to know more about the war, though I knew that any information I collected had little chance of getting out of the country.

      Bit by bit, news started trickling in. Momentous events had taken place in Bangkok since midnight. At midnight Japan had presented an ultimatum to Thailand. The "mysterious movements" we saw on the streets were the activities of Japanese residents, collecting their women and children and taking them to safety to a Japanese warship in the Gulf of Siam, just in case Thailand turned down the ultimatum.

      Shortly after the Japanese Ambassador's visit, the British and the United States ambassadors called on the government leaders, told them they had information that Japan was ready to invade Thailand. Neither Britain nor the United States could send immediate military help but they urged all-out resistance by Thailand.

      While the government was considering the crisis, the Japanese Ambassador called again, this time to announce that the invasion was on, and to deliver the warning that a Japanese aircraft-carrier was in the Gulf of Siam and that Bangkok would be in shambles by dawn.

      That did the trick. After less than five hours of scattered resistance, Thailand ordered the surrender.

      Everywhere in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the opening phase of the war reflected the most perfect planning. In Bangkok, nobody knew that war had broken out until it had ended. In Pearl Harbor, nobody was awake until the Japanese had virtually destroyed the American base. In Singapore, the air raid siren did not work; the man at the switch board had been knocked down by some unseen hand just before the raid.

      Thailand's warships at the naval station on the Gulf had all gone temporarily out of order that night. The navy commander also happened to be away on a joy ride. Even the Prime Minister, Marshal Songkhram, was away from the capital. He was at the Indochina border in the east, thinking that the main Japanese assault would come from that side.

      Wars certainly have a very tricky way of breaking out. And, if truth is the first casualty of war, the independence and neutrality of the weak nations come next on the list.

      By afternoon, the city was full of Japanese troops. Foreign embassies, banks, and business houses were surrounded by them. The airport and railway stations were occupied by them. Everybody was scared.

      There was no possible exit. In the East, in Indochina, the Japanese were in control. Fighting was going on all along the Malay peninsula ; so it was futile to attempt the southern route. The only hope was to get across to Burma in the northwest—400 miles by rail and road from Bangkok and a 200-mile trek across the mountains. I made up my mind to take a chance.

      Bangkok was a dead city that night. Grim-faced troops with fixed bayonets, stood guard at street corners. Giant military trucks raced along the streets. I got to the railway platform through a side entry and quietly climbed into a crowded local train, bound northward. From nearby compartments I could hear Japanese soldiers challenging "enemy" nationals and dragging them out to the platform. I stood still in a corner until the train moved out; and then heaved a sigh of relief.

      Would I get anywhere on this desperate, unscheduled trip? The thought was disconcerting. So I tried to think of the glow and gaiety of the previous night and the joy ride on the river.

      I hoped for the best and was ready for the worst. Little did I know that my adventure would come to an abrupt end after a six-day trek across jungles and mountains, almost within reach of Burma. Little did I suspect that I was trying to run away from destiny.

      2

      "Boryaku"

      HIGH UP on Kudan Hills, in the heart of Tokyo, was the nerve center of the Japanese war machine. Rows of grim-looking four-story buildings reached out into the sky from that hilltop. They housed the Japanese War Ministry, the Imperial General Staff, and the Dai Honyei or Imperial Headquarters.

      In a remote corner of this vast set-up stood one block that was officially called the 8th Section of the 2nd Bureau of the Imperial General Staff. Few people outside the Japanese military clique knew what the 8th Section of the 2nd Bureau stood for, though the subtle influence of the small men who sat in those dingy rooms was felt far and wide.

      If you saw a lone Japanese hawker on the beaches of Malaya or Madagascar, or a thrifty little Japanese fisherman on the coast of Borneo or Brazil, you could be sure that he was connected with the 8th Section of the 2nd Bureau. If some jolly little Japanese tourist made friends with you at your hotel or in the train, plied you with drinks and tried to talk politics, the chances were that he was working for the mystery men of Kudan Hills. A good many of the barbers, photographers, and brothel-keepers who migrated from Japan to foreign parts those days were subsidized by the mysterious offices at the Imperial General Staff. Some of them were specially trained officers of the Imperial Japanese Army or Navy.

      But the 8th Section of the 2nd Bureau also handled big deals. Former Emperor Pu-Yi of Manchukuo was a creation of the men who directed this particular section of the Japanese war machine. So was Wang Ching-wei, who headed the Japanese-sponsored Nanking Government in China. And many of the wartime leaders of East Asia were also "discovered" and brought up or bought up by agents of the 8th Section, 2nd Bureau.

      If the Japanese forces found the going extremely smooth in Malaya and Burma, if they invariably got vital information regarding enemy positions and other details connected with the military campaign, if they easily secured the services of guides and interpreters wherever they went, they knew at once that they were indebted to the long arm of the 8th Section, 2nd Bureau.

      This was the organization that dealt with "Boryaku"— espionage and counter-espionage, propaganda and counter-propaganda. Its armory included almost everything, from poison to presidentship. It had been perfected by such foxy geniuses as General Doihara, Japan's "Lawrence" of Manchuria.

      Besides the series of amazing military successes, Japan scored heavily in its propaganda offensive, especially in the Southeast Asian countries, by the skillful use of such slogans as "Freedom for All," "War of Liberation," and "Asia for Asians." There was something irresistible about the trend of military events at the initial stages of the Pacific War. Added to that was the magic of such terms as "freedom" and "liberation" and the hope and trust they engendered in the hearts of politically oppressed people. Yet, there were misgivings among the people in the countries overrun by the Japanese armed forces regarding the sweet slogans of the Mikado's mission.

      The Japanese lashed forth in full fury. Thailand succumbed to the grand assault in five brief hours and then signed up on the dotted line. It was called an agreement providing for the passage of Japanese troops through Thailand but it amounted to virtual Japanese military occupation of the Thai Kingdom. British resistance in Malaya was feeble. The "Prince of Wales" and the "Repulse," the pride of the British Fleet, were sunk by Japanese kamikaze pilots. The Japanese forces marched into Burma and carried out landing operations everywhere in the East Indies archipelago. The war seemed to be going on, according to Japan's plans.

      Those were fateful days for the unhappy peoples of Southeast Asia. Their colonial rulers were on the retreat before the onslaught of the Japanese war machine. Japan claimed that it was out to crush Anglo-American-Dutch imperialism and to liberate Asian nations from alien yoke. The British and the Americans, on the other hand, claimed that they were determined to defend themselves against Japanese aggression and to maintain peace in the Pacific. In the twinkling of an eye, all Asia became a pawn in that catastrophic game.

      There was already a major war in China and the Chinese communities, large and influential in almost every country in Southeast Asia, needed no particular introduction to the war aims, ideals, and aspirations of the Japanese militarists. Since 1937, the Chinese in Southeast Asia had been actively assisting Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist


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