Page 372 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

370 CONTEXTS History
Kohima, and they were forced to retreat with heavy losses – most caused by disease,
starvation and exhaustion.
The tide slowly turned. Japanese forces fell back from the Chindwin to the
Ayeyarwady. Allied troops were sent into Rakhine while Chinese forces moved south to
Bhamo, followed by a decisive push into central Burma, with the Allies now able to
make the most of their superior numbers and air power in the flat central plains.
Meiktila fell in March 1945 after a devastating battle during which most of the town
was destroyed and almost every member of the Japanese garrison killed, while
Mandalay was captured shortly afterwards, following further fierce fighting that left
much of the historic old town in ruins. Simultaneously, the Burmese National Army
led by Aung San rose up against the Japanese. Allied forces now proceeded with
increasing speed towards Rangoon, following the rapidly retreating Japanese. Gurkha
and Indian forces arriving in Rangoon on May 1 discovered that the Japanese had
already abandoned the city and fled.

To independence
Four years of fighting had left the country in physical and economic tatters, with
estimates of the number of civilians who died during the Japanese occupation ranging
from 170,000 up to a quarter of a million. Following the Japanese surrender, the
Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) – which Aung San had founded in 1944 along with
others including future prime minister Ba Swe, socialist leader Thakin Soe, communist
leader Than Tun and old student comrade U Nu – emerged as the leading mouthpiece
for Burmese nationalist aspirations.
Two years of uncertainty followed, as the British attempted to stall demands for
immediate independence and Burmese communists, socialists and conservatives
manoeuvred for position. In January 1947 Aung San led an AFO team to London,
signing an agreement with British prime minister Clement Attlee guaranteeing Burma
independence within a year, while in February he convened the Panglong Conference,
during which leaders of the Shan, Kachin and Chin (but not, notably, Kayin) agreed to
form part of a future unified Burma. In general elections in April 1947, Aung San’s
Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL), as the AFO had now been renamed,
won 176 out of 210 seats.
Aung San was by now firmly established as Burma’s post-independence leader in
waiting. Or would have been. On July 19, 1947, Aung San and the Executive Council
of his provisional government were in a meeting at Rangoon’s Secretariat when a group
of gunmen stormed the rooms and assassinated Aung San along with six of his
ministers. The attack was eventually traced to former colonial-era prime minister U
Saw, who was subsequently hanged (although, as with the assassination of another
national political hero, American John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories continue to
abound; many suggest British involvement, while others point to the hand of future
military ruler Ne Win).
The catastrophic effect of Aung San’s death on Burma can hardly be overestimated,
given his status as the one leader who might have been capable of uniting the country’s
widely divergent peoples, and it’s often speculated how much more peaceful the
country’s subsequent history might have been, had he lived.

1885 1920 1930
Third Anglo-Burmese War: British forces University students Establishment of the nationalist
seize the whole of Myanmar, which is now strike in Rangoon in Thakin movement by students
administered as a province of British India protest at colonial at Rangoon University
educational policies

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