Kohima, Nagaland, India
"When you go home tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow, we gave our today"
--Epitaph of the 2nd Division
The Battle of Kohima was where the Japanese invasion of India was halted during the Second World War
. The Japanese had swept through South East Asia – Singapore, Malaysia, Burma, had all fallen. The Japanese's next target was India itself. They crossed into India in Manipur and Nagaland and cut off the vital Kohima - Imphal Road. The bravery of the men who defended Kohima and turned the tide is one of the great stories of the World War.
The key battle was fought in Kohima at the Garrison Hill around the Deputy Commissioner’s bungalow. On his tennis court and where a cherry tree was there, was the exact place where the tide of the war against the Japanese turned for the Allies. Today it is in the middle of Kohima town and is preserved as a War Cemetery managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is a somber and moving place. No words can describe the moving experience of standing in the War Cemetery. This is a place for silence, not words. See the photos.
Of the Japanese, there is no record at all. They died in huge numbers too – the soldiers as innocent as the British and Indian ones. They were following orders. And worse, they died in vain. We should think of them too.
Ah the futility and horror of war.
I request a moment’s silence as you read the post and see the photos.
In their honour.
We should not forget. We should never forget.
The Battle of Kohima
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Kohima, Nagaland, India
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Comments
2025-05-23
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Vincy Joseph
2015-02-28
Such a poignant post :-) The mothers words, on the epitaph of her young son, yes brought tears. they were all so young in their prime ages.
A big Salute to all of them.
Ravi Rajagopalan
2015-02-28
I had predicted you would end up at the Tennis Court. Lt Gen Sato, who commanded the 31st Infantry Regiment that attacked Kohima, subsequently had a memorial to the Japanese fallen erected in the 1950s in Japan. His troops were poorly supplied and essentially most of them starved to death, and of course reinforcements arrived just in time. Gen Sato retreated - something that did not happen in the IJA - and further refused to commit seppuku - ritual suicide - alleging incompetence in his superiors. Gen Slim however thought that Gen Sato committed tactical blunders in the battle. Very moving, the pictures.
Ravi Rajagopalan
2015-02-28
Also read somewhere that the epitaph on the Tennis Court is based on something was said or written at the Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece. For your readers, I would very highly recommend "Forgotten Armies" by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, that recounts the fall of British Asia between 1941 and 1945. One of the interesting sidelights to the battle is that troops of the Indian divisions who defended Kohima were savage towards the troops of the Indian National Army (Netaji's army, essentially POWs from the Indian Regiments defending Singapore who turned to the Japanese after they surrendered in 1941). The concept of "namak" or salt is ingrained in the Indian armyman. Japanese propaganda was turned on full blast asking the Indian soldiers to defect, but no one did. Instead British officers saw their Indian sepoys behave with unusual savagery towards the INA troops in Kohima, Imphal and everywhere else along the Burma border and into the rest of the war. These simple men could not understand how a fighting man could turn against his fellow men - it is a oath of companionship, an oath to the "salt" that have eaten. Strange nobility pervades war which is anything but.
Ravi Rajagopalan
2015-02-28
Sorry - you asked for it..
My good friend and colleague Andrew Martin in Lucent Tech in London (he was Director HR for EMEA) brought his 95 year old father to Kohima in 2003. His father was one of those who fought there. Andrew told me how the entire visit was facilitated by the Indian Army. His father was carried to the tennis court, and father and son held each other and wept.
J
2015-02-28
Futility of war - so true then and now.
J
2015-02-28
And the price is paid by the innocent - when will we learn
Suja
2015-02-28
Very moving... I thought of the mother and sorrowed with her and all mothers like her, whichever nation she belonged to. The photos tell the tale..
Thank you Ravi, the details you have added are very interesting.
indigoite
2015-03-01
@Vincy - It is a sombre moment to stand at the scene of a War. I get goosebumps whenever I o this, in whatever war it might be. I am so appalled at what man can do to man.
@Ravi - Thanks for all your perspectives. How can I come to this region an not go to the Tennis Court.
Indeed Sato was a "different" Japanese commander. Their cause was not helped by the friction between Sato an his boss Mutaguchi. As you say, The Japanese were more killed by starvation than by Allied attacks. But the Allied Forces fought incredibly bravely. I think it was nominated as Britain's greatest battle in the War.
The epitaph of the Second Division was indeed inspired by the epitaph written by Simonides to honour the Spartans who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Your knowledge of World History is simply amazing. I knew that always, but even then I am dumbfounded :)
indigoite
2015-03-01
@J - Indeed so.
@Suja - Its incredibly moving. There's no way you can stand there without tears coming to the eyes.
Richard M
2015-03-01
Very moving descriptions, Ramesh. Can only echo your sentiments on the futility of war; and sympathy for all those lost simply following orders...
sandhya sriram
2015-03-01
you always dont need words to say a feeling. your post says much more than any post on the war could have said. in the silence of this post, i send a quiet prayer upstairs, hope there is never another war - ever.
indigoite
2015-03-02
@Richard - Thanks. The horrors of war are so appalling. Similar feeling in visiting the War memorials in Europe. When I went to Poland, I simply could not bring myself to go to Auschwitz.
@Sandhya - Thanks for the prayer for the fallen.
Ravi Rajagopalan
2015-03-02
Ramesh - as you said we should spare a thought for those who lost. In 2009 I drove to La Cambe. It is very close to Omaha Beach in Normandy where the Allied landings took place and close to it is the Allied cemetery with the deserved respect to those who fell liberating Europe. But La Cambe is the German War Cemetery, maintained to this day by the German Government - understated, competent but well below the radar as typified by post-war Germany. Many German youth were there. I spoke to some of them. Their attitude to the war and its aftermath reflects the remarkable amount of penitence that Germany has gone through since 1945. Old men and women mourning dead fathers, younger Germans curious about their dead relatives spoken about over family dinners. The absence of triumphalism made the poignancy more acute. The absolute pointlessness of it all was glaring and very very moving.
indigoite
2015-03-02
@Ravi - Yes, indeed. The way Germans (and Japanese too) have conducted themselves after the World War is very moving too. One of the books I read as an impressionable guy, and cried my heart out, was All Quiet on the Western Front - one of the rare German perspectives on the War.
See my Imphal post for a Japanese perspective.
Shachi
2015-03-03
So moved by this post - no words needed, just a silent prayer.
And Ravi's comments - wow!
indigoite
2015-03-04
@Shachi - Amen
Asha
2015-03-04
Oh so true! I stay in a cantonment area and live among such people. It is heart wrenching at the same time awe-inspiring to listen to their unsung tales of bravery and what's more.... what the families go through when their men are at the field is something only they would know and endure. To such men and their families , do we owe our freedom and peaceful night sleep. Respect.
indigoite
2015-03-05
@Asha - Amen.