Japan Awakened Asia—A Miracle of the 20th Century
The Road to the Independence of India—A Story to Be Passed Down to the Next Generation

By Probir Bikash Sarker

Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact🄫
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Introduction
From an address by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in India
On August 22, 2007, while visiting India, the then Prime Minister Abe Shinzo gave an address titled“Confluence of the Two Seas” at the Indian Parliament. Although Prime Minister Abe while in office
was severely exposed to various criticism, as a Bangladeshi, I highly appreciate his address. Prime
Minister Abe spoke most clearly and in a very dignified manner about the relationship between
India/Bangladesh and Japan and emphasized its historical significance, among Japanese statesmen.
His address shall be long remembered in history. The following is excerpt from the website of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
Today I have the great honour of addressing the highest organ of state power in this largest
democracy in the world. I come before you on behalf of the citizens of another democracy thatis equally representing Asia, to speak to you about my views on the future of Japan and India.
“The different streams, having their sources in different places, all mingle their waters in thesea.”
It gives me tremendous pleasure to be able to begin my address today with the words of Swami
Vivekananda, the great spiritual leader that India gave the world.
My friends, where exactly do we stand historically and geographically? To answer thisquestion, I would like to quote here the title of a book authored by the Mughal prince Dara
Shikoh in 1655. We are now at a point at which the Confluence of the Two Seas is coming into
being.
The Pacific and the Indian Oceans are now bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of
freedom and prosperity. A “broader Asia” that broke away geographical boundaries is now
beginning to take on a distinct form. Our two countries have the ability--and the
responsibility--to ensure that it broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich these seas tobecome seas of clearest transparence.
This is the message I wish to deliver directly today to the one billion people of India. That is
why I stand before you now in the Central Hall of the highest chamber, to speak with you, thepeople’s representatives of India.
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A number of times in history, Japan and India attracted one another.
Vivekananda came to be acquainted with Tenshin Okakura, a man ahead of his time in earlymodern Japan and a type of Renaissance man. Okakura was then guided by Vivekananda
and enjoyed also a friendship with Sister Nivedita, Vivekananda’s royal disciple and a
distinguished female social reformer. Many people are aware of all that.
Tomorrow I will be taking a morning flight to Kolkata, where I expect to meet the son of
Justice Radhabinod Pal. Justice Pal is highly respected even today by many Japanese for thenoble spirit of courage he exhibited during the International Military Tribunal for the Far
East.
People from the Bengal who forged a relationship with Japan –- be it the person whose namegraces Kolkata’s international airport (Chandra Bose), or, going back a bit further in time,
the ageless poet Rabindranath Tagore –- were engaged at the deepest level of their soul with
their Japanese contemporaries. Indeed, the depth and the richness of the exchanges that the
intellectual leaders of Japan and India enjoyed during the early modern age are in some ways
beyond what we in the modern day can imagine.
[Omitted]
Here, I would like to share with you my own views on the many contributions that India has
made – and can make – to the world. I realize that it may seem odd to speak of India’s
contributions to a congregation such as this, but I ask your indulgence, as it ties to what I will
touch upon soon afterwards.
I would argue that among many contributions that India can make to the world history, there
is first of all its spirit of tolerance. I would like to quote, if I may, Vivekananda again, part ofthe conclusion of deeply meaningful remarks he delivered in Chicago in 1893. He said,“help and not fight,” “assimilation and not destruction,” “harmony and peace and not dissention.”
If you insert these exhortations into the context of the modern day, it is clear that these words
preaching tolerance can hardly be considered relics of the past. Instead, we can recognize thatthey now hold a tone that is even more compelling than before.

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From the reign of Ashoka the Great to Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha movement ofnonviolent resistance, the Japanese people are well aware of the unbroken spirit of tolerancein Indian spiritual history.
I would like to emphasize today to the people of India that the Japanese people stand ready towork together with the Indian people so that this spirit of tolerance becomes the leading
principle of this century.
[Omitted]
My friends, Japan and India have come of late to be of the same intent to form a “Strategic
Global Partnership,” in which the two countries are going to expand and fortify their relations.
As for how Japan has come to such a conclusion, I hope that through what I have just laid out
as my personal views you have come to understand the recognition and expectations Japan
has towards India.
This partnership is an association in which we share fundamental values such as freedom,democracy, and the respect for basic human rights as well as strategic interests.
Japanese diplomacy is now promoting various concepts in a host of different areas so that a
region called “the Arc of Freedom and Prosperity” will be formed along the outer rim of theEurasian continent. The Strategic Global Partnership of Japan and India is pivotal for such
pursuits to be successful.
By Japan and India coming together in this way, this “broader Asia” will evolve into animmense network spanning the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, incorporating the United Statesof America and Australia. Open and transparent, this network will allow people, goods,
capital, and knowledge to flow freely.
Can we not say that faced with this wide, open, broader Asia, it is incumbent upon us two
democracies, Japan and India, to carry out the pursuit of freedom and prosperity in thisregion?
“Confluence of the Two Seas,” Speech by H.E. Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan at
the Parliament of the Republic of India, Website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

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The region combining the eastern part of India, including the present state of West Bengal and
Bangladesh, came to be called Bengal by the British. Although at the time of independence of India,
Bengal was divided into two countries on account of religious reason, ethnically the same Bengal
people live in the region.
As a person born in Bengal, I am very much pleased with former Prime Minister Abe’s speech inwhich he mentioned our great Bengalese, Swami Vivekananda, poet Tagore and Justice Pal. Especially,
I am grateful to Mr. Abe for referring to the relationship between Vivekananda and Okakura Tenshin,which probably most Japanese people have forgotten.
The relationship between Japan and Bengal has been developed through a grand drama in an age of
turbulence and drastic changes in the history of Asia by prominent players, Vivekananda, Tagore, andOkakura Tenshin; Rash Behari Bose, Touyama Mitsuru; Subhas Chandra Bose and Tojo Hideki during
the Greater East Asia Conference; and Justice Pal and Shimonaka Yasaburo during the Tokyo Trials(the International Military Tribunal for the Far East).
I want to tell this historical story to the people of Japan from the standpoint of a Bengalese.
Since names of Indian people are sometimes different from the actual pronunciation, I use Indiannames generally known in Japan. In addition, as of 2001, Calcutta became Kolkata and Madras became
Chennai. In this book, however, the former names shall be used.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The beginning of exchanges between Japan and Bengal
The exchanges during the early modern period
Vivekananda and Japan
Okakura Tenshin’s visit to India
Asia is one
The influence given by Tenshin over Indian nationalists

Chapter 2 Tagore and Okakura Tenshin“Modern Renaissance man” –Tagore
Tenshin’s influence over Bengal Renaissance
Tagore’s Nobel Prize in Literature and GITANJALI
Tagore’s visit to Japan and the beginning of a new Indo-Japan relationship
What Tagore left in Japan

Chapter 3 Rash Behari Bose and Japan
Touyama Mitsuru, Behari Bose and Japan
Behari Bose and Nakamura-ya
Marriage with Toshiko Souma

Chapter 4 Inherited intent on independence
The outbreak of the Greater East Asia War and the establishment of the Indian Independence League
From Behari Bose to Chandra Bose

Chapter 5 Chandra Bose and Indian National Army
Chandra Bose, who moved Japan
Determination toward Indian independence expressed during the Greater East Asia War
The Greater East Asian War, which was the Greater East Asia itself
The failure of the Battle of Imphal and the death of Bose

Chapter 6 Historical significance of “Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal”
Justice Pal, “a man of justice”
How Justice Pal came to join the Tokyo Trials
Deception of the Tokyo Trials revealed by Justice Pal
Justice Pal in later years and Japan

Chapter 7 A short history of Bangladesh
Division of Bengal under the British colonial rule
Separation from India and independence of Bangladesh
Unstable political situation remaining even after independence
Political and economic stability brought by Sheikh Hashina’s government
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Special dialogue between Pema Gyalpo and Sarker
The independence of Bangladesh and the Tibetans
Support for Bangladesh by Japan
Proud Bengalese
The significance of exchanges between Okakura Tenshin and Tagore“Asianism” was right
Shibusawa Eiichi and Tagore
Chandra Bose seen by Gandhi and Nehru
Cultural exchanges between Japan and India led to the independence of India

Conclusion
Bibliography

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Chapter 1

The beginning of exchanges between Japan and Bengal

The exchanges during the early modern period
The relationship between Japan and India is generally said to have begun with the official introductionof Buddhism into Japan in the middle of the sixth century. Then in 752, during the consecration
ceremony of the Great Buddha held at Todai-ji Temple in Nara, High Priest Bodhi Sena from South
India was invited from China to lead the consecration ceremony. Priest Bodhi Sena remained in Japanafter the ceremony and eventually demised in Japan.
For a long while after that, the direct exchange between India and Japan ceased to exist. Then, fromthe Edo Period to the Meiji, silk produced in Bengal, Bengal color pigment (red iron oxide) and Indianindigo were imported to Japan through trade with the Netherlands. Bengal color was a popularly used
inorganic pigment of old and it is said that the pigment “Bengala” was named after Bengal. Bengala
has long wearability and soft and safe touch and is low in price. At present, Bengala latticework seen
in Kyoto and a street of factories with Bengala colored walls in Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture,are popularly known.
At that time, indigo had already been produced in Japan and indigo dyeing was popular among
ordinary people and widely used in clothing and for other purposes. Indian indigo produced in Bengal
had exceptionally pure ingredients, was easy to dye and highly producible and its import began during
the Meiji period.
From the Meiji period to Taisho, “muslin” fabrics produced in East India were highly appreciated inEurope and became popular also in Japan. Later, muslin came to be produced at factories in Asakusa,
Tokyo, and it became a brand called “Tokyo Muslin.” Various goods imported from Bengal sometimes
harmed the domestic Japanese industry, but Bengal goods came to be part of Japanese life.
Bengal at that time was called fertile Indian breadbasket and its rich land, due to the beneficial natural
conditions, made it possible to grow crops used for various products. Therefore, since the 17th century
onwards, Portuguese, the Dutch and the French fought over the control of the land of Bengal. In the
Battle of Plassey fought in 1757, the British East India Company beat the allied French and Nawab of
Bengal forces and the British East India firmly established the rule over the Bengal region.
After this battle, the first protest movement occurred in 1763 in Dacca. At that time, muslin producedin East Bengal was highly appreciated in Europe and a great amount of muslin products was exported
to England, harming the British domestic industry. It was protest against the British oppression of8

muslin factory workers in Dacca in order to protect the British domestic cotton factories.
Eventually, protest movements against England took place in various parts of India, including Bengal,
and in 1857, a great rebellion broke out against the British East India Company. At that time, Mughal
Emperor Bahadur Shah II, until then under British protection, became the highest commander of therebellion, but it was suppressed in the following year. The emperor was expelled from the country andthe Mughal Empire perished. The British East India Company practically put India under colonial
control by turning over the power privileges to the British monarchy Consequently, Britain establishedthe colonial rule over the entire India.
Calcutta in West Bengal was designated as the capital of India, as the second “London” in the Britishcolonial policy and became the center of politics, culture, art, education and thought in India under the
British rule. From such historical background, Bengal at that time led the modernization of India andbecame the region that provided the theoretical basis for the formation of independence movements.
Afterwards, with the rise of the Indian patriots, who demanded the political and intellectual
independence of the Bengal people, the Indo-Japan relationship was revived in a glorious way.
This explains why those who are mentioned in the introduction of this book, Vivekananda, Tagore,
Behari Bose, Chandra Bose and Justice Pal, who was the only one to judge all the defendants not guilty
at the Tokyo Trials, were all Bengalese.
In Japan, at that time, the Black Ships arrived in 1853, forcing an unequal treaty upon Japan. Under
such critical circumstances, Japan made laborious efforts to maintain its independence from theEuropean and American Powers. And in mere 15 years, Japan accomplished the Meiji Restoration anddrastically changed the nature of the nation from Edo shogunate to the Meiji Government.
India had been under the British rule since 1858. In the capital of Calcutta, there was a prestigious
family, the Tagores, that produced many a prominent man. They received Western education, hadgreat political and economical influences over the Indian society and were versed in culture. As far as
it can be confirmed, in the modern period, the first exchange between Japan and Bengal began with
the Tagore family.
At that time, the Tagores split up over the division of their assets and they lived separately at Jorasanko
and Patriyagata in Calcutta. At the Tagore house in Patriyagata lived Raja Sourindro Mohun Tagore,
who was famous for his study of music. He was highly valued in India and the European countries and9his name was also known in Japan. The Emperor

Meiji came to learn about Sourindro Mohun

Tagore’s interest in music and reportedly presented him with twelve kinds of musical instruments,
including Japanese drum. As a token of gratitude for the Emperor’s gift, Sourindro Mohun Tagore
presented the Emperor Meiji with three kinds of Indian musical instruments including Veena. This
took place between 1877 and 1878 and was an exchange involving musical instruments. Later, theJapanese musical instruments sent by the Emperor Meiji to India were displayed at a musical museumin Calcutta built by Sourindro Mohum Tagore himself.

The musical instruments presented from

India were kept at the Imperial Palace and later were moved to Japan’s Imperial Museum, where they
were reportedly displayed for many years.
The history of exchanges between Japan and Bengal cannot be told fully without the Tagores.
As I detail later in this book, the other Tagore at Jorasanko was Rabindranath Tagore, a great poet andthe first Nobel Laureate for Literature in Asia. Besides him, there was one more prominent person, notfrom the Tagore family, but he also played an important role in the exchange between Japan and Bengal,
early in the modern period. That was a religious teacher from Bengal, Swami Vivekananda.

Vivekananda and Japan
Vivekananda (born Narendranath Datta) was born in 1863 in
Calcutta. He followed the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna andestablished a new religious philosophy through reforming
Hinduism and became a great religious leader, wholeheartedly
devoting himself to the cultural restoration in West Bengal andthe nationalistic movement in India. He also introduced theIndian philosophy and yoga to Western Europe, aiming to bringfusion and harmony between Eastern and Western civilizations
and religions.
Swami Vivekananda
In 1893 Vivekananda was invited to the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago during theWorld Exposition. On his voyage to the United States, the steamship carrying him stopped at a port inJapan for refueling. At that time, he wrote a letter while staying at Oriental Hotel in Yokohama to his
friend Alasinga Perumal and others about his impression of the first visit to Japan:
The Match factories are simply a sight to see, and they are bent upon making everything theywant in their own country. There is a Japanese line of steamers plying between China and Japan,
which shortly intends running between Bombay and Yokohama.

10I saw quite a lot of temples. In every temple there are some Sanskrit Mantras written in Old
Bengali characters. Only a few of the priests know Sanskrit. But they are an intelligent sect. The
modern rage for progress has penetrated even the priesthood. I cannot write what I have in mymind about the Japs in one short letter. Only I want that numbers of our young men should pay avisit to Japan and China every year. Especially to the Japanese, India is still the dreamland of
everything high and good.
[The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. V, Advaita Ashram (1964)]
As this letter indicated, Vivekananda seems to have been deeply impressed by the Japanese passion
for manufacturing and the succession of Mantras transmitted from India. It can also be seen that theJapanese people in those days had a sense of admiration toward India.
Then, Vivekananda left Japan for Chicago and delivered a speech during the World’s Parliament ofReligions in Chicago. Vivekananda’s words quoted by former Prime Minister Abe were messages
Vivekananda delivered at the Parliament of Religions, which deeply moved the audience and were
widely appreciated in the world through the reporting by the mass media.
“The different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea.”
I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeatedfrom my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As thedifferent streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so O
Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they
appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”“Help, and not fight,” “Assimilation, and not Destruction,” “Harmony and Peace, and not
Dissension.”
Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now toventure my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph ofany one of the religions and the destruction of the other, to him I say, “Brother, yours is an
impossible hope.” Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish
that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid. The seed is put in the ground,and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or
the water? No. It becomes a plant, it develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates theair, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant. Similar
is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu ora Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet
11preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth. If the Parliament ofReligions has shown anything to the world it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness,purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every
system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence,
if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others,
I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every
religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: “Help and not Fight,” “Assimilation and not
Destruction,” “Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.”
Swami Vivekananda Chicago Speeches, Vedanta Society of Japan
Although it was the only and too brief stay in Japan, Vivekananda closely observed Japan with muchinterest and understood the country. In later years, Vivekananda left various interviews and comments
related to Japan. I would like to briefly introduce this especially impressive interview:
Q: What did you see in Japan, and is there any chance of India following in the progressive stepsof Japan?
A: None whatever, until all the three hundred millions of India combine together as a whole
nation. The world has never seen such a patriotic and artistic race as the Japanese, and one special
feature about them is this that while in Europe and elsewhere Art generally goes with dirt,
Japanese Art is Art plus absolute cleanliness. I would wish that every one of our young men could
visit Japan once at least in his lifetime. It is very easy to go there. The Japanese think thateverything Hindu is great and believe that India is a holy land. Japanese Buddhism is entirely
different from what you see in Ceylon. It is the same as Vedanta. It is positive and theistic
Buddhism, not the negative atheistic Buddhism of Ceylon.
Q: What is the key to Japan’s sudden greatness?
A: The faith of the Japanese in themselves, and their love for their country, sincere to the
backbone—when such men arise, India will become great in every respect. It is the men thatmake the country! What is there in the country? If you catch the social morality and the politicalmorality of the Japanese, you will be as great as they are. The Japanese are ready to sacrifice
everything for their country, and they have become a great people. But you are not; you cannot
be, you sacrifice everything only for your own families and possessions.
Excerpts from the interview in The Hindu newspaper of February, 1897, in Madras, The Complete
Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol. 5, by Advaita Ashram (1964)
In 1894, a year after the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, the first Sino-Japanese War
broke out and ended in 1895 with Japan’s victory. Vivekananda’s statement must have reflected the12situation at the time, and he strongly felt what India needed in order to achieve its independence,
looking at Japan keeping its independence from the threat of European and American Great Powers
despite the fact that Japan is a small country in Asia.
Vivekananda travelled across Western Europe and especially the United States and the United
Kingdom, passionately promoting his own teaching.
After he returned to India in 1897, he established the Ramakrishna Mission and promoted religious
reform movement and social service activities. The Ramakrishna Mission is working as the most active
social service organ in India and has branches throughout the world, working respectively. Regrettably,
Vivekananda died young at the age of 39 in 1902. About six months before his death, young Okakura
Tenshin visited India to meet Vivekananda. The meeting of the two had caused wide ripples, leading
to the full-blown exchange between Japan and India.

Okakura Tenshin’s visit to India
Okakura Tenshin was born in 1863 in Yokohama, son to Okakura
Kakuemon of Fukui-han Domain. Fukui-han at that time wasordered to guard Kanagawa by the Edo Bakufu Government.
Fukui-han, having learned the importance of overseas trade byopening the country to the world, opened a trading company“Ishikawa-ya” in Yokohama and sent Tenshin's father to run thecompany. Since early childhood, Tenshin grew up observing many
foreigners and became familiar with English. With the experiencesof having grown up in Calcutta and Yokohama, two

Okakura Tenshin

port cities open to the world, respectively, influenced by both domestic and foreign cultures, Tagore
and Tenshin shared the common characteristics to be mentioned later.
After the Meiji Restoration, Fukui-han perished following the abolition of feudal domains andestablishment of prefectures, and Ishikawa-ya closed its business. The Okakura family moved toTokyo and opened “Okakura Inn.” Tenshin graduated from the Literature Department of Tokyo
Imperial University in 1880 and worked for the Ministry of Education and then began research andstudy of Japanese traditional art.
Among those who had great influences over Tenshin as a young man was a foreign teacher, Ernest
Fenollosa. Fenollosa and Tenshin shared profound appreciation and interest in Japanese classic art andtogether they went on an inspection trip to the United States and Europe for about eight months from13

1886 to 1887. Through this trip, Tenshin re-recognized the value of the Japanese art.
Tenshin passionately lectured on the Japanese art history, endeavoring to realize his ideal art education
at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (the predecessor of Tokyo University of the Arts) established in 1889.
In 1890 he became president of the school and in 1893 he visited China under the scholarship of the
Ministry of the Imperial Household and examined cultural assets, temples, and art works across China.
However, Tenshin’s freewheeling character and unique aesthetic ideas were not to be understood by
the art society at the time. In the end, in 1898 he was expelled from the school to whose establishment
he had contributed so much. Then he founded the Japan Art Academy with his students and comrades
only to face various difficulties, including financial matters. At the time of this crisis, Tenshin suddenly
left for India.
Okakura Tenshin may have known Vivekananda through newspaper reporting. Besides, Josephine
McLeod, a Scottish American woman who attended Tenshin’s class at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts,
was also a disciple of Vivekananda. One theory says that Tenshin came to know Vivekananda throughher.
Tenshin was planning to invite Vivekananda to Japan and sent the invitation to Japan with 300 dollars
at the then value as travel expenses through Josephine. However, Vivekananda declined the invitationon account of his poor health at that time. There may have been other reasons for Tenshin’s visit toIndia, but Tenshin really wanted to meet Vivekananda in person.
Tenshin visited India accompanied by Josephine and a young Japanese priest, Hori Shitoku. They left
Japan on December 5, 1901, and arrived at Calcutta on January 6, 1902. On the day of arrival,
Josephine took Tenshin and Shitoku to the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur in the suburbs of Calcutta
and introduced them to Vivekananda. Vivekananda was extremely pleased with their visit andreportedly said to Josephine, “I feel as if my brothers finally came home after long absence.”
Tenshin wrote about his joy at the meeting in a letter to Priest Oda Tokuno: “We went there and met
the Reverend Vivekananda. His spirit and learning are profoundly supreme, and it was such an honor
to meet the superb man and we could not help but admire and respect his universal teachings.”“The Reverend is a fluent speaker of English and is well versed in recent Western academic theories
and preaches unification of the East and the West and oneness of the opposites. He has an excellent
flow of ideas, just like the ancient great debaters. I find him a man rarely to be met with. If possible, I
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am yearning to bring him to Japan with us when we return home.”
On January 12, a reception for Tenshin’s party was held and Tenshin strongly wished for
Vivekananda’s visit to Japan. Unfortunately, however, his wish never came true. Vivekanada wasreally in poorer health at that time, and he could never make it to Japan. According to “Swami
Vivekananda and Japan” (Vedanta Society of Japan), there is a record that the Emperor Meiji wasconcurrently planning to invite Vivekananda to Japan. Possibly, Tenshin may have been somewhat
involved in the Emperor Meiji’s plan to invite Vivekananda to Japan. But this needs to be confirmed.
Through Vivekananda, Okakura Tenshin was able to meet the Tagore Family, who had great influence
over India and other prominent people there. At that time, politically, Tenshin had already beenworking for the liberation of Asia from Europe and America as a Pan-Asianist and his actions wereconstantly under the surveillance of the British colonial authorities. For this reason, Tenshin rarely left
written records of his actions and speeches at that time. Probably, he feared lest information related to
the national independence movement in which Tenshin was involved should leak.
After the meeting with Vivekananda, Okakura Tenshin stayed with Tagore’s nephew, Surendranath
Tagore, visited Ellora, Ajanta and Buddha Gaya, Buddhist holy sites and participated in gatherings of
independence activists. Surendranath was not directly acting for independence but was one of the
supporters of independence activists.
Okakura Tenshin was a great artist, thinker and at the same time firm-willed political activist. At thattime, he finished writing a book, sent it to London and had it published. It was one of Tenshin’s major
books, Ideals of the East, praising the excellence of Asian culture, religion, thought and art.
Simultaneously, he wrote another book in India, The Awakening of the East, a very radical political
writing, which was not published in his lifetime. Thought, philosophy, art and politics did notcontradict within Tenshin but rather he regarded them as deeply inter-related.
Ideals of the East

and The Awakening of the East were written in English and later were exported

back to Japan and translated into Japanese.
An English woman called Nivedita (born Margaret Elizabeth Noble), who deeply admired
Vivekananda, introduced independence activists to Tenshin. She also cooperated with Tenshin in
writing in English and contributed the preface to Ideals of the East when the book was to be published.
Nivedita was English but more precisely Irish, and Josephine of the Scottish ancestry introduced
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Vivekananda to Tenshin and a man who applauded Tagore’s GITANJALI as a great book of literature
was the Irish writer Yeats. He aimed to restore the Celtic culture which had been ethnic culture before
the spread of Christianity in Ireland. It is an interesting fact that those ethical people under the control
of England tied Tenshin and the Indian independence movement together.

Asia is one
Okakura Tenshin’s famous phrase “Asia is one” appears at the beginning of Ideals of the East, which
Tenshin wrote while staying in India. The month of January, when he arrived in Calcutta, is the dry
season and it is a comfortable season for Japanese, but from March on, temperature rises gradually,
and a hot and humid summer begins. In May onward, with high humidity, the rainy season sets on andthe torrential rain is often accompanied by cyclones.

Mosquitoes are everywhere and the season,

unbearable to the Japanese, continues. Finally, around September it stops raining, the temperatures
begin to drop and gradually the dry season takes over.
In such harsh climate, Tenshin wrote his first book, Ideals of the East. The other book he wrote during
his stay in India, The Awakening of the East, was found in the form of draft after Tenshin died. It was
not finished and had no original title, and the title was decided by the translator. It may have been
another draft of Ideals of the East. In these two books Tenshin summarizes what he felt about theworld, Asia and Japan in the land of India, away from Japan.
Asia is one. The Himalayas divide, only to accentuate two mighty civilizations, the Chinesewith its communism of Confucius, and the Indian with its individualism of the Vedas. But noteven the snowy barriers can interrupt for one moment that broad expanse of love for the Ultimate
and Universal, which is the common thought-inheritance of every Asiatic race, enabling themto produce all the great religions of the world, and distinguishing them from those maritime
peoples of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, who love to dwell on the Particular, and to searchout the means, not the end, of life.
(omission) For if Asia be one, it is also true that the Asiatic races form a single mighty web.
(omission) Arab chivalry, Persian poetry, Chinese ethics, and Indian thought, all speak of asingle ancient Asiatic peace, in which there grew up a common life, bearing in different regions
different characteristic blossoms, but nowhere capable of a hard and fast dividing-line. Islamic
culture itself can be regarded as Confucianism riding on a horse and holding a sword in hand.
Ideals of the East, written by Okakura Tenshin

16At the same time, however, Tenshin was deeply hurt by the fact that in India and China their great
cultural traditions had already been destroyed through various wars, conflicts, and invasions.
Therefore, Tenshin thought it was solely in Japan that the unity of the Asiatic civilization is stillretained.
It has been, however, the great privilege of Japan to realize this unity-in-complexity with a
special clearness. (omission) The unique blessing of unbroken sovereignty, the proud selfreliance of an unconquered race, and the insular isolation which protected ancestral ideas andinstincts at the cost of expansion, made Japan the real repository of the trust of Asiatic thought
and culture. Dynastic upheavals, the inroads of Tartar horsemen, the carnage and devastation of
infuriated mobs—all these things, sweeping over her again and again, have left to China nolandmarks, save her literature and her ruins, to recall the glory of the Tang emperors or therefinement of Sung society.
(omission) The sublime attainments of Indian art, almost effaced as they have been by the roughhandedness of the Huns, the fanatical iconoclasm of the Mussulman, and the unconscious
vandalism of mercenary Europe, leave us to seek only a past glory in the mouldy walls of Ajanta,
the tortured sculptures of Ellora [editor’s note: famous for cave temples], the silent protests ofrock-cut Orissa [editor’s note: a province facing the Bay of Bengal] and finally in the domestic
utensils of the present day, where beauty clings sadly to religion in the midst of an exquisite
home-life. It is in Japan alone that the historic wealth of Asiatic culture can be consecutively
studied through its treasured specimens. The Imperial collection, the Shinto temples, and theopened dolmens reveal the subtle curves of Hang workmanship. The temples of Nara are richin representations of Tang culture, and of that Indian art, then in its splendour, which so muchinfluenced the creations of this classic period—natural heirlooms of a nation which haspreserved the music, pronunciation, ceremony, and costumes, not to speak of the religious rites
and philosophy, of so remarkable an age, intact. The treasure-stores of the daimyos, again,
abound in works of art and manuscripts belonging to the Sun and Mongol dynasties, and as in
China itself the former were lost during the Mongol conquest, and the latter in the age of thereactionary Ming, this fact animates some Chinese scholars of the present day to seek in Japanthe fountainhead of their own ancient knowledge. Thus Japan is a museum of Asiaticcivilization; and yet more than a museum, because the singular genius of the race leads it todwell on all phases of the ideals of the past, in that spirit of living Advaitism which welcomesthe new without losing the old.
The Shinto still adheres to his pre-Buddhistic rites of ancestor-worship; and the Buddhists
17themselves cling to each various school of religious development which has come in its naturalorder to enrich the soil.
Ideals of the East, written by Okakura Tenshin
These words of Tenshin were not mere admiration for Japan. In Japan during the Meiji period, Tenshin
himself felt angry at the abandonment of precious cultural assets and the disregard of the Japanese art
tradition amid the trend of Western worship. He led the movement to restore the Japanese culture. In
India, Tenshin aimed to restore the Asiatic civilization once again.
Tenshin emphasized particularly the movement to restore Buddhism. In India as a whole, Buddhism
almost perished by the 12th to 13th centuries, but it was in Bengal that Buddhism was worshipped to
the last. However, during Tenshin’s time, the Buddhist ruins of Buddha Gaya were devastated. Tenshin
tried to purchase land in order to establish a place for pilgrimage at the deserted site.
Tagore greatly sympathized with Tenshin in his effort to revive Buddhism. Tagore was a follower ofBrhama Hinduism a sect of Hinduism, but he was also deeply interested in Buddhism and revered it.
Tagore and Tenshin toured Buddhist ruins together. (Also, reportedly, Tagore in later years was most
sympathetic toward Buddhism.) In Ideals of the East, Tenshin states that Buddhism is one of the pillars
that unite Asia.

The influence of Tenshin on the Indian nationalists
Much is said by the following impressive episode about how much Tenshin affected nationalists in
Bengal in the land of India. Tenshin said to Surendranath and others, “What are you going to do foryour country?” After explaining how critical the situation in India was and how difficult their
movement was, Surendranath said, “At present, all each of us can do is to make steady efforts and to
wait for the outcome.” Then Tenshin said that he was sad and disappointed to hear such an answer andtold them a certain dreadful story: In his early childhood, hearing a harsh exchange of words in thenext room, he peeped through a gap to find his uncle cut at the neck and sitting headless, bleedingenormously from the carotid artery.
This may have been a bit exaggerated horror story Tenshin made up. At the same time, however, thisstory can be interpreted in a sense as an appeal urging them to move forward, even resorting to extreme
actions, when the situation was hard to cope with. In fact, presumably, the nationalists took it for an
encouraging message.
In actuality, a secret society “Anushilan Samity” was established concurrently. This society was a18

nationalist movement, resembling the early movement of Touyama Mitsuru’s Genyo-sha in Japan.
Tenshin cannot have been ignorant of contemporary Touyama Mitsuru and Genyo-sha. The following
passage in The Awakening of the East written in India by Tenshin is filled with the spirit of the national
independence movement. He wrote this passage for the people of India and all the peoples in Asia
under the colonial rule.
[quote from The Awakening of the East

written by Okakura Tenshin]“Brothers and Sisters in Asia!
A vast suffering lies on the land of our ancestors. The Oriental has become a synonym for thedegenerate, the native is an epithet for slave. Our lauded gentleness is an irony which alien
courtesy owes to cowardice. In the name of commerce we have welcomed militant, in the nameof civilization we have embraced the imperialistic, in the name of Christianity we haveprostrated before the merciless. The light of international law shines on the white parchment,- - -the shadow of a complete injustice falls back on the tinted skin.”(omitted)“It is wonderful how few men of courage and insight are enough to accomplish the impossible!
The German Empire, the American Republic, the Italian Kingdom are work of a handful who
infused their indomitable spirit in to the minds of the desponding masses. And in the East where
millions are accustomed to be led by the lustre of a single name, one self-sacrificing leader canachieve more prodigious than are possible in any country of the West.”(omitted)"It is unity and leadership that we want, not numerical superiority. The Sepoy attempt only
failed through the conflict of their own jealousies, not through the valor of the red-coats, andthe Boxers would have been successful if the government troops had only been allowed to joinin common action.”(omitted)“Asia lacks not the hill nor the rivers where a guerilla war can break the spell of foreign
supremacy and thus awake the citizen and the soldier to join in the deliverance of the19motherland. Europe can never send large armaments to completely overawe us, her hold on
our lands must necessary lie in the trained native regiments. But are they not ours?”
These words are nothing but a call for Asian liberation, penetrating throughout the spirits of Touyama
Mitsuru, Oukawa Shumei and the Greater East Asia Conference. And the encounter of the two,Okakura Tenshin and Rabindranath Tagore, deeply impressed each other. As I mentioned earlier,Okakura Tenshin was under the surveillance of the British colonial authorities, and probably for thatreason political conversations between the two were left unrecorded. However, without direct
exchange of political views, Okakura would have immediately understood that Tagore had the same
spirit and will with his relatives and other nationalists. Thus, Okakura Tenshin’s idea of “Asia is one”
found the biggest understanding soul in Tagore. In the second chapter, I would like to clearly state how
deeply Okakura and Tagore exchanged spiritually, through their respective writings.

20

Chapter 2 Tagore and Okakura Tenshin“Modern Renaissance man” Tagore
Tagore was not merely a poet but also a great, multi-talented genius. During his eighty years’ lifetime,
he acquired profound knowledge widely covering music, novels, children’s literature, musical plays,art, education, thought, politics, philosophy, nature, religion, human rights, Oriental thought, farmers’
economy, history of the ancient Indian world, international exchanges and founding of a school. He
was versed in various fields of human activities and contributed widely and deeply to each field. He
was an omnipotent genius, well deserved to be called “Modern Renaissance man.” Above all, Tagore
wrote as many as 1500 “Tagore songs.” They are loved by people to this day and two of them werechosen as Indian and Bangladeshi national anthems.
As a Bengali, I am proud of Tagore from the bottom of my heart and confident that no one else in theworld has had as profound knowledge and thought as Tagore. His thought and action have global
expanse and universal value, far beyond India and Asia. Therefore, not only the Bengalese but also theentire Indian Continent call Tagore with the highest and deepest respect, gurudebo, in education, equal
to God, and kobigul (the poet of poets) and bishokobi(number one poet of the world).
Tagore was born in 1861 in Calcutta in West Bengal under the
British rule and died in 1941 soon after the Greater East Asian
War broke out.
The Tagores were a very wealthy family, having succeeded invarious businesses, including trading with Britain for generations.
Since his grandfather’s generation, they had also been ardently
working for the modernization of India.
Rabindranath Tagore21

At the Tagore house, many Bengali poets, musicians, literary men, painters, and religionists

wereinvited, and various plays, musical performances and recitations of poems were held. Tagore’s brothers,
sisters and relatives were also talented in literature, music and painting and created great works inthose fields.
Tagore was brought up in such rich and favorable environment and obtained both modern learning andtraditional Indian education. He studied in London, the British capital, and the difference between the
Occidental and Oriental civilizations, their merits and demerits led Tagore to his universal thinking.
Since 1890 onwards, Tagore followed his father’s request and was entrusted with the management of
the family’s land and fortunes in East Bengal. Tagore must have been greatly fascinated and influenced
by the rich natural environment of Bangladesh, especially the grand, majestic river and the sun risingand setting in the river’s horizon, far more than by learning through books. It is purely because of thebeautiful nature that Bangladesh has produced many poets, musicians, and visual creators. Tagore
describes East Bengal’s beauty:
If you don't come here, you can’t imagine how mysteriously beautiful the earth is, and how vast
the life and deep thoughts are. In the evening, as I sat in silence in my boat when the water was
still, the shore was faint, and the glow of the setting sun at the end of the sky was gradually fading,the silent, half-closed nature, I felt it touched my whole body and mind, generously, expansively,
and softly. What peace, what love, what greatness, what boundless compassionate sorrow. From
this inhabited mustard field to that deserted world of stars, every inch of space was filled with amyriad of marvelous minds. I was sitting there alone in a world of unfulfilled minds.
(“Occasional Letter dated October 1, 1891”)
In 1901, Tagore established a school at a place called Santiniketan in West Bengal, which was at thattime a barren land with hardly any plants. At first, he had many difficulties, including financial ones.
He cultivated the barren land and planted trees himself. Unfortunately, thenTagore’s wife died ofhardship and worries. The establishment of this school was Tagore’s dream-come-true, for he wasdetermined to implement ideal education, believing that for children especially, teaching nature androoting in the earth is most needed. This school eventually developed into the Visva-Bharati University,a public central university.
As mentioned later, Tagore invited to his school at Santiniketan Hori Shitoku, who visited India with
Okakura Tenshin, in 1902 and after 1905, Katsuta Shokin of Nihon Bijutsuin (Japan Visual Arts
Academy) and Sano Jinnosuke, a judo wrestler, just to mention a few.
22

Tenshin’s influence over Bengal Renaissance
Tagore and his contemporary Bengali intellectuals started a movement called “Bengal Renaissance,”
aiming to restore their own tradition and culture which had been denied under the British colonial rule.
Around the end of the 19th century and onwards, painter Oponindranath Tagore, Rabindranath
Tagore’s relative, and painters Gogonendranath Tagore, Nondo Rul Posh, Osito Kumaru Hardul tried
to create a new painting trend with the theme of Indian indigenous Hindu art and Indian people
themselves. Tenshin’s influence over them was boundlessly important. In 1903, Tenshin sent
Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunso to India for art exchanges between Japan and India. Besides,
Katsuta Shokin and Arai Kanpo visited India, which resulted in mutual influence between them andthe artists in Bengal. Yokoyama Taikan in particular has left masterpieces depicting the scenery of thesacred Ganges River, people living along the river and Hindu culture, which are now Japan’s precious
cultural assets.
Besides painters, Tagore invited many other talented people in various fields like Judo, Kado (flower
arrangement), Sado (tea ceremony), Japanese painting, wooden architectural technology, andgardening from Japan to India and Okakura Tenshin profoundly cooperated with Tagore in these efforts.
The first foreign student at Tagore’s school was Hori Shitoku from Japan, who had visited India with
Tenshin. Hori remained in India and studied at the school, which symbolically indicated how deeply
Okakura Tenshin and Tagore bonded together with each other. Unfortunately, Hori died young from
illness in India. At that time Tagore asked Tenshin to send a Judo teacher to train Indians mentally andphysically. At his request, Sano Jinnosuke of Keio University went to India in 1905 and taught Judoand Japanese at Tagore’s school. By the way, Omita Sen, mother of Amartya Sen, who was awarded
the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998, was taught by Sano Jinnosuke. Tagore mademuch of Judo as an art of self-defense for women.
Okakura Tenshin held a meeting at the Tokyo Imperial University to report his experience in India
immediately after he returned home to Japan from his first visit and spoke about India and his
encounter with Tagore. At the meeting there were about seventy professors and intellectuals in various
fields, including the President of the Tokyo Imperial University. This tells what a remarkable role
Tenshin played in realizing the first cultural and political exchange and cooperation between Japanand India.
We need to emphasize here that in 1905, fearing the rising trend of cultural restoration and national
movement, the British Governor General in India implemented a forcible policy of the division of
Bengal without any advance notice. This was a policy to divide the designated “Bengal District” of23

the combined present Indian West Bengal, Bangladesh, Odisha, Bihar and Assam into two parts to beruled as such. This clearly meant harsher oppression and control. Millions of people stood up in Bengal
against this policy at that time.
Tagore participated in this opposition movement and one of the leaders of this anti-division movement
was an activist called Aurobindo Ghose. The opposition movement lasted until the decision to create
the Bengal District was withdrawn. At that time, Ghose was a radical who dared to take whatevermeasures were needed to fight against the British. Eventually, he was sent to prison and turned to the
new Yoga movement. Ghose met Tenshin in 1902.
In my opinion, it was Okakura Tenshin who set the Indian independence movement on fire. Since
Ideals of the East was published in English, many young Bengali intellectuals read this book and weregreatly influenced. According to some sources and statements, it is verified that Tenshin’s two-time
visits to India had a wide impact on the Indian independence fighters’ views on culture, thought,
politics and other aspects.
Tenshin visited India a second time in 1912 to see with his own eyes how India had changed since his
first visit there. By that time, Tenshin’s health had already seriously deteriorated and he died in
September 1913, the next year, without learning about Tagore’s Nobel Prize. There was no record
regarding how Tenshin felt about India ten years after his first visit.
However, an impressive event occurred. Tenshin met in Calcutta a female Bengali poet, writer, andsocial activist named Priyamvada Devi. She was related to Tagore. The two fell in love platonicallyand after Tenshin returned to Japan, they kept exchanging letters. In India at that time, a woman,whether Hindu or Muslim, was hardly allowed to act socially. However, Tagore had no such prejudiceand had Ms. Priyamvada edit a magazine and she in return donated her private fortunes to the
management of Tagore’s school on cooperative terms.
Through Tagore’s personal relationship, Tenshin met this wonderful woman. Their letters have been
kept respectively in Japan and India to this day.

Tagore’s Nobel Prize in Literature and GITANJALI
Tagore had published many books of poetry until then and in 1913 he was presented for the first timeas an Asian, a Bengali in British colonial India, with the Nobel Prize in Literature. At the time when it
was generally believed that the Western civilization was the best in the world, an Asian’s Nobel Prizemade an enormous impact on the world. He received the Noble Prize for Gitanjali (Song Offerings),
24

collected poems written in Bengali.
All the poems in the collection are accompanied by music composed by Tagore and they are popularlysung in India today. Tagore was 52 years old then. Let me introduce the following, one of the most
famous poems in Gitanjali:

On the shores of Bharat,
Where men of all races have come together,
Awake, O my Mind!
Standing here with outstretched arms,
I send my salutations to the God of Humanity,
And in solemn chant sing His praises.
At whose call no none knows,
Came floating streams of men
And merged into the sea of Bharat.
The Aryan, the Non-Aryan, the Dravidian,
The Huns, the Pathans and the Moghuls—
They have all merged here into one body.
Today the West has opened its doors,
And from thence come gifts.
Giving and taking,All will be welcome on the shores of Bharat.
Where men of all races have come together.

In mad exultation, singing songs of victory,
Have they come, crossing deserts and mountains;
They all dwell within me
And in my blood echo their varied melodies.
O Terrible one!
Let the heavens resound with your music;
Even those, whom in disdain we kept apart,
Will gather round thee, O Bharat,
Where men of all races have come together.

25

Here one day in the hearts of men
The message of the One resounded.
In the fire of Tapasya all differences were forgotten,
And the many forged into one.
Round that fire of sacrifice,We all have to meet with bowed heads
And unite—
On the shores of Bharat,
Where men of all races have come together.

In that fire,
The blood-shot flame of suffering is aglow.
O mind, bear this suffering
And hear the call of the one.
Conquer all shame, all fear,
And let vanish all humiliations.
What great life will emerge
At the end of the days of suffering!
The night ends,
The great Mother is awake
On the shores of Bharat,
Where men of all races have come together.

Come, O Aryan and Non-Aryan,
Hindu and Moslem,
Come, O English and you Christian,Come, O Brahmin,
Purify your mind and claps the hands of all;Come, O downtrodden,
And let vanish all burdens of your humiliation.
Tarry not, but come you all
To anoint the Mother,On the shores of Bharat,

26

Where men of all races have come together.

Tagore’s Nobel Prize made a great impact on Japan, too. Not only intellectuals and artists, but also
people in general came to be interested in Tagore and wanted to meet him and listen to him. In responseto people’s requests, the Japanese Government worked to organize Tagore’s visit to Japan, but due topolitical reasons, the visit did not take place at the time.
At that time the Anglo-Japanese Alliance had been concluded
and it was not easy at all for Tagore, a person considereddangerous to Britain, to be granted a visit to Japan, where
Okakura Tenshin and other Pro-Asianist intellectuals andactivists were acting for their cause.
However, Tagore’s poems were translated into Japanese fromthe English edition and his other books were introduced to Japan
one after another. Tagore had such immense impact because it
was international common sense that if anyone from Asia wasKora Tomi

to be celebrated with the Nobel Prize, it would be a literary man or a scientist from Japan, the only
advanced country in Asia. In reality, however, an almost unknown Indian under the British colonial
rule won the first Nobel Prize in Asia.

Tagore’s visit to Japan and the beginning of new Indo-Japan relationshipAnd finally, in 1916, Tagore’s visit to Japan came true. Shibusawa Eiichi, the then Chairman of theJapan-India Association established in 1903, sent a letter of invitation to Tagore. After their firstmeeting, Shibusawa came to see Tagore every time Tagore visited Japan, which indicates how
respectful to Tagore Shibusawa was. Tagore stayed for nearly three months from the end of May tothe end of September at entrepreneur Hara Tomitaro’s Sankei-en residence in Yokohama and visited
the students at Karuizawa, a resort town, following the invitation by Naruse Jinzo, who had establishedJapan Women’s University. In addition, at Izura in Ibaraki Prefecture, Tagore met Okakura Tenshin’s
bereaved family, went to Rokkakudo-hall, built by Tenshin as the center for his international activities,
and left memorial writing there. A grand reception was held at Ueno Kan’ei-ji Temple by artist
Yokoyama Taikan, poet Noguchi Yonejiro, Tokyo Imperial University professor and founder ofMusashino University Takakusu Junjiro, scholar on Buddhism and priest Kawaguchi Ekai, judo
wrestler Sano Jinnosuke, Buddhism scholar Kimura Nichiki, and others. About 300 notables, including
Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu, and the President of the Tokyo Imperial University, attended thereception. Welcome of this scale and fever was the first in the Japanese modern history.
27

I want to point out here that when it comes to speaking of Tagore in Japan, there is a trend to overly
emphasize that during his stay in Japan, Tagore criticized Japanese nationalism and the government’s
military policy. However, what Tagore critically pointed out was that as symbolized in his criticism of"nationalism", Japan lost its historical tradition amid the rapid modernization process and took afterWestern modernization and imperialism. His clearest view was stated in passages of serial lectures hegave in 1916 in the United States after his visit to Japan, “Nationalism in the West,” “Nationalism inJapan,” and “Nationalism in India.” The following is a passage in “Nationalism in Japan.”
What is dangerous for Japan is, not the imitation of the outer features of the West, but theacceptance of the motive force of the Western nationalism as her own. Her social ideals are
already showing signs of defeat at the hands of politics. I can see her motto, taken from science,“Survival of the Fittest," writ large at the entrance of her present-day history—the motto whose
meaning is, "Help yourself, and never heed what it costs to others.”“I am quite sure that there are men in your country who are not in sympathy with your inheritedideals; whose object is to gain, and not to grow. They are loud in their boast that they havemodernized Japan.”(“Nationalism”)
Tagore thought that Western nationalism was characterized as conquest and struggle andmechanization of human beings and criticized the way this Western trend affected Japan. His criticism
seems to be too severe in my view, as a fellow Bengali with Tagore.
Japan from the end of Edo Bakufu government, Meiji Restoration to the early twentieth century, when
Tagore’s lectures were held, was in the world where amid the imperialism and competitive power
struggles, for each country to maintain its independence, there was no other way but to strengthen the
country’s military power, industries, and potentials through modernization. Japan was no exception
and resourceless Japan had no other choice but to expand overseas in order to keep its nationalfoundation.
Victories in the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War liberated Asian peoples from Qing’s
sovereignty and the European and American colonial regime and opened the road to modernization.
Thus, the wars were certainly meaningful in a sense. In this respect, Tagore’s criticism against
modernization and Japan as a country cannot have helped but invite repulsive reaction from Japanese
intellectuals at the time for being too idealistic.

28

As Okakura Tenshin radically criticized Japan during the Meiji period for the trend to worship Europe
and the United States and at the same time to deny Japanese tradition, Tagore’s warning that Japanmight have lost its own merits in the midst of the modernization process had better be taken as avaluable suggestion to Japan.
In 1907, during a rally held in Chittagong, a port town in East Bengal, Tagore called to Indian youths
to wake up from sleep, referring to Japan’s victory over the whites in the Russo-Japanese War.
Probably, Japan’s annexation of Korea might have changed Tagore’s recognition of Japan.
To Japan, the Korean Peninsula was the key to its national defense and there was threat of Russia’s
southward advance. Considering the situation at that time, I don’t think it is fair to see Japan’s positionin parallel with Western Powers’ colonial control.
However, we must not forget that when it comes to Japan’s merits, Tagore always evaluated them as
highly as ever.
“The Japanese have acquired a whole kingdom of beauty. The Japanese cherish everything theysee, and they never neglect it.” “The sense of beauty that was seen among the good-natured andthose with a real sense of humor is growing and reaching all people in this country.”“Traveler to Japan”“The Japanese make their own worship offerings to beauty, inside and outside their homes, andeverywhere.” I have never seen such wholehearted respect for beauty anywhere else. No othernation has learned in such careful manner how to approach beauty while preserving purity.”“On Personality”“Because of centuries-old customs, the Japanese do not finish any job somehow in a just-fine
attitude. To them, work is aesthetic, and they work with a completely focused mind. All you cansee is that the Japanese are learning to establish their state of mind throughout all of their work.
This is what meditation is all about.”“Japan as Zen Meditation”
Tagore went to the United States after his first visit to Japan. In February 1917, the next year, herevisited Japan on his way home. His third visit to Japan was in June1924, and his fourth was in March
1929. After his fourth visit he planned to go to the United States and Canada, but owing to sometrouble, he returned to Japan again and stayed in Japan in May through June, 1929.
29

With respect to exchanges between Tagore and Japan, we must not forget one memorable encounter
between Tagore and Wada Tomiko, a student at Japan Women’s University. While working as aninterpreter and translator for Tagore, she devoted her lifetime to studying Tagore’s thought withprofound knowledge and respect and thus played a great role in spreading the recognition of Tagore
in Japan. After she married, she, Koura Tomi by name, closely communicated with Tagore in Japanand the United States. She wrote about her encounter with Tagore in his late years in India in 1935 inher autobiography. On that occasion, Tagore fondly talked about his memorable experiences in Japan,
and told people around him how much he wished he could visit Japan again and write poems at
Karuizawa, his favorite town. In 1981, Ms. Koura Tomi, with other voluntary members, erected astatue of Tagore at Karuizawa, a dear place to Tagore. On the bronze statue, Japanese words meaning“No Wars for Humans” were inscribed.

What Tagore left in JapanIn 1941, immediately before World War II broke out, Tagore died at the age of eighty. But the closebond between Japan and India built by Tagore and Okakura Tenshin never perished. In 1957, at thecall of Shimonaka Yasaburo, founder of Heibon-sha, it was decided to celebrate the one-hundredthanniversary of Tagore’s birth. Many intellectuals, one after another, expressed their prospective
participation in the celebration. Entrepreneur Okura Kunihiko, who once welcomed Tagore to Japan,
was eager to take part in the celebration and led the preparations for the anniversary. Tagore Memorial
Society was established by contemporary leaders in culture, literature, education, religion and financial
world and they planned various ceremonies, seminars, showing of films, music and stage
performances, exhibition of Tagore’s paintings, lectures on Bengali, study class on Tagore and so on.
Voluminous sources and materials related to Tagore were collected and memorial publications were
issued.
Other activities went on, including studies onliterature and thought of Tagore, India and Bengal
by Nara Tsuyoshi, Azuma Kazuo, Azuma Keiko,Usuda Masayuki, Onish Masayuki, Suzuki
Kikuko, Nishioka Naoki, Niwa Kyoko, Watanabe
Kazuhiro and others.
Prof. Wagatsuma Kazuo and Author
Among them, the most prominent scholar on Tagore is Azuma Kazuo, former professor emeritus at
Tsukuba University, whose books are often quoted in this book. He learned Bengali from Professor
Watanabe Teruhiro at Tokyo University and became a visiting professor at Visva Bharati University30

in Bengal, India, in 1967 and studied intently Tagore’s literature and systematically translated Tagore’s
works, while teaching the Japanese language and culture for three years and a half. After returning toJapan, he established the Japan-India Tagore Association and held seminars and symposiums, inviting
eminent intellectuals as guest speakers through his personal connections in India.
The biggest achievement of this association is the publication of Tagore’s complete works in Japanesewith the cooperative efforts of Nakamura Hajime, Koura Tomi and others. In addition, Professor
Azuma built “Japan Academy” at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan in 1994. Moreover, in 2007,
he established “India-Japan Cultural Center, Rabindranath—Okakura House” in Calcutta incooperation with the West Bengal Government. In recognition of his endeavors and contribution formany years, the West Bengal Government gave Professor Azuma “Tagore Award”, and Visva-Bharati
University decorated him with the honorable title of “Desicottom (Supreme People’s Merits).”
Domestically, in 2008, Professor Azuma was decorated with “The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold
Rays with Neck Ribbon” by the Japanese Government. Professor Azuma passed away in 2011, but hisachievements will be forever marked in histories of Japan, India, and Bangladesh.
I would like to close this chapter by quoting what Tagore spoke about the influence Okakura Tenshin
had on India and Tenshin’s great thought at his lecture given during his visit to Japan in 1924.

“Some Years ago I had the real meeting with Japan when a great original mind, from these shores
came in our midst. He was our guest for a long time and he had immense inspirations for the young
generation of Bengal in those days which immediately preceded a period of a sudden ebullition ofnational self-assertion in our country.”“I am glad to confess to you today that one of the inspirations which acted towards the awakening of
spirit in Bengal had its source in that great man, Okakura, and I am especially grateful that thiswonderful period of our modern history had its association with Japan.”(On Oriental Culture and Japan’s Mission, Talks in Japan by Rabindranath Tagore)31

Chapter 3 Rash Behari Bose and Japan
Touyama Mitsuru, Behari Bose and Tagore
In this chapter, we deal first with Rash Behari Bose. He was born in May 1886 in a village called
Subruda in the Buldum district of Bengal. Since he was young, Behari Bose participated in theresistance against the British colonial rule. According to his own admission, as mentioned in theprevious chapter, the division of Bengal by Britain was the very incident that greatly propelled theresistance movement toward the independence of India.
At the age of 20, following his parents’ wish, he worked for a scientific forestry institute. With theknowledge of scientific technology obtained at the institute, Behari Bose came to learn how to makebombs. Using the technology, he was involved in the failed attempt to assassinate the GovernorGeneral of India and appealed to the Indian people to rise for their country. Eventually, he became awanted terrorist with a bounty on his head offered by the British authorities and went underground.
And in 1915, using the occasion when Japan was preparing to invite Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize
for Literature, to Japan, Behari Bose used the opportunity to exile himself on the pretext that he was a
relative of Tagore. Thus, Behari Bose headed for Japan, using a forged passport claiming that he was
Priyonath Tagore, Tagore’s relative. Behari Bose wrote about that incident in his autobiography
Struggle for Independence written in 1942:
The ship I exiled myself aboard, I shall never forget, was the Sanuki-maru of Nippon Yusen (NYKLine). On the day of departure, I went to the wharf in Calcutta with my comrades who wanted tosee me off. [Omitted] Their eyes were filled with tears. I myself was so emotional and teary. I was
saying goodbye to my beloved beautiful homeland and dear comrades who shared the life-or-death
destiny.
Paying much attention around me, I stealthily took out two guns I was hiding and handed them tomy comrades, careful not to be caught sight of. “Here, take these two guns. Only two but they are
valuable weapons to our party always worrying about the shortage of weapons. I don’t need them
any more now that I am exiling myself. So, I will leave them in your hands. Use them.” [Omitted]
The shipping company was busy loading cargoes. Indians in the third-class compartment werebeing arrested by the police, suspected of being members of the Revolutionary Party. I didn’t knowwhat would become of me....
The strict passenger check was moving on from the third-class passengers to the second-class ones.
32

They were approaching nearer and nearer to me. That was awful and uneasy. I felt as if I weremade to walk over needles. I got aboard as a first-class passenger. In the first-class compartment,
besides me, there were one Japanese, one Jewish and one Indian merchant, four of us altogether.
At such moment of irritation and uneasiness, I pretended to stay as cool as ever, looking over the
port town with a cigarette in my mouth quite nonchalantly. “Is there any other first-class passenger?”I heard an English policeman inquiring. Quite apart from me, and yet, I was all ears not to miss aword of the policeman or any change of his attitude. The chief officer answered, “Yes, here isanother one, a relative of Mr. Tagore.” “Ah, well, that’ll be all right.” The policeman was gone
without checking on me, pretending to be Tagore’s relative. “Thank God! I made it!” I cried out
in spite of myself.
Struggle for Independence, written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Showa-shobo.
It is unknown whether Tagore knew about this incident, andit will not be confirmed by documents in the future, either.
However, it is doubtful that such a betraying operation was
conducted without Tagore’s knowledge. When Tagore cameto Japan twice in 1924 and 1929, he met Behari Bose during
each visit. Especially important was that in 1924, Tagore met
Touyama Mitsuru in his old age, the founder of Genyo-sha[political organization] and great Pan-Asianist, through themediation of Behari Bose.
Rash Behari BoseOn September 12, a grand reception for Tagore’s visit was held at Ueno Seiyo-ken restaurant andTouyama Mitsuru attended the reception party. Tagore held both hands together reverentially in the
Indian manner while Touyama bowed down respectfully in the Japanese manner. Behari Bose himself
helped them as an interpreter. Tagore made a statement to the following effect: “I was worried about
the future of you, Japanese people, when I came to Japan last time nearly eight years ago. Then I wasworried about Japan’s grand-scale and superficial imitation of the West and its lack of mentality. Today,
the situation is completely different. You have developed wonderfully in terms of spiritual richness
and I am extremely pleased with you.”
And in response to the M.C.’s request to introduce more and more Indian wise men to Japan, Tagore
answered, “On your part, you have many wise men among you, and you should not neglect them as
you did in the past when you admired the West.”
These words of Tagore’s apparently were meant for the Japanese patriots who helped Behari Bose and33

accepted and supported him in his movement for India’s independence. And when Tagore visited Japan
in 1929, Touyama Mitsuru was staying in China and unable to see Tagore. Tagore left a short letter toTouyama when he was about to leave Japan for India.

Dear friend,
I am about to leave Japan soon.
I would like to say goodbye to you.
Your mission is to strive for great ideals.
My mission and your mission, to spread the idea of human brotherhood in humanism
from India to Japan, which fill me with immeasurable joy, are perfectly aligned.
I would like to convey this feeling.

July 8, 1929

The meeting of Touyama Mitsuru and Behari Bose, with both of whom Tagore reportedly sympathizedso much and shared the “thought of fellow humans in humanism,” was another epoch-making eventin history.

Behari Bose and Nakamura-ya
Even after Behari Bose exiled himself in Japan, the British authorities never gave up persecuting him.
On his part, Bose never ceased his activities in Japan either and hiding in Azabu, Tokyo, he kept intouch with the Indian activists living in Japan. Simultaneously, Bose closely contacted Sun Yat-sen,
who was also living in exile in Japan, and both exchanged views. In addition, he was engaged in asecret import of weapons, which was one of the original purposes of his exile in Japan. It did not take
Britain long time to learn that Behari Bose was hiding in Japan.
What irritated Britain most was a celebration party for the enthronement of Emperor Taisho, held by34

the Indian Society in Japan at Ueno Seiyoken on November 27, 1915. At the celebration, which was
also meant as friendly exchange between Japan and India, the Japanese national anthem was sung, but
no British national anthem was heard, nor the Union Flag was hoisted. In spite of the fact that at thattime India was under the British rule and the British Minister in Japan was invited to the celebration,such disloyal treatment spoke of the clear resistance to the colonial rule on the part of the Indians
living in Japan. The British authorities must have judged that Behari Bose was behind all of it. And
finally, Britain asked the Japanese Government to turn in Behari Bose, suspected of acting as a spy for
Germany.
On the next day, November 28, Behari Bose was called to the police and ordered to leave Japan within
five days. It was highly likely that once Bose left Japan, he would be turned over to Britain andexecuted. The same order was issued to Indian activist Herenbo Ral Gupta. The two of them told anewspaper about this order and met Touyama Mitsuru and others, asking for support. The newspaper
reported this as a big news and strong voices raised criticism stating that it was a national shame toturn in Indian patriots who escaped to Japan for help. Touyama Mitsuru promised to do his best forthem.
Souma Aizo, owner of Nakamura-ya store in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and his wife Kokko were among thoseJapanese people who felt sorry for the weak-minded Japanese Government. Regarding this matter,
Aizo said to Nakamura Kayu, a journalist from Touyama Mitsuru’s circle, “Someone needs to comeforward and hide him. My store is always crowded and looks like it is almost in disarray. So, maybe
it is a good place for hiding them.”
He did not mean much when he said that, but somehow it appeared to be a good idea. If they had tohide Behari Bose at Touyama’s house, or at places related to Genyo-sha or at other concerned locations,the police would immediately find him. Aizo’s store was already popularly called “Nakamura-ya Salon”
and a famous place for painters and artists to get together. Nakamura-ya had even an atelier, but thestore was not directly involved in political matters. What’s more, Kokko understood English. Touyama
and others decided that Nakamura-ya was the best hiding place for Behari Bose and the other man on
the run. Thus, Souma Aizo was unexpectedly contacted, but he and his wife were determined to accept
this sudden request.
On December 1, on the pretext that they were having a farewell party for Behari Bose and Gupta at
Touyama’s house, the Japanese helpers called the two to his house and Miyazaki Touten, supporter of
Sun Yat-sen, said in English, “We have decided to hide you. We’ll do it in secret. So, leave it to us.”35

Mr. and Mrs. Touyama, Uchida Ryohei, Terao Tooru, Kuzuu Yoshihisa, Miyazaki Touten, Tsukuda
Nobuo, Souma Aizo and other prominent figures around Touyama gathered for the party. They secretly
took Behari Bose and Gupta out through the back door and put them on a private automobile which
was a rarity in those days in Japan (it was the newest model of automobile Sugiyama Shigemaru of
Genyo-sha had purchased from the United States and since no one could catch up with the speed of
the car, it was chosen for the runaway) and hurried to Nakamura-ya in Shinjuku. Souma Kokko
explained what was going on to the two exiles in English and hid them in the atelier with a 6-jo room
and a 4.5-jo room. [Jo is equivalent to approx. 1.8 square meters.] It was a daring escape from thepolicemen watching in front of Touyama’s house.
Souma Kokko later recalled her determination to hide Behari Bose and Gupta:
To hide these Indian exiles was an extremely risky attempt since we dared to do what the
government would not. If we were found out, it would have been a big problem and we would be
subjected to certain penalty. In that case, I was determined to come out as the one in charge,
because it was a housewife’s role to take care of the rooms, meals and other daily needs. And if I
were to be arrested and taken away from the house, our children would be taken care of by others,
and the business would remain in my name as it has been since it started in Hongo, which will
prove that I am in the position to act as I like. My husband will just pretend to complain, “Sorryfor my wife’s meddling in others’ business.” Then our business will stay intact.
“A Note on Rash Behari Bose,” written by Souma Kokko, from Pan-Asianism, published by
Chikuma-shobo.
Souma Aizo, her husband, was equally determined to resolutely protect Bose and asked their thirty
employees to cooperate with the owners.
Aizo said passionately, “We will resolutely protect the exiles who escaped from India all the way toJapan for safety even if the government forsakes them,” to the employees, who in response said, “By
all means, we will keep this matter secret even to our parents, brothers and sisters. Should the police
step in, we would protect the exiles, using force if necessary.” Aizo said to ease them, “We should try
to avoid such an extreme case, but in time of emergency, you should keep doors firmly shut and neveropen them while we let the Indians escape through the back”. Aizo told them to stay calm and strictly
keep the information that they were hiding the exiles secret from the outside world.
“Should we fail to protect these important men trusted in our hands and helplessly watch them die,we the Japanese would simply lose our face, let alone the prestige of Nakamura-ya. Those of you
36full of fighting spirit, please stay calm and do your best for the men’s safety.” Finally, theemployees seemed to understand Souma’s feeling and calmly said, “We understand. We will bevery careful.”“A Note on Rash Behari Bose,” written by Souma Kokko, from Pan-Asianism, published by
Chikuma-shobo.
Souma Kokko was the only one to understand English. But if the female master of the store should
wholeheartedly engage in taking care of the two exiles, this could invite certain suspicion (Nakamuraya popularly sold the store’s original cream bread for the first time in Japan, but their store was small
and the couple often attended to the customers themselves). The communication between the two
exiles and Kokko was mainly done through handing written memos and two maids were to take careof the hiding men. Regarding this, Souma Kokko described a moving episode:
The maid received a message that her uncle had died. But we could not let her go home to attend
his funeral. I didn’t directly say anything, but the maid herself said to me, “I will never leak itmyself, but lest someone should notice by any chance that something is wrong with me, I will not
go home now. I will go when there is nothing to worry about any longer.” This maid was named
Omaki and I shall never forget her.
“A Note on Rash Behari Bose,” written by Souma Kokko, from Pan-Asianism, published by
Chikuma-shobo.
However, Gupta could no longer endure the pains of the restricted life confined in a narrow room
without taking bath and escaped to Oukawa Shumei for protection. Gupta provided Oukawa withvarious information available at that time and disappeared from the stage of the movement. According
to certain source, he secretly participated in the independence movement.

Marriage with Souma Toshiko
During all that period, Touyama Mitsuru and other supporters of Behari Bose kept negotiating with
the Japanese Government and finally, in the spring of 1916, they obtained the confirmation from the
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishii Kikujiro that Behari Bose will be protected. Thus, Behari Bose wasable to openly leave the hiding place at Nakamura-ya. On March 15, he rented a house at Azabu, thistime with the help of the Japanese police. Behari Bose threw a thank-you party, inviting to his newhouse Touyama Mitsuru, Inukai Tsuyoshi and others who had provided so much help to him andentertained the guests with Indian curry that Bose cooked himself.
At the party, Behari Bose made a speech in excellent Japanese, which greatly moved the guests. While37

he was staying at Nakamura-ya, he wasted no time in learning Japanese, very attentively about how
to use appropriate words and reverential expressions and thoroughly learned about the different word
usage according to respective levels of social status. He had perfected his linguistic ability to writetheses and speak about India in Japanese in public during these trying days. Another fatal encountertook place at the party. Mr. and Mrs. Souma took their daughter Toshiko with them to the party to have
her help Bose.
Although Japan had changed its policy toward Bose from chasing as a wanted man to protecting him,
Behari Bose remained a terrorist who could be arrested at Britain’s request. Detectives were sniffing
Bose’s whereabouts and he had to change his places several times to avoid detection. Touyama Mitsuru
thought that Bose needed someone trustworthy to watch over him night and day and to act for his sakeand suggested that Toshiko become Bose’s wife.
Toshiko’s mother, Souma Kokko, was deeply worried about her daughter who she feared came to bear
unfathomable burden as a result of the couple’s having hidden Behari Bose. If she were to tell her
daughter about the marriage with Bose, Toshiko might have no option but to accept it whether she
liked it or not since she had seen how devotedly her parents, Touyama Mitsuru and many others had
protected Bose. Kokko said to her daughter about the offer of marriage as caringly as possible, “Thinkvery well, dear. You must not hurry in making up your mind because things are urgent. This is not an
ordinary wedding.”
However, Toshiko listened to her mother without changing her expression a bit and after two weeks
or so, when she was asked about her answer, she said, “Let me go to marry him. I have made up mymind.” “Did you think enough? It may risk your life.” “I know. I know how you and father feel.”
After this conversation, Souma Kokko visited Behari Bose. According to Behari Bose’s autobiography,
after the following conversation, the marriage between the two was decided.
“You may feel awkward in your long life from now on without a spouse, and above all, it is urgent
that you get married to stay safe. I am a bit hesitant to say, but I want you to marry my daughter
Toshiko as one who understands you best in Japan.”“Mr. Touyama perfectly agrees with me. So, please let me hear what you frankly feel about this. I
understand that people get married young in your country, and I wonder if you are married or you
have someone special in your heart. In that case, please be candid and tell me so.”38

Hearing her, I said, “You are right about our custom of early marriage. However, as for me, I totally
devoted myself to the revolution since my boyhood, busily moving from place to place without
staying at one place long enough and I even did not come near my own house where I was born,
fearing lest my kins should get in trouble because of me. I have never thought of getting married
and determined that the independence of India was my life-long work and devoted my entire life
to the cause as if it was my wife. I have never dreamed of having a wife myself.”“However, with your offer that a young lady as wonderful as Toshiko be my wife and therecommendation of Mr. Touyama, whom I owe so much, I will gladly have her as my wife.”
Struggle for Independence written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Showa sho-bo.
Still, Behari Bose was not fully protected, and the Souma family feared that if their relatives were
informed of the marriage, they would surely oppose it and the information might be leaked. So, thewedding was entirely taken care of by Mr. and Mrs. Souma and held on July 9, 1918, at Touyama
Mitsur’s house.
In November 1918, World War I ended with the surrender of Germany. The very cause for Britain
trying to arrest Behari Bose was that they suspected Bose of being a German spy. With Germany’s
defeat in the War and the establishment of the Weimar Republic, that cause was automaticallyrescinded. The insistent pursuit of Behari Bose by Britain became less active and son Masahide wasborn to Mr. and Mrs. Behari Bose in 1920 and daughter Tetsuko was born in 1922. In 1923, Behari
Bose became a naturalized Japanese citizen, and the safety of his life was firmly secured.
Finally, Behari Bose became able to publicly and openly engage in political and ideological activities
in Japan as his base. Behari Bose took the trouble to go to the British Embassy for papers needed toapply for naturalization. He wrote joyfully about the occasion:
The British authorities chased me around with the snake-like obstinacy, but the obstinate Britain
was no longer able to harass me, labeling me “German spy” with the end of the War in Europe
brought by the victory of the Allied Forces. Then, I reported to the British Embassy for the firsttime and underwent the procedure to become a naturalized Japanese citizen. Those officials at the
Embassy surely felt indignant at me for fooling them, but they could do nothing, which made me
feel somewhat triumphant.
Struggle for Independence, written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Showa sho-bo.
However, Toshiko, who had been devotedly supporting Bose became ill at that time onwards, and39

despite the medical care, she died from illness at the age of 28 in March 1925. During a difficult lifeof constantly changing hiding places, her lungs seemed to malfunction. They had been married for
only eight years. Behari Bose fondly recalled their years together, “It was brief in time, but we were
happy living together. I enjoyed the life-worth happiness in those several years.” From thenceforth, herefused any offer to marry again.
Regarding the marriage life of Behari Bose and Toshiko, her mother Souma Kokko said that there was
hardly any trouble due to the difference of customs and habits and that especially Behari Bose
understood the Japanese people’s character and habits very well. At the same time, Toshiko held deep
respect and admiration toward her husband’s native land of India. At the last moment of departure,
Toshiko whispered very softly the old Indian sutra to the voice of her husband Behari Bose. Kokko
wrote that it was the serenest world of just the two of them that even she, her mother, could never enter.
Toshiko was not so talented that she attracted many people but rather she was so truthful, reticent
and firm-willed.
“A Note on Rash Behari Bose,” written by Souma Kokko (from Pan-Asianism, Chikumashobo)
Mr. Kinoshita Naoe, who read a eulogy at Toshiko’s funeral, described Toshiko’s belief as “she would
have gladly risen on to the guillotine.” As Toshiko’s younger brother also described her in the samemanner, Kokko felt proud of her daughter and praised her brave life, saying to herself, “Mr. Kinoshita
saw Toshiko in exactly the same manner as we did. Toshiko would be smiling in her grave.”
Incidentally, Masahide, the son of Bose and Toshiko, was killed in action in June 1945 during thebattle of Okinawa and his soul is enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine.
Touyama Mitsuru, Mr. and Mrs. Souma, Toshiko, who devoted her young life to loving andcontributing to Behari Bose, many patriots and workers of Nakamura-ya—what was common in all ofthem was the firm belief that they would resolutely protect people of justice who experienced
difficulties in Japan, whatever ethnicity they were from and that for that cause they would bravely
stand up and act, facing fearlessly any authorities. The will of those people made Japan the leader ofAsia that rose for the liberation of the Asian countries, including India.

40

Chapter 4

Inherited intent on “independence”

The outbreak of the Greater East Asian War and the establishment of the Indian
Independence League
Behari Bose published many books in Japan. Although they are not popularly read today, all of them
are historically valuable documents, appealing to the Japanese people and those interested in politics,
especially the topic of the British oppression in India and the Indian resistance movement against it.
Moreover, Behari Bose regarded the struggle between Asia and the West as mental and philosophicalconflict, as Okakura Tenshin and Tagore did.
Asia is the mother of many peoples (all of them are the most important peoples) and the mother of
all the important languages in the world, and the mother of the various religions in the world,
including Christianity. Even various religions which were disseminated to other continents andachieved great development―Muslim in Asian and American Continents, Judaism in Europe andAmerica and others—also originated in Asia.
The Victory of the Youthful Asia, written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Heibon-sha.
Asia is the birthplace of the world’s five great religions—Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, andBuddhism. In addition, the alphabet, the decimal system, astronomy, the compass, and printing, whichhave greatly contributed to mankind, all originated in Asia. However, the Western world was supported
by colonialism since the Age of Exploration or the Age of Sail and from the British Industrial
Revolution onwards, the West developed modern states and capitalism with the machinery culture.
The rich Asian Continent was put under the control of Europe and America, and while being exploited,41

the Asian people came to feel mentally inferior to the West. The Asian people wrongly thought that
the Whites were better and stronger than non-Whites. This wrong view was overcome by Japan’s
victory in the Russo-Japanese War. Japan’s victory over Russia was not just a military feat. Japan’s
victory in the Russo-Japanese War awakened the entire Asia from the coma of passive obedience.
It was at the time of the Russo-Japanese War that the movements to revive Asia arose among
countries in this vast Continent. Aiming to liberate their own countries from the oppressive
foreign powers, the Turkish Youth Party was established, Persian youths united to achieve
independence of their home country, Indian youths got encouraged to fight for their country’s
independence, Chinese began dreaming of the government “of the Chinese, for the Chinese andby the Chinese.” All these movements took place soon after the Russo-Japanese War. Other
minor Asian countries also awoke from their long coma and began endeavoring to make up forthe lost time in order to realize the true humanly progress.
The Victory of the Youthful Asia, written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Heibon-sha
However, Behari Bose emphasized that Asian restoration did not mean that the Asian countries should
become independent so that they may be as strong as Europe and be able to control others.
Asia’s mission is completely different from that of Europe. The West used their power andknowledge not for the humankind but for their own selfish purposes and for increasing theirown interests, ruthlessly victimizing millions of people. Opposing the West, free andindependent Asia will endeavor, not for our selfish interests, but for the world peace, andhappiness and contentment of the entire humankind on earth, regardless of class, principle, colorof the skin or religion. The major task of independent Asia is to create a new civilization capableof bringing happiness to the entire humankind.
The Victory of the Youthful Asia, written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Heibon-sha
Thus, Behari Bose continued to speak and work politically and his thoughts anticipated the Declarationof the Greater East Asian Conference, the Bandung Conference (the Asian-African Conference) andthe ideal of the World Federation.
Behari Bose did not regard Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War simply as the result of theactions of Japan’s excellent war commanders or its successful modernization. Behari Bose travelledacross Manchukuo, visited war ruins and the War Memorial Museum at Port Arthur. He wrote that at
the museum he was reversely impressed by the exhibited Japanese weapons which were much inferior
to the Russian weapons. Behari Bose’s opinion was that materially inferior Japan’s victory over Russia
42

demonstrated to the world the truth of “the victory of idealistic civilization over the materialistic
civilization,” far beyond the concept of the colored peoples’ victory over the Whites or Asia’s victory
over the European colonial regime.
Behari Bose thought the colonialization of India was the very foundation on which Britain and other
European countries engaged in colonizing the entire Asia. In principle, Britain’s exploitation of Indianriches led Europe to prosperity and brought dishonor to Asia. Therefore, the independence of India
could not remain just an Indian issue, but it would bring liberation and independence to the entire Asiaand consequently the salvation of the entire world which had been disfigured by Europe. Behari Bose
pointed out that at the same time in Europe and America, many people remained unhappy and that
there were other countries and peoples that were oppressed as badly as or even worse than Asians. To
liberate all those who were suffering was the Asian mission.
I believe that if only India achieves independence, all humans having been abused or exploitedby the Whites will be liberated onto the earth of freedom and return to what they are to be interms of humanity. Through that, we will be able to become perfectly independent AsianContinent.
[Omitted]
In the future of Asians who are to awake to the great spiritual culture and to develop a newcivilization based on the greatness of that culture, lies not only the promise of happiness of theirown, but also happiness for suffering Europeans and Americans, through the restoration of Asia.
Therefore, the mission of the Asians is to be responsible for the entire world population and only
when Asians fulfill this mission, Asians will be able to share happiness with the rest of the world.
The Victory of Youthful Asia, written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Heibon-sha
These words prove that Behari Bose’s thought is deeply related with Okakura Tenshin’s belief of “Asiais one” and Tagore’s love of humanity.
The ideal of the two great thinkers Tenshin and Tagore was inherited by Behari Bose in the form of apolitical movement. And based on this ideal, first, Behari Bose tried to unite the independence
movements outside the country. The most significant political movement Behari Bose led was theformation of the Indian Independence League.
On December 8, 1941, Japan declared war against the United States and Britain and the Greater East
Asian War broke out. Taking this occasion as the best opportunity for Indian independence, Indian
independence fighters acting in various parts of East Asia rose for independence. One of the leaders43

to unite these fighters was A.M. Nair, who founded an Indian restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo. In his
autobiography An Indian Freedom Fighter in Japan, he firmly stated that it was totally due to Behari
Bose that Indian Independence fighters in various parts of Asia were united to form the Indian
Independence League and that the Japanese General Headquarters cooperated in their efforts.
What we aimed initially was to organize Indian residents across Southeast Asia, including Japan,
and to establish a guiding principle of how to use this drastically changing situation mosteffectively to promote the liberation of India.
An Indian Freedom Fighter in Japan, written by A.M.Nair, published by Futo-sha.
The mission was to unify various independence movements, which until that point operated separately
on their own in various regions, into a single organized effort that would act uniformly. The man incharge of this mission in Japan was Chief of General Staff Army General Sugiyama Gen. In February
1942, the Indian Independence League was formed with Headquarters at Room 202, the Sanno Hotel,
Akasaka, Tokyo.
Their first task was to request that the Japanese military authorities protect Indian residents inSoutheast Asia, where the Japanese Army was marching remarkably, without regarding Indians as
enemy nationals. This request was accepted, and the Japanese authorities even instructed them to apply
the following procedure: to distinguish Indians among local people, just ask “Gandhi?” and if theperson nods or shows any affirmative sign, then treat the person cordially.
And thousands of people came to the Indian Independence League Headquarters in Tokyo forparticipation and cooperation. However, an agreement was already reached among the three, namely,
Behari Bose, Nair and Sugiyama. Their principles were as follows:1)This organization at any time absolutely refrains from acting for the sake of personal interest or
profit of individuals or groups, strictly following the concept of “non-insistence task,” 2)
Whatever cultural, political or any other name each group has carried hitherto, once the league
was established, every member shares the one and same mind, 3) The league acts in the mannerof supporting leaders of the Indian National Congress and must not oppose or defame them, 4)
No one besides the Indian people is admitted into the league nor participates in the activities, 5)
cooperation on the part of the Japanese authorities is necessary and welcome, but we, the league,
decide our policy and carry it out on our own, without any interference from others.
An Indian Freedom Fighter in Japan, written by A. M. Nair, published by Futo-sha.

44

The principles were stated clearly: the national independence movement is solely for the people.
Therefore, even if support from other countries is to be rendered, they decide their movement policyon their own and the membership is exclusively for Indian nationals and Japanese are not admitted formembership.
Concurrently, in the battle zones in Southeast Asia, “F Agent” led by Major Fujiwara Iwaichi was inoperation and the formation of the Indian National Army was progressing, led by Mohan Singh, anIndian officer mobilized as a member of the British Army.
On February 15, 1942, Singapore fell. Prime Minister Tojo Hideki made a speech at the Japanese Dietto the effect: “Japan will support Indian independence movement, now is the time for the Indians torise and expel Britain from their land. Japan’s aid is ‘non-insistence support’ and Japan does not havethe least intention to rule India.” His speech clearly showed the firm alliance between the Indian
Independence League and the Japanese Government.
On March 25, in Tokyo, the Tokyo Conference of the Indian Independence League was held, attended
by independence fighters from various regions. The conference was held for three days, and it was
decided that the second conference be held very soon in Bangkok, Southeast Asia, closer to the war
front. It was also decided that the Indian Independence League Headquarters be moved to Bangkok.
The Japanese Army’s General Staff Headquarters was to newly organize a larger agent headed byGeneral Iwakuro Hideo for closer coordination, integrating F Agent into the new agent named “Hikari
Agent.” In principle, details of this new agent were confidential and Behari Bose, Nair and Iwakuro
were to decide the basic policy.
On June 15, 1942, the Bangkok conference was held, attended by Behari Bose as chairman and 120
delegates from the Malay Peninsula, Japan, Thailand, China, Manchuria, the Philippines, Borneo andelsewhere. Prime Minister Tojo sent a message. At this conference it was decided that the Indian
National Army then under formation be officially put under the command of the Indian Independence
League, thus severing it from the single-handed command of Mohan Singh, who tended to be
autocratic and arbitrary. The conference ended successfully, despite the strong personalities andassertions of many delegates, solely thanks to Behari Bose’s excellent chairmanship well reflecting
his humanity, tolerance and straightforwardness, which helped him preserve the principles to the end.
Based in Bangkok, the Indian Independence League continued its active campaigns toward India, andin India, at the national committee of the Indian National Congress (Congress Party) held in Bangkok
on August 8, 1942, they demanded the immediate withdrawal of Britain and adopted “Quit India”
45

resolution, declaring that should Britain refuse to withdraw, they would launch a non-violence national
movement throughout India. However, the British authorities immediately arrested National Congress
leaders, Ghandhi and Nehru and others, and about sixty thousand people were arrested amongprotesting citizens. We can see that Japanese Army’s advance made a great impact within India.
At that time, the Indian National Army was in Singapore, but due to Mohan Singh’s despotic command,
there was a total confusion on the scene. Here, too, Behari Bose was trusted to put the Army back inorder. When it comes to the Indian National Army, Chandra Bose is always associated with it. However,
Nair emphasizes that it was Behari Bose that made the Indian National Army a well-disciplined andcompetent army. And the Japanese Army separated Indian P.O.W.s from others and spared them hard,
physical labor and made them cooperate with the Indian National Army.
Trustworthy Colonel Bhonsle was newly appointed commander of the Indian National Army andcompetent military men and publicity experts were recruited. The most significant work achieved by
the establishment of the Indian National Army was that they united the Indian people as one nation.
The principle of the British rule by division was to divide Indian tribes and religious sects and makeIndians compete with one another, and taking advantage of this national division, effectively rule thedivided India. Behari Bose prevented conflicts among Indians themselves by uniting India into one.
Rash Behari Bose greatly contributed to reconstructing the Indian National Army and mostremarkably he imbued the Indian National Army soldiers with the sense of unity that despite all
the diversities Indians are basically one. The Indian National Army consisted of people fromvarious districts, with various religions, habits, customs and personal backgrounds. He succeeded
in having these multi-textured people realize that they are one and the same Indians having thesame responsibility and power to fight against the British rule, beyond all the differences.
An Indian Freedom Fighter in Japan, written by A. M. Nair, published by Futo-sha.

From Behari Bose to Chandra Bose46

Behari Bose was so busy uniting various Indian groups, dealing with certain arbitrary members,
negotiating with the Japanese Army and moving restlessly from one place to another in Southeast Asia
that his physical conditions got worse and worse with his chronic
diabetes. Entering 1943, he became too ill to continue leading
the political activities.
From the start, none but Behari Bose could have led the Indian
Independence League or independence movements overseas.
With the war going on, it was urgent to have someone stand byin case of Bose’s absence. Regarding this, from the very earlystage (according to his book, at the time immediately after theoutbreak of the Greater East Asian War), Nair had been
proposing to have Subhas Chandra Bose join them.
Chandra Bose
Chandra Bose was born in 1897 at Cuttack, Bengal (presently

in the state of Odisha). He enteredCalcutta University and then he led a students’ strike against the British rule and was suspended fromthe university. Later, he studied abroad at the University of Cambridge. Just like Tagore, he was
educated in both Asia and Europe.
From 1921 onwards, Chandra Bose got involved in the independence movement more and more.
While respecting Gandhi, he thought that although Gandhi’s “non-violence movement” was a holyideal, to gain independence in reality, the Indian people had to fight using force, if necessary. With his
clear intention on independence and the excellent speeches he made, he got strong support from thepeople and worked remarkably as a radical left activist within the Indian National Congress (Bosethought it necessary to adopt a certain socialistic policy in order to save the poor in India), and at one
time he was elected chairman of the Indian National Congress. However, as Bose’s influence became
too strong, fearing it could invite total confrontation with the British authorities, Gandhi and otherleaders forced Bose to resign from the post and practically placed him in confinement. Under suchcircumstances, World War II broke out.
Learning that war between Britain and Germany had begun, India realized that it provided a goodchance for India to gain independence. It was not that Bose was sympathetic with Nazism, but he wasdetermined to team up with whatever powers for the sake of achieving Indian independence. Bose
proposed to Gandhi and others that they should call on people to rise against Britain throughout thecountry. But his proposition was turned down for being too dangerous and Bose himself was arrested
47and put in prison as a dangerous person. In December 1941, Bose was temporarily released, when he
exiled himself in Germany.
However, it was utterly impossible for Bose to be accepted by Nazi Germany, where the colored people
were fundamentally segregated. Hitler was not particularly against Britain’s rule over India, and hehardly cared for Bose, who asked for Germany’s support for Indian independence many times. As
soon as Japan declared war on Britain and the United States, Bose’s hope was turned to Japan andafter the Indian Independence League was established, Bose made a strong request to be allowed tovisit Japan through the Japanese Ambassador in Germany Ohshima. To the Indian Independence
League and to Japan, equally, Chandra Bose was the very leader, who was well-known and ready toengage in military action at any time. On February 8, 1943, Bose left Germany aboard a U-boat, aGerman Navy’s submarine, and on April 27, he changed boats to a Japanese submarine, in the offing
to the southeast of Madagascar Island, Africa and arrived in Tokyo on May 15. Despite his poor health,Behari Bose went to Tokyo and met Chandra Bose, thanking him for coming all the way to Japan.
Prime Minister Tojo was doubtful about Chandra Bose at first, but he was greatly impressed with
Bose’s passion and personality at the meeting and announced his full support for Bose.
Then, Behari Bose and Chandra Bose flew to Singapore (at that time, the city was called “Shonan-shi”
in Japanese) aboard the same plane. On June 4, 1943, at “the Greater East Asian Theater” (CathayHall) in the city, meeting of the delegates of the Indian Independence League was held, and it was
officially announced that the leadership of the Indian Independence League changed hands fromBehari Bose to Chandra Bose. The following is the summary of Behari Bose’s speech on the occasion:
Gentlemen and armed gallant fighters!
[Omitted]
Today, we are about to enter the most vigorous, decisive phase of our battle for liberation of ourhome country.
I am confident. We are now standing at the doorstep of victory.
Gentlemen, it’s been a year and a half since we launched our Indian independence movement inEast Asia. The most memorable day to decide all our goals, that is, December 8, 1941, is the day
when Imperial Japan gallantly rose to draw her sword of justice, destroy American and British
imperialism, and relieve the Asian peoples from their shackles. Moreover, this historical date ofDecember 8, 1941, is the day to remember as the day that initially made the Indian Independence
movement what it is today.
48

[Omitted]
Within India, the anti-British revolution has been continuing for eleven months. Britain had
boasted itself to break this revolution to pieces within days. And yet, they have failed, haven’t
they? Despite their cruel violence and constraint inflicted on their fighters, they miserably failed.
Outside the Indian border, we, Indians living in East Asia, are standing by, ready to supplement
and assist the democratic efforts made within India.
[Omitted]
His excellency Prime Minister of Imperial Japan Tojo Hideki reemphasized his promise to totallysupport India in the sacred war to annihilate Anglo-American powers. This was only a few days
ago while I was in Tokyo.
[Omitted]
Gentlemen, you now understand the reason why I am so confident about India’s victory.
[Omitted]
Therefore, our duty as Indians is truly clear. For the freedom of India, for justice, morality, humanliving and better and fitter order for mutual exchange, we Indians must contribute our efforts
toward the victory of the Axis and fight resolutely.
[Omitted]
The victory of Japan and the Axis means the freedom of India, freedom of 400 million Indians,
Asian glitter and the victory of a new world order.
[Omitted]
Gentlemen, armed gallant fighters, next, you may ask me what I have done in Tokyo for our issue
and what I have brought here.
What I have brought to you is this. [Facing toward Mr. Subhas] Mr. Subhas Chandra Bose. We
need not introduce Mr. Chandra Bose to you, nor to the world anew now. Among Indian youths,
he is the symbol of the best, supreme, most respected and equipped with the highest and the best
quality. He is second to none as the leader of the entire India resisting British Imperialism.
He is the supreme leader and at the same time a never-compromising fighter.

49

[Omitted]
Gentlemen, now is the happiest time of my life. I stand before you with the man, the only one bestequipped with our holy mother country’s feature and character, devotedly participating in our
struggle for free India.
The heart-felt and zealous welcome rendered by 2 million Indians living in East Asia is not yet
enough to Mr. Subhas, nor to me, nor to India.
Gentlemen and armed gallant fighters, I now resign from my current post and hereby appoint Mr.
Subhas Chandra Bose chairman of the East Asian Indian Independence League. From now on, Mr.
Subhas Chandra Bose is your president and the leader of the Indian Independence War.
I am absolutely confident that you all will fight and march gallantly toward victory under Mr.
Subhas Chandra Bose’s leadership.
Bose Exclaims, written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Seiun-do.
All those concerned were deeply impressed by what Behari Bose did on the occasion beyond all praise.
The great leader voluntarily and with heart-felt joy and respect yielded the leadership to another, which
was rarely seen among independent fighters.
According to Nair’s book, Behari Bose seemed not to support Chandra Bose’s intention to invade
India with the Japanese Army. However, once he yielded his leadership to Chandra Bose, Behari Bosenever once opposed or meddled with Chandra Bose publicly, except offering personal advice.
After he peacefully yielded the leadership to the other, Behari Bose returned to Japan and his alreadypoor health further deteriorated. After the defeat in the Battle of Imphal and the worsening battle
situation, Behari Bose wrote a courageous poem at the beginning of his last book Bose Exclaims(published by Seiun-do):I hereby solemnly pledge,
Whatever great hardships may be coming,
I will never rest not a moment, night and day,
Until the day when the flag of liberty flies over our homeland,
Until the day when the flag of liberty is hoisted by our hands.

50

I hereby solemnly pledge,
Whatever fearful hardships may be coming,
I gladly sacrifice myself.
Now is the time to reward my beloved country.
With my might, I will remove hardships from my home country.
I hereby solemnly pledge,
Whatever great hardships may be coming,
I will cooperate in annihilating the enemy,
I will free my beloved country crying under unhappy shackles,
I will break violent Britain’s shackles.
I hereby solemnly pledge,
Whatever fearful hardships may be coming,
I will gladly follow the call, never looking back,I will expel the enemy with my hands,
When the enemy comes to our land over the sea.
I hereby solemnly pledge,
Whatever great hardships may be coming,
Deserting my children, my wife, all that I possess,
I will fulfill my pledge, devoting everything I possess,
For my beloved country,
Because I am her child.
Bose Exclaims, written by Rash Behari Bose, published by Seiun-do.
This poem obviously shows that Behari Bose dedicated this heroic poem to his homeland, India andJapan. In January 1945, Behari Bose passed away. As mentioned in the previous chapter, in June of
the same year, his and his beloved wife Toshiko’s son Masahide was killed in action during the Battleof Okinawa. Behari Bose and his family dedicated all they had to the movement for the independenceof India and the liberation of Asia, building a great bridge between Japan and India.
Behari Bose’s remarkable achievements owe much to old Mr. Touyama Mitsuru and Mr. and Mrs.
Souma and many other Japanese who supported him. Particularly, the fact that the Soumas had theirdaughter Toshiko marry Behari Bose is simply amazing beyond words. Who on earth would gladly51

have their daughter marry to a prospectless, insecure Indian on the run who was wanted with bounty
and might be caught and killed any day soon? It would have taken enormous courage to allow theirdaughter to marry such a man even if the marriage was proposed by the great man like Touyama
Mitsuru or Toshiko herself agreed to the marriage. In fact, however, the Soumas willingly had theirdaughter marry Behari Bose and continued to support the couple after their marriage. I was utterly
shocked as an Indian when I learned about this married couple for the first time. Indeed, it is theJapanese people that can do such a miracle. Whenever I think of Behari Bose, I cannot help but feelan overwhelming respect toward the Japanese people.

Chapter 5 Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army
Chandra Bose, who moved Japan
Chandra Bose arrived in Japan on May 16, 1943, via dangerous voyage aboard submarines from
Germany. After his arrival, on June 10, Bose met Prime Minister Tojo Hideki. The prime minister was
almost instantly charmed by Chandra Bose’s humanity and firm determination toward the
independence of India. On June 20, Chandra Bose’s visit to Japan was officially announced andmorning-edition newspapers posted Bose’s message to the country. After the sad news of Secretary of
the Navy Yamamoto Isoroku’s death in action in the past May and the disadvantageous battle
conditions, the Japanese people were beginning to realize that Japan was losing the war. In such an
atmosphere, Chandra Bose’s words were meant to make Japan recognize the significance of theGreater East Asian War:
“Japan was the first powerful country in East Asia that tried to stop the current of invasion washing
Asia in the 19th century. The victory of Japan over Russia in 1905 was the starting point for Asiaand fanatically welcomed by the Indian public. For Asian restoration, a powerful Japan is mostneeded now at present as it was in the past. It is true that Indian people’s view of Japan was
somewhat worsened by the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. However, now that theGreater East Asian War broke out and the situation has changed, Japan is fighting against the52enemy of India, and Chongqing [China’s Government at that time] joins the American and British
side. On top of that, Chiang Kai-shek is fully supporting the continuation of the British rule over
Burma and India. The Indian public show not the least interest in ideological struggle forindependence, but they are whole-heartedly yearning for political and economical liberation ofIndia. Naturally, then, all powers that support Indian independence are all Indian friends.”
Revolutionary Chandra Bose, written by Inagaki Takeshi, published by Shincho-sha.
Chandra Bose admired Japan’s contribution to Asia and strongly criticized the fact that Chiang Kaishek was practically a puppet of Britain and the United States. At the same time, he clearly stated thatthe aim of the Indian National Army was strictly the independence of India. On July 4, Chandra Bose
succeeded Behari Bose as the new leader of the Indian National Army in Singapore and announced aplan to establish the Provisional Government of Free India, emphasizing that for liberty andindependence, it was utmost necessary to fight resolutely, in defiance of dangerous forced march,
hunger or even death. His speech was received with enthusiastic applause by the Indian National Armysoldiers. And on July 5, Prime Minister Tojo landed in Singapore via Manila and inspected the INA
troops. On that occasion, Chandra Bose gave the legendary address, “Chalo Delhi (March to Delhi)!”
The slogan of “Chalo Delhi” later became the military song of the Indian National Army:“Soldiers and friends, let us make ‘Chalo Delhi’ our slogan. I do not know how many of us willsurvive to look up at the sun of liberty. However, I do know that we will win the final victory andour mission shall never end until the surviving heroes make a victory march to Red Fort, Delhi.”
Revolutionary Chandra Bose, written by Inagaki Takeshi, published by Shincho-sha.
Prime Minister Tojo was deeply moved by this speech and after Chandra Bose spoke, Prime Minister
Tojo stated that Japan had no territorial ambition against India and promised that Japan would totallysupport India’s independence with all her might. We cannot basically talk about the support Japangave India for its fight for independence from the time of the ensuing Greater East Asian Conference
to the Battle of Imphal, without mentioning the deep sympathy Prime Minister Tojo felt toward
Chandra Bose. Certainly, there are many views within Japan when it comes to evaluating Prime
Minister Tojo, but no one can deny his contribution to the realization of the Indian independence.
And Chandra Bose newly organized a women’s corps within the Indian National Army. The Japaneseside did not understand why he had women without any military training join the army. Probably,
Chandra Bose wanted to show that this independence war was the entire Indian people’s will, whether
men or women, and he also wanted to eliminate as much as possible the deep-rooted Indian custom of
dominance of men over women and discouragingly negative regard for women’s social activities. In
53addition, Chandra Bose strongly requested that when the Indian National Army marched into India,
the Indian National Army should march foremost and independently from the Japanese Army. Chandra
Bose hopefully thought that in that manner, it would be clearly proven that the Indian National Army
was not the puppet of the Japanese Army.

Determination toward Indian independence expressed during the Greater East Asian
Conference
On another occasion, Chandra Bose emphasized again that the Indian National Army was anindependent army and that the cooperation with Japan was of significance in terms of the world
history: he attended the Greater East Asian Conference held in Tokyo on November 5, 1943, as adelegate from the provisional Government of Free India and made a speech.
The Greater East Asian Conference was attended by Wang Jingwei, President of the Republic of China(Nanjing), Zhang Jinghui, Prime Minister of the Empire of Manchuria, Jose P. Laurel, President of the
Republic of the Philippines, Ba Maw, Head of State and Prime Minister of the State of Burma and
Wan Waithayakon, Prince and Envoy from the Kingdom of Thailand. After Prime Minister Tojo Hideki
made an opening address, the other participants rose to the stage and spoke. The most powerful andParticipating leaders in the Greater East Asian Conference, Prime Minister Tojo
at the center, Chandra Bose at the far rightprofound speech was given by Chandra Bose from Azad Hind (Provisional Government of Free India).
54

First, Prime Minister Tojo definitively stated in his opening address, after criticizing Anglo-American
aggressive attitudes against Asia and the world, that international justice and world peace in the AngloAmerican terms is nothing but colonial exploitation of Asia by Europe and the United States after all:
The British Empire for several centuries in the past obtained the vast territories stretching all overthe earth by aggression and conquer and in order to maintain their advantageous status, they havemade various countries compete and conflict with one another throughout the world. The UnitedStates, on the other hand, taking advantage of this incessantly tumultuous situations in Europe, notonly established the sovereignty over the American continent, but also spread its fangs over the
Pacific and Asia after the Spanish-American War and has been aspiring to finally conquer theworld in alliance with the British Empire since World War I. After World War II broke out, theUnited States took a further leap forward, reaching to North Africa, West Africa, the Atlantic,
Australia, Near East and India, aiming to take the place of the British Empire.
The Anglo-American favorite phrase of the establishment of international justice and assurance ofworld peace is nothing short of the sustenance of their own selfish order through aggravating
conflicts and struggles among Asian countries and permanently continuing colonial exploitationin Asia. Looking at such Anglo-American behaviors in Asia, we must say that they invade
politically, exploit economically and behind the beautiful name of education and culture, they
make Asian peoples lose their ethnicity and conflict with each other to fulfill their own aspiration.
Thus, peoples in Asian countries have constantly had their existence threatened, their peace broken,
and their living oppressed and kept from making natural development, to this day.
[Address given by Tojo Hideki at the Greater East Asian Conference]
Tojo went on to state that the Greater East Asian War was now entering a new stage of establishing a
new order for mutual prosperity by and among the Asian peoples:
As soon as the Greater East Asian War commenced, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy fought
wisely and gallantly and wiped out the Anglo-American invaders throughout the East Asia within
less than six months. This is a decisive battle to win or lose for the peoples of the Greater East
Asia. By winning this battle, the peoples of the Greater East Asia can secure eternally their
existence on this great earth of East Asia and enjoy co-prosperity. The successful accomplishmentof the Greater East Asian War means the firm foundation for the new order of the Greater East
Asia. [Omitted]
The order of co-existence and co-prosperity in the Greater East Asia is based on the intrinsic moral
55

spirit of the Greater East Asia which in this respect is fundamentally different from the old order
based on the Anglo-American attitudes of undauntedly committing wrong-doing, deception or
exploitation for their own prosperity.
The countries of the Greater East Asia respect each other’s sovereignty and independence, forming
a friendly sphere, as a whole. No friendship can be found anywhere where one uses another as amere means for one’s own sake.
[Tojo Hideki’s address at the Greater East Asian Conference]
However, in India, then, the cruel British rule of oppression continued and particularly at that time,
more than three million people were starved to death in the Bengal district. This was, indeed, a humancaused disaster by the British rule. And then, led by Chandra Bose, the Indian National Army and theProvisional Government of Free India were born, holding the flag of Indian independence.
How should we regard the way the British-American side treats India? Now, the British oppression
is getting worse and worse by the day and by the month. [Omitted] The four hundred million Indianpeople are in constant agonies beyond words. Especially, the catastrophe of the recent,unprecedentedly disastrous famine is something that even the British-American side cannot
overlook.
Thus, in India, firm-willed patriots are all thrown into prison while innocent people are all starving
and crying. This is truly a tragedy for the entire world and a lament to all humankind. We, peoplesof the Greater East Asia can never leave this situation as it is. Time has come and filled withrighteous indignation, Subhas Chandra Bose rose and in response to his call, the Indian people
both at home and abroad equally stood up. Now, the Provisional Government of India wasestablished and the foundation for Indian independence has been completed. The Imperial Japanpromised domestically and internationally to provide every cooperation and support for the
independence of India.
[Tojo Hideki’s address at the Greater East Asian Conference]
And in response to Prime Minister Tojo’s call, Chandra Bose stated at the Greater East Asian
Conference his determination toward Indian independence:
I am sure that we of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind and all those who under theleadership of our Government will launch the last struggle against Anglo-American imperialism,
will now go to war against our sworn enemy with the consciousness that behind us stands not only
56

the invincible might of Nippon, but also the united will and grim determination of the emancipatednations of East Asia.
[Omitted]
For India, there is no other path, but the path of uncompromising struggle against British
imperialism. Even if it were possible for other nations to think of compromising with England, for
the Indian people, at least, it is out of the question. Compromising with Britain means tocompromise with slavery and we are determined not to compromise with slavery any more.
I, therefore, want to assure Your Excellencies, that come what may, no matter how long and hardthe struggle may be, no matter what the suffering and the sacrifice involved may prove to be, weare determined to fight to the bitter end, being fully confident of our final victory.
[Omitted]
I do not know how many of the members of our National Army will survive the coming war, butthat is of no consequence to us. Whether we individually live or die, whether we survive the war
and live to see India free or not, what is of consequence is the fact that India shall be free, that
Anglo-American imperialism shall be wiped out of India, and the menace that now hangs over thewhole of East Asia will be removed, once and for all.
[Chandra Bose’s address at the Greater East Asian Conference]
And Chandra Bose spoke in appreciation that the Greater East Asian War was the reenactment of theideal of “Asia is one” dreamt of by Okakura Tenshin and that the Greater East Asian Declaration
adopted at the conference was its political statement. To Bose, the Greater East Asian Conference was
not at all a conference of puppet states of Japan as certain historians assert, but a historical, epochmaking conference leading to the independence of Asian countries, although with the help of Japan,
and paving a way to the liberation of all the peoples under oppression in the entire world. The
principles mentioned in the Joint Declaration of the Greater East Asian Conference, which was
unanimously adopted on November 6, and Chandra Bose’s speech praising the declaration were:
1) The countries of Greater East Asia through mutual cooperation will ensure the stability of theirregion and construct an order of common prosperity and well-being based upon justice.
2) The countries of Greater East Asia will ensure the fraternity of nations in their region, by
respecting one another’s sovereignty and independence and practicing mutual assistance andamity.
3) The countries of the Greater East Asia by respecting one another’s traditions and developing thecreative faculties of each race, will enhance the culture and civilization of Greater East Asia.
4) The countries of Greater East Asia will endeavor to accelerate their economic development
57

through close cooperation upon a basis of reciprocity and to promote thereby the generalprosperity of their region.
5) The countries of Greater East Asia will cultivate friendly relations with all the countries of theworld, and work for the abolition of racial discrimination, the promotion of cultural intercourse
and the opening of resources throughout the world, and contribute thereby to the progress of
mankind.
[The Greater East Asia Joint Declaration]
Your Excellencies, in setting out to create a new order based on the sublime principles of justice,national sovereignty, reciprocity, and mutual aid and assistance, you are undertaking a task whichis the noblest that the human mind can conceive. I pray to God that your noble efforts may becrowned with success. I pray to God that the dreams of Okakura Kakuzo and Sun Yat-sen may betranslated into reality. And I pray to God that this Joint Declaration which this historic Assembly
has unanimously adopted this afternoon may prove to be a charter for the nations of East Asia and,what is more, a charter for the suppressed nations of the whole world. [Omitted][Omitted] I may assure Your Excellency, that if you and your distinguished colleagues succeed inthis mission, as I hope, I trust, and I believe, you will – your names will go down in history not
merely as the makers of a new Asia, but as the makers and the architects of a new word.
[Chandra Bose’s address at the Greater East Asian Conference]

The Greater East Asian War, which was the Greater East Asia Itself
In order to show that Japan’s promise was not an empty one, Prime Minister Tojo designated occupied
Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands as the territories of the Provisional Government of Free India.
In addition, on November 14 at Hibiya Public Hall, Chandra Bose gave an address titled “The Path toIndependent India”, which was then published and sold as a booklet by Taisei Yokusan-kai Kou-a
honbu (Prosperous Asian Headquarters of Imperial Rule Assistance Association). In this address,
Chandra Bose spoke of the process toward gaining the Indian independence in a more historic andgeneral manner. In the introduction of this booklet, written by Ohkawa Shumei, Ohkawa accepted
Chandra Bose’s thought as a Japanese intellectual at that time and responded to it:
The new chapter of world history, having been opened by Japan’s victory in the Russo-JapaneseWar, moved on to the right direction and time has now come for all countries in Asia to raise theirflag of liberty. This flag is already flying in the skies over Rangoon and Manila, and about to fly
over Delhi. The national flag of Free India is moving forward from Singapore to Burma and finallywhen the flag streams over the roof of the Governor-General’s Office standing high in Delhi, the58historical significance of the Greater East Asian War will be culminated. Listening to honorable
bearer of this dignified flag, His Excellency Mr. Chandra Bose, his voice filled with reason,courage, and assurance, we are overwhelmed by boundless joy to feel confident of Free India’s
final victory.
[Omitted]
Now, the Greater East Asian War has become the Greater East Asian War for the Greater East Asia
itself, not the Greater East Asian War for Japan. The British-American enemy is fighting backfiercely like a pitiless demon, aiming to enslave the liberated peoples again and to drag the hardwon paradise of co-prosperity and co-existence back to the cruel hell of exploitation. The battle isbeing fought in the scale and fierceness that human has never experienced before.
[Introduction by Ohkawa Shumei to The Path to Independent India, written by Subhas
Chandra Bose, edited by Taisei Yokusan-kai koa honbu]
Thus, Ohkawa clearly stated that the Greater East Asian War was fought not for Japan but for the entire
Asia and defined the Greater East Asian War as the battle of Asian peoples aiming to be independent
from the colonial rule against Europe and America aiming to maintain the colonial regime, and not thestruggle of fascism versus democracy. To compare Hitler’s Nazi Germany that would not help Chandra
Bose with Japan trying to march into India with the Indian soldiers, evidently Ohkawa’s view of theGreater East Asian War was perfectly correct. While Nazi Germany’s war in Europe aimed to ruleover each country and people and sometimes to enslave specific races regarded as “inferior,” at least,
the Japanese Army in the Greater East Asian War realized the independence of the colonized regions.
As widely known, there are three great leaders in India. Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, and His
Excellency Bose. Mahatma Gandhi is fighting against Britain, solely with the power of the souleven today. However, it is absolutely impossible to beat Britain with the power of the soul only. In
fact, against Gandhi’s protest by fasting for three weeks, Britain did not make the least concession.
Nehru is fighting against Britain with the power of the word. However, no matter what reasonable
and passionate speeches and sentences Nehru delivered, his verbal weapons cannot change theironclad rule of India by Britain a bit. For India to truly win liberty and independence, India must
use the power of the sword, in addition to the power of the soul. Fortunately, the third leader His
Excellency Bose has risen, taking up the sword. His Excellency Bose fully understands the powerof the sword and now firmly allying with us is about to march toward Delhi, leading the newly
formed Indian National Army.
[Introduction by Ohkawa Shumei to The Path to Independent India, written by Subhas
Chandra Bose, edited by Taisei Yokusan-kai koa honbu]

59Chandra Bose stated the same recognition as Ohkawa’s at the lecture he gave on November 14, 1943,
at Hibiya Public Hall:
The most fundamental cause of this War can be found in the fact that a handful of countries
insatiably seek to maintain what they have obtained through unlawful means and further gain
more and more. The most outstanding of these few countries are Britain and the UnitedStates.[Omitted]
Both the United States and Britain busily attempt to spread the wrong idea that Japan andGermany are fascist and imperialist and that therefore it is for the sake of the whole mankind tofight against these emerging new countries. Many people have been confused by this evil
propaganda coming from our enemies, the United States and Britain. So have the Indian people.
[Omitted]
However, I have never been puzzled by such propaganda myself. From the very beginning, I havebeen advocating that a serious battle will inevitably occur between the countries trying tomaintain the status quo and those trying to establish a new order and that India should heartily
cooperate with the country representing the new order. That is because for India the status quomeans to remain in the status of a British colony forever and to be kept in slavery. That is why I
have pointed out that their evil propaganda against fascism and imperialism is a mere attempt tocamouflage the battle between the status quo and the new order. [Omitted]
I am confident that we can win liberty only through taking up arms and shedding blood and I
have never once vowed to keep the passive resistance to the end. In this respect, I differ from the
Honorable Mahatma Gandhi and our view is well understood by Gandhi and the Indian generalpublic. Fortunately, we have the Indian National Army. And behind us stands the strong supportof powerful Japan equipped with the ever-winning and never-losing scheme.
And so, though we are fully aware of the magnitude of our work, we will accept the challenge ofthe battle, with deep confidence in our victory.
[Introduction by Ohkawa Shumei, written by Chandra Bose, The Path to the Indian
Independence, edited by Taisei Yokusan-kai, koa sohonbu.]

The failure of the Battle of Imphal and the death of Bose
Chandra Bose wanted the Indian National Army to lead the march into India at any moment. In reality,
however, although 6, 000 troops of the Indian National Army fought in the Battle of Imphal, theoperation itself turned out to be a total failure, with casualties of 400 deaths in action out of the 6,000,
60

1,500 deaths by hunger or illness and 800 soldiers were too weak to move and became prisoners ofwar. There were many missing in action, and only 2,600 returned safe, 2,000 out of whom wereseriously injured or ill and needed to be immediately hospitalized. The military problem and the direreality of the battleground where deaths by starvation or illness outnumbered deaths in action will not
be talked about here. The leaders of the Indian National Army tried to resolutely remain as close tohomeland India as possible or within India just crossing the national border and fought there. Chandra
Bose solely wanted to be sent to the very war front. Even after the failure in the Battle of Imphal
became inevitable, Chandra Bose strongly insisted that they should continue fighting and never leave
the Burma-India border even if the Japanese Army retreated, which he believed would send an
encouraging message to his Indian people. But his wish was not accepted.
Amid the failure in the battle and the ensuing disastrous situation, the British Army was about to invade
Burma. Chandra Bose gathered the INA leaders around him and told them his determination to fightto the end, together with the Japanese Army:In such adverse circumstances, some may doubt what sense it will make to keep cooperating with
the Japanese Army, shoulder to shoulder, any longer. However, if we are to betray the JapaneseArmy now, we will be blamed for having been a mere fair-weather friend to the Japanese Army.
[Revolutionary Chandra Bose, written by Inagaki Takeshi, published by Shincho-sha]
And Chandra Bose continued to state that even if the Indian National Army was defeated militarily,
their fighting was sure to be justified politically and ideologically. In July 1944, Chandra Bose statedduring a radio broadcast of the Rangoon Radio Broadcast for domestic Indian listeners, titled “To
Reverend Gandhi, our national father”:
While in East Asia, I visited China and came to learn more closely about the Chinese issue. The
Chongqing Government is working autocratically. Personally, I do not disagree to autocracy
having a justifiable idea. However, the autocratic Chongqing Government is clearly under theAmerican influence. Unfortunately, the Britain and the United States have been successful inmaking the Chongqing Government leaders believe that if Japan is to lose the war, China will
become the leading power in Asia. In fact, however, if Japan should lose the war, China would beunder the American control, which is tragic to China and the whole of Asia.
[Omitted] I understand the propaganda operation by the Chongqing Government is under way inIndia and Indian people came to sympathize with China’s propaganda. However, the Chongqing
Government now liable for Wall Street and Lombard Street will no longer deserve the Indian61

people’s sympathy after Japan set up a new China policy.
Indian Independence Fighters and the Japanese People, edited and written by Hara Yoshiaki,
published by Tenden-sha.
Chandra Bose continued to state that the Chiang Kai-shek Government teaming up with Britain andthe United States had no intention to support the independence of India and that the Chiang Kai-shek
Government propagating the Indian National Army as a puppet of Japan and Japan’s war as an act ofinvasion was the very puppet of Britain and the United States, adding that Japan’s defeat in the war
would only lead to the strengthened Anglo-American control over Asia. In April 1945, the JapaneseArmy and the Indian National Army defending Burma finally fell and were obliged to retreat from
Rangoon. Chandra Bose declared that he would walk on to the end with the Indian National Army,
including the women’s corps whose formation he himself had ordered and absolutely refused to escapeto safety and desert his men and women.
Retreating to Bangkok and further to Saigon, Chandra Bose tried to fight, leading the remaining Indian
National Army. And finally, the day of Japan’s defeat came on August 15.
Chandra Bose still wanted to fight against Britain and with a plan to exile himself in the Soviet Union
in mind, he flew from Saigon to Taiwan on August 17. On August 18, he took off again, this time, for
Manchuria. But immediately after takeoff, the plane overloaded with men and resources for war
suffered an accident. Bose was covered with gasoline and fire all over the body. All on board
desperately tried to extinguish the fire and rescued Bose and carried him to hospital, in vain.
Reportedly, Chandra Bose died at the hospital at the age of 48.
Bose’s ashes were buried at Renko-ji Temple, Suginami, Tokyo and his grave sits there to this day.
Seventy-five years after the War ended, on August 18, a ceremonial service in memory of Chandra
Bose is held annually at Renko-ji Temple, attended by Japanese, Indian and Bangladeshi admirers. On
the other hand, there is a theory that no such airplane accident occurred at Matsuyama airport in Taipei,
where the accident reportedly took place. Mystery also surrounds Bose’s death and his remains. A
news source reported that Bose’s bereaved family has been asking for DNA testing, which has not yet
been fulfilled.
However, the Indian National Army, which Chandra Bose had left, did carry out “the march to Delhi,”
which they could not in the battleground, in another way.
Due to Japan’s defeat in the war, the nearly 20,000 strong Indian National Army at that time62

surrendered. First, Britain tried to put three leaders of the Indian National Army, Colonel Sha Nawaz
Khan, Colonel Prem Kumar Sigal, Major Grubashushi Dillon, on trial at Red Fort (a fort in Delhi).
Quite reversely, Indian newspapers largely reported, based on statements made by former INA
prisoners of war, that the Indian National Army was not a puppet of Japan, but they were patriots
fighting for the independence of India. The Indian Congress Party holding the different political
position from Bose asked for the release of the National Army officers and Nehru himself appeared incourt as a special defender for the defendants.
Fujiwara Iwaichi, who had endeavored for the foundation of the Indian National Army went over to
India and testified before court. Besides, those concerned at that time also showed up to bear witness
for the defendants. One of them said to the defendants, “If it would help make your verdict less severe
for us to say that you were mere puppets of Japan, we will do so.” Hearing this, all the defendants got
puzzled and angry and strongly protested, “We voluntarily joined the Indian National Army and fought
solely for the Indian independence of our own will. If we are to be punished by death for our action,
let it be. So, all of you, please, never make such false statement.” Fujiwara Iwaichi stated before courtthat all of the Indian National Army participated in the war of their own free will.”
The sensation caused among Indian people by the bravery of the Indian National Army directly
developed into the nation-wide independence movement. During the ongoing trials, day after day,vehement demonstrations and general strikes supporting the Indian National Army erupted throughout
India. On December 30, 1945, the court-martial judged the defendant three National Army officers to
be guilty, but the verdict was not made public in fear of the public anger. On June 1, 1946, the executionof the sentence was immediately suspended, and the defendants were set free.
Britain, feeling humiliated by that situation, tried to continue the court-martial of the INA officers,which backfired and further escalated the independence movement and finally some in the army roseto action. In February 1946, Indian soldiers belonging to the British Navy rose and occupied several
tens of vessels in Bombay, Karachi and Calcutta and pulled down the Union Flags. The British Air
Force and the Army were also affected and amid ongoing general strikes and civilian upheavals,
Britain was driven to dead end. In 1946, the then Prime Minister Attlee virtually recognized the
independence of India and through ensuing negotiations, finally, on August 15, 1947, India became
independent.
In the Battle of Imphal, called “the worst battle in history,” Japanese soldiers lost their lives and fell
due to illness, injuries, and starvation, far outnumbering the casualties among the Indian National
Army soldiers. Around 90,000 or 100,000 Japanese soldiers supposedly participated in the Battle of63Imphal, and there were various accounts when it comes to the numbers of Japanese officers andsoldiers killed in action, injured or missing. The exact numbers are unknown. Twelve thousand men
are said to have returned home to Japan after the war. It is certain that tens of thousands of Japanesesoldiers became victims of this battle. To Japan, the Battle of Imphal was the worst battle operation,with no rewarding results at the cost of the enormous human lives. One thing is certain. The Battle ofImphal paved the way to the Indian independence. Chandra Bose fell before he came to see theindependence of his beloved country India. I do think it my duty to tell as many people as possiblethat the cooperation between the Indian National Army and the Japanese Army preciously brought byChandra Bose and Prime Minister Tojo Hideki resulted in the independence of the Indian people.

Chapter 6 Historical significance of the “Dissentient Judgment ofJustice Pal”
Justice Pal, “a man of justice”
It is only in recent years that Justice Radhabinod Pal’s great achievement has been widely talked about
and discussed from various perspectives. Justice Pal was the only judge that earnestly insisted that all
defendants, including former Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, were “not guilty” at the Tokyo Trials andaccused the legal deception of the Tokyo Trials in which the victor countries judged the vanquishedcountries, unilaterally following ex-post facto law.
Justice Pal was a chosen judge from India, then under the British colonial rule, for the International
Military Tribunal for the Far East (the Tokyo Trials), which was held in Tokyo from 1946 to 1948 andfor nearly two and a half years he investigated the case through voluminous sources and wrote up his
judgment. This was what is called “Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal.” In his judgment he held thateach and every one of the accused must be found not guilty of each and every one of the charges in
the indictment and at the same time, he resolutely argued that when considering war crimes accusations,the United States should equally be accused of the crime of having dropped the atomic bombs on
Japan. In his judgment Justice Pal never once yielded to the pressure from the victor Allied Countries,
nor to the pressure from the General Headquarters of Britain ruling over India. He was truly a man of64

courage and justice, sincerely pursuing the truth of law.
In the Tokyo Trials, respective judges differed in their opinions. Looking at them comparatively, it isobvious how consistent Justice Pal was in his belief:
1.The United States, Britain, The Soviet Union, the Republic of China, Canada and New Zealand→majority ruling (the judgment of the Tokyo Trials)
2. India (Judge Pal) → all defendants not guilty
3. The Netherlands (Judge Roling) →Hirota Koki not guilty and the other defendants’ sentences should
be reduced, too severe compared to the execution of Nazi Germany
4. France (Judge Bernard) →This tribunal is wrong in the application and the procedure of law.
5. The Philippines (Judge Jaranilla) → the sentences are too light.
6. Sir Webb, President of the Tribunal →separate opinion (expecting the retrial of the supremecommander, reexamination of the judgment and reduction of heavy sentences)
The Allied Countries, having judged the defeated peoples and countries, began to spread the
propaganda that at these Trials, “crime against peace” was rightly judged and peace would be brought
to the world thenceforth. In fact, however, the Republic of China collapsed due to the violent
communist revolution, led by Mao Zedong, and in 1950, the Korean War broke the illusion of Asianpeace to pieces, and the world entered the Cold War era. In Japan, amid vigorous economic restoration,
the phrase of “no longer in the postwar era” was cooly repeated among the people. The Tokyo Trials
and the Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal were almost forgotten for a while, except among a handfulof scholars and politicians. This was not the situation in Japan alone, but the same happened in India
and throughout the world.
It was after the collapse of the Soviet Union that the world came to re-recognize the significance ofJustice Pal’s judgment. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, civil wars erupted in various partsof the world and horrible massacres under the name of ethnic cleansing took place. In order to copewith such tragic circumstances, the International War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda opened in 1994,
the Iraqi Special Tribunal of Saddam Hussein was held from 2004 to 2006, and the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of Slobodan Milosevic was held in connection
with the Bosnia-Hercegovina war in former Yugoslavia. In the process of reexamining the legality ofthese tribunals and the way that international courts should be, Justice Pal, the only judge in the Tokyo
Trials to express the dissentient view, came to be mentioned as a forerunner, in a sense.
In addition, in Japan, since the 1990s onwards after the Cold War ended, people began to argue about
65the necessity to calmly reexamine the history of Japan and whether the various “crimes” judged during
the Tokyo Trials were factual and to what extent the postwar historical view can be justified. At thesame time, there have been unjust acts and words related to the historical issues coming from China,
South and North Koreas, bordering on interference in Japan’s domestic matters, and violent anti-Japandemonstrations occurred. These events reversely urged the Japanese people to doubt the truth of theunilateral postwar view of history (Japan was an aggressor country and committed ill governance andmassacres in the Korean Peninsula and China). Consequently, this provided a good opportunity tocriticize the Tokyo Trials and to revalue the “Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal.” Former Prime
Minister Abe’s speech in the Indian Parliament mentioned in the introduction of this book was a good
example and through his speech, reversely, within India, the name of Justice Pal impressively came topeople’s minds once again.

How Justice Pal came to join the Tokyo Trials
It is a fact that the name of Justice Pal is not generally known either in India or in Bangladesh, except
among those engaged in law. There are many reasons for it. First, let us briefly trace the life of JusticePal.
Justice Pal was born in 1886, to a poor family in Kushtia prefecture, East Bengal and in his boyhood,
he went to school while working to earn a living at thesame time. In 1905, he moved to Calcutta in West
Bengal and enrolled in the Presidential College, thenwent to the University of Calcutta. After he obtained thedegrees of Master of Science and Bachelor of Law in1911, he taught mathematics at Anondo Mohon College
in Moimonsing Prefecture, East Bengal. During that
period, he studied law, obtained a Master of Law degreein 1920 and became a lawyer in the following year,
1921.
After working as Professor of Law at the University of
Calcutta, legal advisor to the Indian Government, judge
at the Calcutta High Court and Vice-President of theJustice Radhabinod Pal

University of Calcutta, he was appointed as one of the judges at the International Military Tribunal for
the Far East. Thus, he studied and worked hard in the academic world to become an experienced expert.
With such academic career, he stood above the general Indian public.

66

And in August 1947, in the midst of the Tokyo Trials, India finally became independent from the 200
years long British colonial rule. However, due to religious conflicts, it did not become one united India
but was separated into two independent states, India and Pakistan. This separate independence caused
nationwide conflicts between the Hindus and the Muslims. In some regions, the majority religion side
segregated and massacred the minority side. In big cities like Calcutta, and states like Bihar, Punjab
and Kashmir in India, as well as in the cities of Lahore and Rawalpindi in Pakistan, large-scalemassacres took place and brought total havoc in the cities. Muslims in India took refuge in Pakistan
while Hindus in Pakistan took refuge in India, desperately deserting their respective homeland. As
many as ten million people became refugees.
Such confusion caused famines, the numbers of jobless people increased, and harsh political conflicts
occurred between the Indian National Congress Party and the leftist party. Under such tumultuous
domestic circumstances, the significance of Justice Pal’s remarkable judgment was hardly understoodby the people.
Moreover, the relationship between the first Indian Prime Minister Nehru and Justice Pal was notfavorable. Although the two had known each other and were on good terms personally since their
youth, politically they were different, the socialistic Nehru was close to the Soviet Union and thedemocratic Justice Pal stood apart fromsocialism and communism.
This author had a wonderful opportunity tomeet Justice Pal’s eldest son Mr. Prashant
Pal in 2007 in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta,changed in 2001) and enjoyed talking withhim. Mr. Prashant Pal is also a lawyer andhas visited Japan several times. According
to Prashant Pal, Nehru did not like the“Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal” andJustice Pal’s son, Prashant Pal and the author

often criticized it himself. Nehru expected Judge Pal to submit as severe judgment against the accusedas the American and British judges did. Somehow, they thought that it would help India get
independent and diplomatically deal with the Allied Countries thenceforth.
Earnestly seeking for justice and pursing the truth of law, lawyer Justice Pal would never have madejudgment against his own beliefs, and yet, to Nehru, who had become the first Prime Minister of India,
Justice Pal’s act was not politically favorable. To the General Headquarters of the Supreme
67

Commander of the Allied Nations, the “Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal” was damaging to thelegitimacy of the Tokyo Trials. Therefore, the “Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal” was never read
aloud in court nor printed in letters.
However, through foreign press agencies, the news of the Justice Pal’s judgment spread to the world.
Those defendants who had been judged to be guilty were able to read Justice Pal’s judgment in prison.
Especially, for those who had been sentenced to death, what a joy and solace it would have been to beable to actually read Justice Pal’s judgment before they were executed. How they felt when they read
Justice Pal’s judgment was excellently expressed in their respective Tanka (traditional Japanese short
poems):
Tojo Hideki: Hyaku nen no nochi no yo katozo omoishini ima kono fumi o manoatarini miru
[I thought it would be only possible a hundred years from now, but now I see before my own eye thisjudgment.]
Itagaki Seishiro: Futatose ni amaru sabakino niwano uchi kono hito fumio miru zo toutoki[In the court lasting more than two years, how grateful it is to see this judgment]
Kimura Heitaro: Yamino yo o terasu hikari no fumi aogi kokoro yasukeku ikuzo ureshiki[Looking up at the judgment, the very light to brighten up the darkness of the night, I am so happy to
go now, comforted and easy at heart.]
A question arises here. Why, in the first place, was Justice Pal selected one of the judges in the Tokyo
Trials?
I can think of many reasons. First, on the part of the General Headquarters of the Allied Countries, inorder to conceal the fact that Japan’s aim of the War was the liberation of Asia from the status ofEuropean and American colonies, they might have wanted a judge from India under the colonial rule
to criticize Japan in court. This theory can be plausible in view of the fact that Nehru was critical about
Justice Pal’s judgment as mentioned earlier. Then, since there were a few eligible lawyers for experts
on international law at that time, it was necessary to have such authorized judge join the Tokyo Trials
lest the authority of the court should be lost.
According to one theory, at the time when Justice Pal was invited to join the Tokyo Trials, he was not
yet an expert on international law and it is said that he became expert on international law after the
Tokyo Trials. However, he was selected as one of the chairs of the International Law Society meeting
held at the Hague in 1937. In 1938, he gave a lecture on “Crimes in International Relations” at the
University of Calcutta. Based on these facts, this author thinks that Justice Pal was duly recognized as68an expert on international law at that time.
According to his son Mr. Prashant Pal, before the opening of the Tokyo Trials, Judge Roling,
representing the Netherlands, visited India on behalf of MacArthur and asked Nehru to introduce somelawyer or judge versed in international law. However, Nehru, who had studied law at the Universityof Cambridge himself, answered that there was no one of that capacity in India. Helplessly, Judge
Roling went back to Japan. However, at that time, Justice Pal was one of the chairs of the WorldInternational Law Society. Nehru cannot have been ignorant of this fact. But at the time of Judge
Roling’s visit to India, Nehru did not inform Judge Roling of Justice Pal. Later, Judge Roling came tolearn, from a different source, that Justice Pal was an expert on international law in India at that time.
Mr. Roling visited India again and asked Justice Pal to join the Trials, representing India. So far, thisis what this author confirmed with Mr. Prashant Pal. According to other sources, it is also said that it
was Director Sir Harold Derbyshire of the Calcutta High Court, which was then the supreme court ofIndia, that recommended Justice Pal as a judge representing India at the Tokyo Trials.

Deception of the Tokyo Trials revealed by Justice Pal
What were the Tokyo Trials then? The Tokyo Trials were a stage for the General Headquarters of theSupreme Commander of the Allied Countries to take a total revenge on Japan (it was revenge notsimply on the suffering inflicted upon them by Japan’s war, but a revenge on the fact that the Europeanand American global ruling regime had collapsed), aiming to damage Japan mentally so that Japanmight never be able to rise again and make the country responsible for and guilty of all false charges.
Against this attempt, Justice Pal let sunlight into the deception of the Allied Countries, using the powerof speech.
Justice Pal collected voluminous sources from every sector related to the histories of Japan and theworld from 1928 to 1945 and thoroughly examined them for nearly two and a half years. Thosematerials amounted to 45,000 copies of papers and 3,000 books. And using this huge number of
documents, he clearly proved that Japan’s acts could not be judged to constitute an aggressive war interms of the international law at that time.
Here, I pick up some of Justice Pal’s dissenting views related to the most deceptive aspects on the partof the Allied Forces and the GHQ.
First, Justice Pal firmly held to the end that the idea of “vengeance” should never be brought to thistribunal. This applied not just to Japan. In all cases, even against a country that had committed an
unlawful act, judgment should be made within the law. It should never happen that anger against an
69unlawful act be transformed into vengeance or demand for harsher punishment beyond the allowanceof the law.
Based on this principle, after taking up each of the cases presented as atrocities committed by theJapanese military, Justice Pal pointed out first that there were many exaggerated statements without
sufficient evidence to prove their criminality. Even if there were such criminal acts, there was no recordthat the accused directly ordered to commit such acts, but rather contrarily, Justice Pal emphasized,
the accused were trying to have their men strictly observe the military rules even in the battleground.
In this sense, the Japanese defendants were completely different from Nazi leaders who were directly
responsible for the Holocaust against the Jews and rigorous racial discrimination in the occupied
regions. And yet, Justice Pal emphasized, the judicial process employed at the Nuremberg Trial tojudge Nazis was exactly followed in the Tokyo Trials. He asserted this was not at all right.
Moreover, Justice Pal quoted words of German Emperor the Kaiser Wilhelm II in World War I,
regarding the massacre of civilians in the battleground by indiscriminate attack, “My soul is torn, buteverything must be put to fire and sword; men, women and children and old men must be slaughteredand not a tree or house be left standing. With these methods of terrorism, which are alone capable ofaffecting a people as degenerate as the French, the war will be over in two months, whereas if I admit
consideration of humanity it will be prolonged for years. In spite of my repugnance I have therefore
been obliged to choose the former system.”
Justice Pal stated, “This showed his ruthless policy, and this policy of indiscriminate murder to shorten
the war was considered to be a crime.” Then he pointed out the hypocritical nature of the Tokyo Trials:
In the Pacific war under our consideration, if there was anything approaching what is indicated in
the above letter of the German Emperor, it is the decision coming from the allied powers to use
the ATOM BOMB.
[Omitted]
It would be sufficient for my present purpose to say that if any indiscriminate destruction of civilian
life and property is still illegitimated in warfare, then, in the Pacific war, this decision to use theatom bomb is the only near approach to the directives of the German Emperor during the firstworld war and of the Nazi leaders during the second world war. Nothing like this could be traced
to the credit of the present accused.
The Military Tribunal for the Far East, Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal, published by
Kokusho-Kankokai, Inc., Tokyo 1999

70

As to the charge of the crimes against peace by waging an aggressive war on the part of Japan, Justice
Pal counterargued, examining human sense of war according to four distinct periods, namely:
1. That up to the First World War of 1914,
2. That between the First World War and the date of the Pact of Paris (27 August 1928),
3. That from the date of the Pact of Paris to the commencement of the World War under consideration,
4. That since the Second World War.
And Justice Pal pointed out, “So far as the first of the above four periods is concerned it seems to begenerally agreed that no war became crime in international life, though it is sometimes asserted that a
distinction between ‘just’ and ‘unjust’ war had always been recognized.” Justice Pal stated that thatwas the reason why the European and American invasion of Asia had been justified:
At any rate an “unjust” war was not made “crime” in international law. In fact, any interest which
the western powers may now have in the territories in the Eastern Hemisphere was acquired mostly
through armed violence during this period and none of these wars perhaps would stand the test of
being “just war.”
The Military Tribunal for the Far East, Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal, published by
Kokusho-Kankokai, Inc., Tokyo 1999
Justice Pal argued on the basis that up to the time of the Tokyo Trials, the Western invasion of Asia
had never been illegitimated by international law. Moreover, Justice Pal confirmed that during thesecond and third periods, after the conclusion of the Pact of Paris, the Pact did not have wide legal
effects in the international society, referring to various views expressed by prominent jurists. Justice
Pal also pointed out as historical facts that after the conclusion of the Pact, there was the invasion of
Abyssinia (presently Ethiopia) by Italy in 1935, and of Finland by Russia in 1939, which were notillegitimated internationally and there was also the invasion of China by Japan in 1937, which was notillegitimated at that time, either. To sum up, international law at that time did not develop well enoughto make any war criminal. In this respect, it was improper to judge Japan on the charge of waging awar.
Against the assertion that after the Pact of Paris, the international community realized the illegality of
war and sense of humanity to regard any war as evil was spreading in the world and therefore thecurrent war waged by Japan should be judged as against the general trend, Justice Pal mentioned as
evidence of the fact that international society had not yet reached the higher stage of legal development
nor maturity:71

As to the “WIDENING sense of HUMANITY” prevailing in international life, all that I can say isthat at least before the Second World War the powerful nations did not show any such sign. I would
only refer to what happened at the meeting of the Committee drafting resolutions for theestablishment of the League of Nations when Baron Makino of Japan moved a resolution for thedeclaration of the equality of nations as a basic principle of the League. Lord Robert Cecil of GreatBritain declared this to be a matter of highly controversial character and opposed the resolution on
the ground that it “raised extremely serious problems within the British Empire.” The resolution
was declared lost; President Wilson ruled that in view of the serious objections on the part of someit was not carried.
The Military Tribunal for the Far East, Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal, published by
Kokusho-Kankokai, Inc., Tokyo 1999
Justice Pal continued to point out, questioning the humanistic eligibility on the part of the Prosecutorsof the Tribunal in charging Japan on counts of “crimes against humanity”:
Coupled with this, if we take the fact that there still continued domination of one nation by another,
the servitude of nations still prevailed unreviled and that domination of one nation by anothercontinued to be regarded by the so-called international community only as a domestic question forthe master nation, I cannot see how such a community can even pretend that its basis is humanity.
Of course, Justice Pal’s arguments show the consistency and justice as a jurist, but at the same time,in the background of his arguments lay his sharp criticism against the reality of Anglo-Americancolonial rule over Asia and against the entire structure of the Tribunal void of the recognition and selfcriticism about the reality, as an Asian.
Then, regarding the Allied Countries’ allegation that the accused illegally conspired, aiming toestablish the control over the entire world, starting from Manchukuo and the Republic of China, during
the period from 1928 to 1945, the year of Japan’s defeat, and carried out the overall conspiracy inwaging a war, Justice Pal closely covered enormous volume of materials like the Lytton Commission
Report relating to the establishment of Manchukuo and proved that there were absolutely no such facts.
As to the stages from the Manchurian incident to the Sino-Japanese War, Justice Pal explained thateven if the establishment of Manchukuo was led by Japan and Manchukuo was a kind of protectorate,
it was the same as the rule in the name of “protectorate” as popularly practiced by the Western countries
all over the world. Justice Pal quoted a political philosopher, “Was it not Western Imperialism that hadcoined the word ‘protectorate’ as a euphemism for ‘annexation’? And had not this constitutional72

fiction served its Western inventors in good stead? …Moreover, a Japanese apologist might discoverprecedent for almost every use that Japan had made of ‘Manchukuo’ in Western post-war as well as
pre-war practice.”
The railroad interests and leasehold Japan had possessed in Manchuria at that time were what Japan
had obtained through due legal procedure as the result of the Russo-Japanese War. At the same time,
Japan had to establish the counter axis against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) that
aspired to hegemonism, just like the one against the Russian Empire during the Russo-Japanese War.
Of course, Japan had intention to send part of her increasing domestic population to Manchuria fordevelopment, which was not to be blamed in terms ofappropriate immigration measures. And yet,against the measures, there occurred a serious anti-Japanese movement in China, which should havebeen a grave issue in terms of law.
Moreover, the anti-Japanese movement was propagated and organized by the then Kuomintang leader
Chiang Kai-shek and it was not all voluntary resistance derived from the Chinese citizens. What
attracted Justice Pal’s attention most was the massive boycott movements in China against Japan.
Justice Pal cited from the Lytton Commission Report Supplement, “In numerous cases, Chinese
servants left Japanese by whom they were employed, Japanese were cut off from the supply of foodand other daily necessities, and Japanese were subject to various forms of abuse and threats. In manycases, Japanese had been compelled to flee for safety or to withdraw altogether to Japan. ManyJapanese lost their employment.” Justice Pal also pointed out the terror of the Communist activities
conducted by the Soviet Union through the Comintern and the necessity of Japan’s active involvementin China to prevent the Communist destructive activities there. Justice Pal summed up the events in
China at that time as follows:
1. The civil war in China and the state of anarchy prevailing there consequent thereupon;
2. the Chinese National Boycott;3. the development of Communism in China.
Regarding the third event, Justice Pal cited the Survey by the British Royal Institute of International
Affairs: “Communism and banditry (in so far as a clear distinction could be drawn between them)were the twin features that were dominant, in 1932, over the Chinese scene; and these two scourges,
again, had increased in intensity without any substantial change in their character. Since they were
simply the aftermath of anarchy and civil war and famine, they were bound to increase so long as these
efficient causes persisted. The prevalence of brigandage can best be indicated by a mention of a few
typical outrages against foreigners.”

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“It will be seen that, by the year 1932, Communism in China had become AN ORGANIZED AND
EFFECTIVE POLITICAL POWER exercising exclusive administrative authority over large stretchesof territory, and that the Chinese Communists were in some degree affiliated to the Communist Partyin Russia.”
The Survey continued to state: “COMMUNISM IN CHINA IS NOT by any means, as in mostcountries other than the U.S.S.R., either a POLITICAL DOCTRINE held by certain members ofexisting parties, or the organization of a special party to compete for power with other political parties.
IT HAS BECOME AN ACTUAL RIVAL OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. It possesses its own
law, army, and government, and its own territorial sphere of action.” Justice Pal was careful indeveloping his arguments. But if we read Justice Pal’s dissentient judgment now in the present
perspective, we may suppose that in view of the establishment of the Communist regime in China after
the defeat of Japan in the war and the consequent tragedies and massacres hardly comparable with the
Sino-Japanese War or the establishment of Manchukuo, Japan’s actions in China before and during
the War might have contributed to peaceful development of China in the long term, or at least
prevented the present Communist dictatorship.
Through these three analyses, Justice Pal proceeded to prove that the Allied Powers had no legitimate
right to judge Japan and that Japan had not at all intended to wage an aggressive war to conquer theworld. Rather, Justice Pal’s dissentient judgment suggests that it was the United States that engaged
in the act of war against Japan by providing arms to Chiang Kai-shek and that Communism on the partof the Soviet Union and the support for Chiang Kai-shek on the part of the United States contrarily
prolonged the Sino-Japanese War and hindered the Asians from resolving the Asian issue.
Regarding the historical fact that Japan was forced into waging a war through pressures from thosecountries that had colonies in Asia and finally by the last straw of the Hull note of November 26, 1941,
Justice Pal concluded: Even contemporary historians could think that “as for the present war, thePrincipality of Monaco, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, would have taken up arms against theUnited States on receipt of such a note as the State Department sent the Japanese Government on theeve of Pearl Harbor.”
In the Tokyo Trials, Tojo Hideki stated that Japan started the war for self-defense of Japan and
MacArthur himself admitted during a hearing in the U.S. Senate that Japan’s war was a war of selfdefense. The Cold War started and MacArthur, who was in the middle of it, handling the difficult
situation, would have finally realized that Japan was indeed the last blocking bastion against thecommunism and that the Tokyo Trials were a mistake.
74

Justice Pal in later years and Japan
Lastly, I would like to talk about Justice Pal after the Tokyo Trials.
In 1952 Justice Pal visited Japan again with the invitation by Mr. Shimonaka Yasaburo. He attended
the International Peace Conference, held in Hiroshima for the first time in the world by the World
Federation, as a chairman. During his stay in Japan, he gave lectures on various occasions atuniversities, societies for lawyers and the bereaved families of the war criminals and so forth. He also
met the family of the former Prime Minister Tojo Hideki. More than one hundred representatives fromvarious countries of the world attended the International Peace Conference, among whom there were
American and British delegates. During the peace conference, Justice Pal criticized the atomic
bombing. “What was the pretext for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What reason
did Japan induce to become the victim of the atomic bombing? Japan already expressed her will tosurrender via the U.S.S.R. at that time, didn’t she? Notwithstanding the fact, the United States dropped
this cruel bomb over Hiroshima as an ‘experiment.’ Not against the white people’s Germany, but
against non-white Japan. Was there not racial discrimination? What’s worse, regarding this catastrophe,
we have never heard words of repentance from them. Their hands have not yet been cleansed. Under
such circumstance, how can we talk about peace with them?”
When he observed a silence prayer, dedicating flowers to the monument of the atomic bomb victims
in Hiroshima, Justice Pal was caught by the words inscribed on the monument and had them translated
by interpreter Nair. The words are the famous “Rest in peace. We shall never repeat the mistake.”
Justice Pal confirmed over and over again and as he came to understand the meaning, he looked very
stern.
“What act does this mistake that the monument says ‘we shall never repeat’ refer to? Of course, theJapanese people apologize to the Japanese people. I doubt what kind of mistake it was. What isenshrined here is souls of the atomic bomb victims and clearly Japanese did not drop the atomic bomb.
It is understandable that the perpetrators of the atomic bombing held themselves responsible for theact and say that they shall never again repeat the mistake. If this mistake refers to the War in the Pacific,
then Japan was not the least responsible for it. The clear fact is that the seed of that war was sown by
the Western Powers in order to invade the East. Moreover, the United States should have been truly
held responsible for opening the war. The U.S. provoked Japan to the inevitable war by forming the
ABCD encirclement, blockading Japan economically and finally sending the ultimatum of Hull note
to Japan.”

75

Then, Justice Pal emphasized that he had not defend Japan in every sense but had done just judgment
as a jurist. Justice Pal explained during the reception held in his honor at the Imperial Hotel:“It is a great misunderstanding that I made my judgment sympathetically toward Japan. I judged not
as a sympathizer with Japan nor as an opposer to the Westerners who tried to judge Japan. I recognized
the truth as the truth and applied the truth of law to the trials. That was all, nothing more nor less.
Please do not misunderstand me.”
These words of Justice Pal were compiled by writer Mr. Tanaka Masaki as episodes at the time of hisrevisit to Japan after the Tokyo Trials.
To conclude, the Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal is now awakening conscientious Western people
nearly seventy years after the War. British reporter Mr. Henry Stokes, former head of the Tokyo Bureauof the New York Times, who has lived in Japan for fifty years, wrote in the column “Historical War”
of the Sankei Newspaper dated December 28, 2014:
When I first came to Japan, I believed without any doubt in the victor countries’ view of history.
However, as I have known Japan and the Japanese people over half a century, I came to think that
the Tokyo Trials were a revengeful farce staged by the victors. I felt a sense of uneasiness about
the victors judging defeated Japan as if they were the Almighty. In fact, Indian judge Radhabinod
Pal judged all of the defendants to be “not guilty.” Judge Dale Smith of the Australian High Court
studied the Tokyo Trials for thirty years and published a book entitled Judicial Murders?

It ispitifully absurd that Japan in postwar years has kept the political and diplomatic position as if
Japan has apparently accepted the historical view based on the Tokyo Trials. Japan must get rid of
this historical view based on the Tokyo Trials, mere propaganda against the historical fact.
If we are eager to produce the true peace, we must not let ourselves be influenced by propaganda inany sense whatever. In the world where the victors are unilaterally right while the defeated arearbitrarily judged to be evil and must endure the destiny even if forced upon false charges, there will
never be peace but only revenge after revenge will follow and the law of the jungle will prevail. The
dissentient judgment of Justice Pal was not, as Justice Pal himself pointed out, for the defense of Japan.
Its purpose was to keep telling the truth that in learning history we must always hold the justperspective and that in that manner alone, history can serve as a sure guide toward the future ofhumankind.
What the dissentient judgment of Justice Pal has shown is the fact that the biggest problem that caused76

the wars in the twentieth century was the colonial rule of Asia by the Western Powers and the racial
discrimination led by the white supremacy. Justice Pal severely criticized the atomic bombing and got
angry at the fact that the postwar Japan has been unable to become mentally independent from theUnited States and has remained too subordinate to justly blame the United States for the atomic
bombing because the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the worst symbol of the Western
racial discrimination that makes them totally remorseless and unrepenting in killing the colored races.
The first step toward establishing peace is, above all, the elimination of racial prejudice anddiscrimination and the respect for the tradition and culture of each people.
Even today, Japan is still being asked to “reflect on the past war” by China and South Korea. It is aJapanese virtue to apology for the fault and show sincerity by doing so. Japan’s failure in clearly
asserting her position resulted in the present situation of perpetual demands for apology. To apologize
for an alleged fact that is not correct is an act of denigrating one’s people and home country. A selfdeprecating people and state are despised by other states and cannot maintain their own peace.
Against the attempt to bring up again the issue already resolved in terms of international law, and to
hold the politically advantageous position and manipulate Japan, Japan must resolutely say, “No!”
Otherwise, Japan cannot defend her own people. Japan has apologized more than enough so far andfulfilled her responsibility for the war in the form of compensation, ODA (Official Development
Assistance) and other technological cooperation. Has the Great Britain ever apologized orcompensated for acts under her colonial policy to India (including the present Bangladesh andPakistan)? I have never heard of such incidents.
At present, peace in Asia is put under tension brought by the threat of China and its allegedly revived
imperialism. China demanding apology from Japan for “having been invaded in the past” has now
become a threat to neighboring countries of Tibet and Uighur and has put these peoples under her
oppression. What will become of Japan, where the population is getting older and smaller, in fifty ora hundred years from now?
The Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal is not only very lengthy but also difficult to understand unless
one laboriously studies the history of that period. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, this author
sincerely hopes that now is the time for as many people as possible of any generation to read andunderstand this truly valuable historical document.

77

Chapter 7

A short history of Bangladesh

The division of Bengal under the British colonial rule
As we have seen so far, Bengal produced many prominent people in various fields and greatly
contributed to the Indian independence movement. However, India gained its freedom not as a united
country, as Tagore, Rash Behari Bose and Subhas Chandra Bose had eagerly hoped, but ended up
divided into two independent states, Pakistan and India. In the conclusion to this book, I would like tobriefly introduce the history of my homeland Bangladesh, which was most severely affected by thetragedy of the divided independence and consequently broke free from Pakistan at an enormous cost.
First, the term Bengal refers to the region of East India, which includes the present West Bengal district
and Bangladesh. This region was arbitrarily divided by the British colonial authorities in 1905, as
mentioned in the Introduction to this book.
Bengal is a rich delta formed by the big rivers, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Padma and theMeghna, originating in the Himalayas and flowing into the Bay of Bengal. The region rich land
produces such an abundance of agricultural products that it attracted the attention of the British Empire,
which from the middle of the 17th century onwards, established commercial bases of the East India
Company in Surat, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta and started the Indian trade. Since the beginning of78

the 18th century, as the Mughal Empire rule over the region declined, Britain gradually establishedcontrol over the land. The then Bengali Governor in power Siraji-ud-Dawlah protested that the illicit
trade conducted by the East India Company and its workers was a serious blow to the Bengali economy
and demanded that tariff should be duly paid. The British side high-handedly refused this request.
Upon the refusal of the tariff payment, in 1756, Siraj attacked the British troops stationed in Calcutta
and made them flee. Reportedly, this was the worst defeat in the history of the British colonial rule.
Britain counterattacked and set up various conspiracies and divisions within Siraj’s army andeventually the latter became dysfunctional.
In 1757, in the Battle of Plassey, Siraj was defeated, captured, and killed. Through this battle, theBritish East India Company gained full control over the Bengal district and established the foundationof the colonial rule over the entire India. Afterwards, Britain put South India under her control throughthe Anglo-Mysore War (1767-1799) and suppressed the Central and West India by the Anglo-Maratha
Wars (1775-1818) and conquered Punjab by the Anglo-Sikh War (1845-1849). Thus, by the middle ofthe 19th century, Britain put all of India under her rule. Britain succeeded in colonizing the entire India
through conspiracy and military force.
The British colonial policy of India started from the Battle of Plassey and the British industrial
revolution also started in the same period, the 1750s. Within nearly 200 years after that, Britain
accumulated the capital of the Bank of England, which became the British central bank, based onenormous monetary profits and treasures extracted from India, especially from the Bengal district,together with the agricultural products, which were the gift from the rich land, such as spices, tea, andjute. In other words, the prosperity of England was founded on the exploitation of the riches of Bengal.

Separation from India and independence of Bangladesh
In August 1947, India became independent, and Bangladesh with its Islamic majority population wasincorporated into Pakistan and came to be called East Pakistan, far apart on the opposite sides of India.
However, it was extremely difficult to run a state composed of two peoples completely different fromeach other in culture and language and geographically divided into east and west, the only common
factor being religion. In addition, at that time, nearly 20 to 30 percent of the population in East Pakistan
were Hindus and the Muslims there were culturally affected by Hinduism.
The politics in Pakistan after independence was in confusion. Jinnah, the leader at the time ofindependence died of illness in 1948 before he had time to establish a workable political system.
Liaquat Ali Khan, who succeeded Jinnah, was assassinated in 1951. The confusion continued and79disappointment spread among the people until 1958, when Muhammad Ayub Khan seized thegovernment in a military coup d’état.
In East Pakistan, the situation was much worse. After India and Pakistan became separately
independent, East Pakistan was under exploitation by West Pakistan, which was the political center.
The devastating situation was essentially the same as it had been during the period of the Britishcolonial rule.
Moreover, to people speaking Bengali in East Pakistan, the Pakistani Government implemented
language control, designating Urdu as the only official language. Students at the University of Dhaka
began protesting against this linguistic discrimination. The Pakistani Government warned them that if
they held a protest rally, they would be immediately shot to death on account of anti-government
activity. Nevertheless, students resolutely held a rally on February 21,1952, and there were several
deaths by police shootings. Largely triggered by this incident, the movement to protect the Bengal
language developed into an enthusiastic movement for the independence of Bangladesh.
In honor and memory of those young people who dared to risk their lives to protect their motherlanguage, the UNESCO designated this date, February 21, as “International Mother Language Day”
in 1999.
Even after that, however, the autonomy of East Pakistan was hardly acknowledged and the discontent
mounted further among the Bengali people who were literally under the colonial rule of West Pakistan.
And the defeat in the Indo-Pakistan War, which started in 1962 over the territorial rights over the
Kashmir district, accelerated the nationwide criticism against the Government and increased thedemands for a democratic state. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the East Pakistan Muslim League
and the Awami League, a political body, kept appealing about the dire situation in East Pakistan,notwithstanding the frequent arrests he suffered.
In November 1970, just before the general election for the Parliament of Pakistan, a huge cyclone hit
East Pakistan. Deaths caused by floods reportedly amounted from 200,000 to 300,000. However, thePakistani Government failed to take appropriate relief measures for the victims and the mass media in

80

East Pakistan most severely criticized the central government.
Mujibur Rahman himself made a speech, claiming that East
Pakistan should no longer be under the control of West Pakistan
and in the election held in December, the Awami League,
asserting the solid autonomy of East Pakistan, won 160 seats
Sheik Mujibur Rahman
out of the 162 allocated to East Pakistan. With thisoverwhelming approval rating in the background, Mujibur
Rahman asked that East Pakistan be granted higher level ofautonomy, including the request that Pakistan become a federal state consisting of the two provincesof East and West.
However, the Pakistani Government did not accept this request and on March 25, 1971, the Pakistani
Army attacked East Pakistan at one sweep and declared martial law. Intellectuals and anti-government
activists were brutally murdered one after another. The leader Rahman was arrested, confined, andthen taken to West Pakistan.
On the next day, March 26, over the International Bangladesh Radio Broadcast, Major Ziaur Rahman
read the statement of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on his behalf, “Today, Bangladesh became independent.
Let us resolutely fight until we win the final victory.” On April 10, the Awami League officiallydeclared the independence of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Mujibur Rahman in custody
became President. Henceforth began the Bangladeshi Independence War.
As mentioned in the dialogue with Mr. Pema Gyalpo at the back of this book, when the war broke out,
various efforts of support came from India, including Tibetan volunteers, and they fought with the
Bangladeshi liberation army hastily composed of deserters from the East Pakistani Army, civilian
volunteers, and the police. A voluntary body called Freedom Fighters had recruiting facilities andtraining units in towns along the Indian border and out of the confusion caused by the civil war, nearlyten million refugees headed toward India.
India declared her determination to take every measure possible in order to avoid the crisis and savethe people of Bangladesh, appealing to the international community for support to Bangladesh. In thethird Indo-Pakistan War in December, India defeated the Pakistani Army in about two weeks and madethe Pakistani troops stationed in Bangladesh surrender, leading to a ceasefire.

81

On January 8, 1972, Mujibur Rahman was released from detention and on January 10, he made aspeech in Dhaka amid enthusiastic welcome from people, “Now, our country is free. My golden Bengal
is free. My dream has come true.” On January 12, he became Prime Minister.
Mujibur Rahman and the Awami League established the new nation’s four principles of “nationalism,
socialism, democracy and the separation of politics and religion,” under the influence of India, which
helped Bangladesh become independent and of the U.S.S.R. which was in close relationship with India
at that time. Socialism mentioned then referred not to the ideological concept but to the realistic
economic policy free from the economical control by other countries and in need for building the staterun economy with the national capital yet to be established.
In January 1972, East Germany and other East European nations, as well as the U.S.S.R. recognized
Bangladesh as a state. Among the Western countries, Japan became the first to recognize the
Bangladeshi statehood on February 10. In the diplomatic history of Japan, it was the first time thatJapan made her own diplomatic decision prior to others. On July 2, Pakistan recognized the
independence of Bangladesh by the Simla Agreement and Bangladesh accomplished her independence
both in name and substance.
At the time of declaring its independence, Bangladesh was extremely exhausted and in disarray after
the civil war that had lasted nine months. The independence war reportedly resulted in the deaths of 3
million victims, many died in massacres committed by the Pakistani Army, others from starvation
among refugees or from illness and other causes.
In Bangladesh, during the independence war and after the independence was achieved, Japanenthusiastically rendered support, which came from various levels of the private sector, thegovernment, Diet members and the economic community. Since 1970, when Bangladesh was severely
damaged by the cyclone, various fundraising and relief activities were undertaken. Diet member
Hayakawa Takashi of the Liberal Democratic Party enthusiastically supported Bangladesh from thevery early stage. Mr. Fukiura Tadamasa went to Bangladesh in 1971 as the Red Cross representative
stationed in Bangladesh and published an excellent book of record, Blood and Dirt—Tragedy ofIndependence of Bangladesh, which has been translated in Bangladesh as a valuable document.
In 1973, the Japanese Government invited Prime Minister Rahman, founding father of Bangladesh, toJapan as an official guest. During the meeting between Prime Minister Rahman and the then JapanesePrime Minister Tanaka Kakuei, it was decided to send a mission to support the Bangladeshi economy.
The mission was to be led by Nagano Shigeo, President of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and82Industry, and attended by the Presidents of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyu
Corporation, Asahi Kasei, Nissho Iwai (currently Sojitz Corporation) and Directors from the
Ministries of Foreign Affairs, of Treasury, of International Trade and Industry and others concerned.
On the other hand, China at that time supported the Pakistani Government and did not recognize
Bangladesh’s statehood. Under such a circumstance, we can hardly find any incidence in postwar years
in which Japan coped with a diplomatic issue on her own to such an extent and supported a newly
independent country of her own free will. There are supposedly many reasons, but we cannot discuss
it without considering the close relationship Japan cherished with those great figures that Bengal
produced, Tagore, Rash Behari Bose, Subhas Chandra Bose and Justice Pal. However, when it comesto the contribution and cooperation Japan made at the time of the independence of Bangladesh, very
little has been known to the general public up to now.

Unstable political situation remaining even after the independence
However, notwithstanding the improved international relationship, the political stability or national
development did not progress smoothly.
Although Mujibur Rahman was a superb independence fighter, the establishment of the new state was
not at all an easy task to accomplish. Bangladesh experienced independence for the second time inless than a quarter century after the separate independence of India and Pakistan and there was hardly
enough economic strength left to stand independently as a state. In addition to inflation, unemployment
and food shortage, there were damages caused by frequent floods and the double influence of the twotime oil shocks, which further aggravated the grievous economic situation in Bangladesh. Domestic
politics was in extreme confusion and together with cases of corruption among members of the Awami
League Party and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism supporting communism and Pakistan, Mujibur
was not competent enough to successfully solve those economic and political problems.
Mujibur Rahman forcibly implemented power politics relying on the military and the police,
introduced martial law and became President. President Mujibur formed the BAKSAL (the Awami
League of Farmers and Workers), a political coalition of four parties including the Awami League, andbecame the head of the coalition and tried to restore the domestic order by implementing hardline
policy such as banning all political parties except BAKSAL. However, things did not improve, but on
the contrary, criticism against Mujibur Rahman increased among the military because they had
contributed to the independence but lost the liberty and democracy they had once won at a high pricein the struggle for independence.

83Consequently, on August 15, 1975, Mujibur Rahman was killed together with his wife, their three sonswith their two wives, his younger brother with his wife and their son in a coup d’état led by sevenyoung officers and attempted by an Army unit. At the residence of Mujibur’s nephew who was
Mujibur’s aide, the entire family were killed. At that time, Mujibur’s two daughters were staying
abroad, and they were the only survivors of the brutal incident. The older of the two sisters is Sheikh
Hasina, the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Thus, Mujibur Rahman, called by people the“Founding Father,” perished in a coup d’état. In Rahman’s residence, the murder scene has beenpreserved as it was and at present is open to the public as a memorial museum.
Immediately after President Rahman was assassinated, Musutaku Ahmed of the Awami League
became President. However, this Musutaku was reportedly said to be one of the ringleaders of theassassination of Mujibur Rahman and he prohibited activities of the Awami League although hehimself belonged to the same political party. Consequently, the leaders of the Party either went
underground or exiled themselves overseas for the safety of their lives. Four persons who had long
been Mujibur Rahman’s comrades and leaders of the independence movement were arrested by thegovernment of the coup d’état and executed in prison without trial.
This government was toppled by another military coup d’état attempted by a military man named
Kaled Musharraf on November 5, 1975, and on November 7, the anti-Musharraf military men rose
again and liberated Ziaur Rahman who was at the time in custody and appointed him their leader.
Through the third coup d’état, the BNP (Bangladesh National Party) formed a government led by Ziaur
Rahman and thus military dictatorship started.
However, in 1981, President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated, and Ershad, then the chief of staff of the
Bangladesh Army, assumed power. In 1983, Ershad became President by obtaining the administrative
power without going through the due process. Thenceforth started the military dictatorship, whichlasted nine years. Under this dictatorship, Islamic fundamentalists became ministers, going hand inhand with the military personnel, revoking the national principle of the separation of politics andreligion. At the same time, the Awami League was prohibited from acting as a political party and thispolicy was introduced to deny the achievements of Mujibur Rahman, the founding father ofBangladesh and her first President, and to bury his name.

Political and economic stability brought by Sheikh Hasina’s government
Sheikh Hasina, Mujibur Rahman’s eldest daughter who survived her father’s assassination, had been
elected the leader of the Awami League in India, where she exiled herself. In 1981, she returned home
to Bangladesh and led the activities of the prohibited Awami League.
84Under such circumstances, people’s discontent against the
military dictatorship developed from a students’ movement to anationwide movement for democracy. In 1990, President Ershad
was forced into resignation. This event hardly attracted Japanesepeople’s attention, but it was one of the successful movements
for democracy in Asia, which happened concurrently with thecollapse of the Soviet Union.
In March of the following year, 1991, a provisional government
was organized, and a general election was held. Ershad sent

Sheik Hasina

candidates from the Jatiya Party with his supporters, only to lose by a large margin. In this election,
the BNP (Bangladesh National Party) beat the Awami League and Khaleda Zia, widow of the late
Ziaur Rahman and chairperson and leader of the BNP became the first female prime minister ofBangladesh. Through the Constitutional reform at that time, Bangladesh changed from a presidential
system to a system of a parliamentary cabinet with the term of five years. Thenceforth, fundamentally,
through the general election held every fifth year, government changed hands alternately between thetwo major parties, the Bangladesh National Party, and the Amami League Party.
In the general election held in 1996, the Awami League won back the government after twenty-two
years. Sheikh Hasina became prime minister after long aspiration. The newly elected Sheikh Hasina
revoked the law prohibiting the trial of the case of her father’s assassination at the Parliament, andlater the trial of the assassination of Mujibur Rahman was held and in 2010, five assassins were
executed, following the verdict.
In the next general election held in 2001, the BNP won the majority seats, asserting the coalition
government with the Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic fundamentalist party, and Khaleda Zia became prime
minister for the second time. Under her administration, the bombing incident of Dhaka occurred in
2004, in which Sheikh Hasina was seriously injured in the ear and the party leader of the Female
Awami League and several members of the Awami League were killed. This incident was reportedly
perpetrated by the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
In 2006, the general election was slated, but the BNP and the Awami League confronted each otherover the date of the election and the issue of candidates, each asking for the advantageous conditions
to their own party and eventually, it became practically impossible to hold the election and the Armycame out to take control over the situation and a provisional government was organized. Three years
85later, in 2009, the general election was finally held and the Awami League won the election. Since
then, Sheikh Hasina has been prime minister for the three consecutive terms, to this day.
In the 2014 general election, under the slogan of “Digital Bangladesh,” a coalition government led by
the Awami League and the Jatiya Party, the Communist Party and other parties was established andhas remained in power until today.
Bangladesh has kept growing economically due to the economic policy implemented by Sheikh
Hasina’s government and in 2014 the country entered a phase of high economic growth and is about
to graduate from the class of latecomer developing countries. From the time of her independence tothe present, Bangladesh has been greatly supported by Japan in various ways, such as gratuitous
financial aid, loans, and technical cooperation in various fields, through the ODA (official
development aid), NGO/NPO corporations and others. In addition, there are investments fromJapanese companies. I would like to conclude this book by conveying to all of you, Japanese people,
how deeply grateful I am as a Bangladeshi to Japan for her great contribution to my country
Bangladesh.

Special discussion between Pema Gyalpo and Sarker
The independence of Bangladesh and the Tibetans
Sarker: Bangladesh became independent in 1971. Dr. Pema, were you a university student then?
Pema Gylpo (hereinafter Pema): I was a student at Asia University in Tokyo. Around 1970, I learned
from a media report that a disaster was caused in Bangladesh by a huge cyclone [note: On November
12, 1970, a super-class cyclone and high tide hit the then East Pakistan and several hundred thousand
lives were lost]. Then, I called for donations and support to Bangladesh (East Pakistan) on the street.
It was the first time that I had something to do with Bangladesh. But at that time, I brought the money
kindly donated by people directly to the Pakistani Embassy.
Sarker: I suppose you could not have helped it at that time, though. Then, Bangladesh was not86independent yet.
Pema: After the independence movement started, the library of the Indian Embassy in Japan served asa kind of temporary office for independence fighters in exile in Japan. And there was a dormitory near
the Asian Cultural Center, a library of the East, and two or three Bangladeshi students lived there, if
my memory is correct.
As a Tibetan, I was very interested in this independence movement from the start. First, many ofBangladesh Independence volunteers were being trained in India, and an Indian Army general named
Upan led the training. I knew him very well and was also aware that many Tibetan troops participatedin this independence war, including in guerrilla warfare, and many of them were killed or wounded inaction.
Sarker: Tibetans contributed greatly to the independence of Bangladesh. But the most substantial
support came from India.
Pema: Of course, it was the policy of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. At that time, Prime Minister
Gandhi was surrounded in all directions by enemies such as China, Pakistan, and domestic communist
power and intellectuals supported by the United States. In this predicament, it was her political aim toget Bangladesh independent first and thus to weaken the power of Pakistan. And that was what thepeople of Bangladesh wanted.
But at the time of the establishment of the state of Bangladesh, the new country’s name carried theword “socialist.” The name of a country should fundamentally include every ideal and goal the country
aspires to achieve. In that sense, the concept of the independence of Bangladesh meant to be not an
Islamic state but a secular state like India, separating religion and politics, and therefore, her name did
not carry the word “Islamic” but it contained “socialist.”
At that time, Japan became the first country in the world to recognize Bangladesh. This was due
greatly to Honorable Hayakawa Takashi (former president of the Japan-Bangladesh Association) andothers. Simultaneously, if the liberal and democratic Japan had not taken an action quickly enough,Bangladesh, as a socialist state, would have aligned with the “Eastern” socialist countries. This
incident should be marked as a remarkable example of one of the most outstanding successes in the
postwar Japanese diplomacy. And the Embassy of Bangladesh was established at Aoyama, Tokyo.
Sarker: To symbolically indicate that Bangladesh was a secular state, the first Ambassador was a Hindu.
Pema: That’s right. They made it clear that Bangladesh was a secular state. And when I heard people
sing the national anthem, looking up at the national flag of Bangladesh hoisted at the opening87ceremony of the Embassy at Aoyama, I was profoundly moved. I listened to their national anthem,thinking that these people accomplished the independence of their home country and that Tibetans,being robbed of their own country, also participated in the war of independence and that someday, theTibetans can accomplish the independence of Tibet,
Sarker: However, in 1975, Mujibur Rahman was assassinated, and the military regime was born, whicherased the history and the significance of the independence of Bangladesh from the memory of thepeople. We do still remember those days. But young people hardly know what the independence
movement was like nor at what cost independence was won. And the memory of those Japanese people
who supported the independence of Bangladesh vanished.

Support for Bangladesh by Japan
Pema: Up around 1974, Japan tried to support Bangladesh and build a good relationship between thetwo countries.
After Bangladesh became independent, the first thing they needed then was nurses. Professor
Maruki Seimi at Saitama Medical University, who helped me come to Japan, invited twenty-seven
Bangladeshi women to Japan and helped them receive education. Through its own diplomatic efforts,
the Japanese Government recognized Bangladesh without waiting for the approval of the United States.
This act was greatly influenced by the historical relationship between Japan and Bangladesh and thepeople of Bangladesh were truly grateful to Japan. Then, a coup d’etat broke out twice and almost all
the founding leaders were killed. Under such a situation, I did not feel like getting involved with
Bangladesh.
After Mujibur Rahman, who led the independence movement, was assassinated in 1975, there
were no prominent leaders like him to take his place. Specifically, he was an excellent speaker andwhenever I listen to his recorded speeches, just like Chandra Bose’s, I am extremely moved by them,even though I do not fully understand his words. After Mujibur Rahman, there was no such acharismatic leader to succeed him and there was a tendency to forcibly make Islam the national religion.
Then, I came to distance myself away from the Bangladesh issue.
Sarker: Yes, Japan’s contribution at the time of the independence was great. At that time, Bangladesh
was suffering food shortage and many women were brutally raped by the Pakistani military. Although
they won independence, the situation was simply dire. Under such circumstances, Japan’s enormous
support helped rebuild the country.
Pema: The Japanese religious world greatly helped Bangladesh and Bangladeshi people responded tothe support in good ways. They worked and studied hard and there were many artistically talented
88

people.
Sarker: Many Bangladeshi people wanted to study in Japan and many students came here to fulfill thatdesire. Especially at the time when the then Prime Minister Nakasone invited Bangladeshi students toJapan. I was one of them and I came to Japan to study in 1984.
Pema: There are many views in favor and against when it comes to Prime Minister Nakasone’s
political achievements, but at least one thing is certain. He was a man of clear and solid political vision
regarding Asia.
When Prime Minister Rahman came to Japan in 1973, there was a welcome party and I listened tohis speech in person there. I felt an overwhelming aura flowing out of him. Afterwards, medical
students came from Bangladesh to Japan and studied medicine and surgery in Tokyo and Kyushu,
which led to the building of the Japan-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital. Looking at that, I noticeanother positive trait of the Bangladeshi people: they are good at teamwork, have a sense of public
duty and cooperate in pursuing a common goal. To be honest, we Tibetans are very self-assertive,
every one of us wants to be a leader above the rest, and we lack in cooperative efforts to achieve
something as one team. We should learn from the Bangladeshis.
Sarker: The independence movement was successful, owing to the teamwork in a sense.
Pema: As I mentioned earlier, they had an artistic sense and every one of them wrote poems and sangsongs. In that field, they were probably better than the Japanese people. In the 1980s the relationshipbetween Japan and Bangladesh became somewhat less friendly, but in the 1990s the Japanese people
gradually expanded their contacts with the Bangladeshi people. It was around 2000 that we met, didn’t
we, Mr. Sarker?
Sarker: Yes, that is correct.
Pema: In 2015, I visited Bangladesh leisurely for the first time. After that, a terrorist incident occurredin Dhaka. But at the time of my visit, the town was peaceful and quiet. Then, former military men who
had fought for the independence gathered around and we had a good opportunity to talk about manythings.
They said that they honestly wanted to buy goods made in Japan, but, in fact, Chinese products
were cheaper. And they wanted Japan to sell what Bangladesh really needed and wanted. In addition,
Japanese companies came to Bangladesh and made Bangladeshi people work in poor conditions which
the Japanese companies would have never allowed at home in Japan.
89

Hearing them, I felt that though terrorism is never to be allowed, it was understandable that theclub that became the target of the terrorist attack was a gathering place exclusively for rich people ofthe special class.
Sarker: Certainly, I, too, understand that. However, at the same time, Bangladesh is grateful to Japanfor her support.
Pema: If you go to a university or a library, you see signs clearly stating, “This institution was built
thanks to the support from Japan.” This is different in China.
And in considering Bangladesh from now on, it is the most important to fundamentally build aclose relationship with India. Between the two countries, there have been many territorial issues over
several islands, but they solved them together through bilateral talks.
It is vital for India to lead the formation of the so-called South Asian Sphere to resist China’s
advance. South Asia is not at all within the Chinese cultural sphere and apart from whether it is rightor wrong, considering the fact that South Asia had been under the British colonial control, South Asian
countries can work cooperatively beyond the respective national borders, under the leadership of India.
In that sense, hopefully, Bangladesh and India will be able to keep the historical, bilateral relationshipwhich can favorably affect the entire South Asia.
Sarker: And hopefully, Japan will become part of it.
Pema: When former Prime Minister Abe asserted “free and open Indo-Pacific,” I thought that was theexact diplomacy based on values that can cope with China. However, this message is getting weaker
now. I want Japan to become stronger and form the alliance between Japan and South Asia once again,
and at the same time, I think it important for India and Bangladesh to form together a solid bond andexpand the alliance throughout South Asia.

Proud Bengalese
Pema: By the way, Bangladeshi people are very proud, aren’t they?
Sarker: They are proud because poet Tagore from Bengal won the Nobel Prize for Literature for the
first time in Asia, and they are a proud people because they accomplished their independence at a dearcost. And in the Bengal region various peoples have lived mixed lives through the long history,
producing rich cultures along the way.
Film director Satyajit Ray (1921- 1992, Pather Panchali and others) was from Bengal. Ray’s films
were highly praised by the great Japanese director Kurosawa Akira and Ray and Kurosawa knew each90

other well. And another person from Bengal who was closely related to Japan is Justice Pal, who
confidently stated the right view during the Tokyo Trials. It was Mr. Shimomura Yasaburo that invited
Justice Pal to Japan and organized lecture tours for him throughout Japan.
Pema: We must rightly understand here that Justice Pal did not take a side with Japan in his judgment.
He acted strictly in the capacity of a jurist and scholar on international law and stated that it was notpossible to judge those defendants claimed to be criminals of war like Tojo Hideki to be guilty.
Speaking of war crimes and to be legally fair, Roosevelt and Truman, who dropped atomic bombs,
and Stalin, who sent Japanese in Manchuria to concentration camps should all have been brought totrial.
On the other hand, though this may invite some misunderstanding, I thought it was better thatJapan was occupied by the United States to avoid the worst scenario. I had the same feeling when I
watched the new Emperor enthroned on the television. Should Stalin have occupied Japan, Japan
would have met the worst fate.
MacArthur anticipated that the Emperor Showa would beg the Commander for his life or try toevade his own responsibility, blaming his men when they officially met. In fact, the Emperor Showastated, “I do not care the least what will become of me, but I do ask the Allied Countries to help Japanso that the Japanese people may not have much trouble leading a daily life.” 1 Such a leader can berarely found in the world. Emperor’s words and posture impressed MacArthur.
What if it was Stalin? As a Tibetan, I fully understand the terror of communism. Such a thought
occurred when I watched the television.
And speaking of Bangladesh from now on, I repeat that Bangladesh should make the relationshipwith India stronger. With China, it is oil and vinegar in terms of values and characters. In addition,
there was no historical connection with China in the past. Such alien countries cannot get along witheach other.
And Grameen Bank founded by Muhammad Yunus which lends money to poor people at low
interest and helps them start work. Mr. Yunus is now under criticism, but his idea is right. Providing
poor people with funds, not welfare, so that they can engage in regular work using the money. And it
is important to make agriculture a vital industry throughout the country. First, place agriculture as thenational base that would have priority over IT. Take drones for instance. Let us make plans to use
drones to promote agriculture, not for military purposes as China does.
My idea of society is close to democratic socialism. It is not democracy and communism, but it
allows individuals to conduct free economic activities and at the same time welfare and social security

1

Recollection of the Grand Chamberlain, written by Fujita Hisanori, published by Kodansha,
Gakujutsu Bunko, 2015.
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are publicly provided. It does not allow the theory of extreme individual responsibility to justify
differences and does not allow companies to arbitrarily fire their employees as they like. I want both
Japan and Bangladesh to aspire for such a society.
Sarker: Bangladesh has a certain characteristic of “an ocean state,” just like Japan. The five majorrivers flow across the country and along the rivers, civilization prospered. The beauty of the flowing
rivers, the sun rising from the rivers’ horizon and setting into the rivers has produced poems and music
in abundance. This beautiful nature of Bangladesh gave birth to Tagore. The Japanese people lovenature, and poems and haiku are born out of the beautiful nature. Surely, Japan and Bangladesh havesomething in common and Japan and Bangladesh ought to know each other better.
Pema: Now, we have this problem of the Rohingya people becoming refugees in Myanmar. Mr. Sarker,
what do you think of it?
Sarker: This is a difficult problem. Now and then, we see reporting that the Government of Myanmar
is one-sidedly suppressing and expelling the Rohingya people, but it is not that simple. Among them,
there are those from Middle East, though in small numbers, who are influenced by radical Islam andin some cases, they killed Buddhists.
Pema: After the Suu Kyi administration came to power in Myanmar, they tried to give citizenship toRohingyas. Though they are not granted autonomy as a people, it is not that the Government is blindly
expelling them.
Sarker: This issue dated back to the period of the British colonial rule. Britain brought immigrant
workers in large numbers to make them work at the tea and gum plantations and eventually thoseworkers settled to become permanent residents. During the Greater East Asian War, the Japanese Armysupported Buddhists and Britain supported Muslims, having them fight against each other. It is not a
simple question of which side is victims or which side is perpetrators.
I just mentioned that there are some radical Muslims among the Rohingya refugees. There is alsoa radical group in Bangladesh, and they deny the Bangladeshi political system of the separation ofpolitics and religion. If the Bangladeshi Government accepts Rohingya refugees, there may be adanger of radical groups among refugees who may connect with radicals within Bangladesh.
Ultimately, I think that since refugees are desperate people, there is an option for Bangladesh to
accept them from the humanistic perspective. But at the same time, we must consider the danger
ensconced in the issue, prepare for it and make a choice at certain time in future. I think it is the samewith Japan. Japan is moving toward accepting refugees, and I, as a foreigner, do not oppose this policy.
92But Japan must be careful about whether refugees are ready to follow the Japanese laws and respect
and learn from the Japanese historical tradition and values when Japan decides to accept refugees andmake them understand it.
Pema: I think a big advantage to Japanese society is that Japan has hardly any ethical or religious
conflict among the people. This is the major factor in Japan’s development and Japan should
preciously keep it.

The significance of exchanges between Okakura Tenshin and Tagore
M.C.: In considering the relationship between Okakura Tenshin and Tagore, what do two of you think
regarding what Japan did politically and diplomatically in dealing with Asia after the Meiji Restoration
up to the Greater East Asian War?
Sarker: First, when it comes to the relationship between Japan and India, at the first stage, it started ascultural exchange. After Britain made India her colony, particularly in Bengal, the restoration of thereligious and traditional values occurred and simultaneously the social reform and the awakening of
the ethical awareness took place. Japan was the only independent country in Asia that succeeded inachieving modernization. Up until that time, being far apart geographically, both Japan and India had
little exchange, but a certain connection began to sprout between the two countries.
In this respect, we must not forget Okakura Tenshin. Okakura Tenshin, being a great intellectualof the Meiji period, fully understood the value and significance of the Western civilization, but at thesame time, he knew it was no use for Japan and Asia to imitate the West. Asia has its own great culturesand values, not the least inferior to those of the West and Tenshin thought the greatness of Asia should
be known to the West and all the peoples of Asia should be aware of it. Therefore, he wrote his book
The Awakening of the East, meant for Asian readers, in English and The Book of Tea, the essence ofJapanese and Asian civilization, also in English, trying to disseminate the thought to the world.
Basically, this was the same idea held by Tagore and other prominent Indian intellectuals.
On the other hand, Tenshin tried to rediscover and revalue ancient Buddhist statues and other art
works left unnoticed and at the same time, to introduce new techniques and ideas to Japanese painting,which produced Yokoyama Taikan and other great painters. It was an artistic and cultural movement
and in a deeper sense, was a political movement to recover the people’s tradition, introducing Western
technologies and politics and awakening to democracy and national independence. In this sense,
Okakura Tenshin’s visit to India in 1902 was not simply a cultural exchange, but it had a significant
meaning to Indian intellectuals and activists aspiring for independence.
As to the relationship between Tagore and Tenshin and between Tenshin and India, I closely dealt
with it, including my own view, in this book. Britain conspicuously tried to interrupt the alliance93between Tagore and Tenshin and Tenshin enthusiastically connected with independence fighters inIndia. Among them was Tagore’s nephew, Surendranath Tagore. Tenshin finished writing the book The
Awakening of the East while staying in India and certainly the book must have reflected the exchangeof various views with the independence fighters. And in 1903, The Awakening of the East was
published. In the book, an urgent call for armed struggles asking Asian peoples to unite and rise against
the Western colonial rule was clearly and passionately stated. In this sense, the exchange between
Japan and India was, from the very beginning, a cultural one and, at the same time, covert politicalalliance.
Pema: I remember reading a book by Tagore mentioning to the effect that reading Okakura Tenshin’sbooks, he came to have a sense of Asia for the first time. Before the famous phrase of Tenshin, “Asiais One” was born, there hardly existed the sense of Asia among Asian peoples. At that time, besides
Europe, America and the African Continent, the idea of Orient referred to the Middle East and theregion farther to the east. In that picture of the world, the idea of Asia was established for the first timeby Okakura Tenshin and underneath it might have lain the awakening sense that the Asian peoples
must unite culturally and politically against the European and American aggressors.
Sarker: In that sense, Professor Azuma Kazuo’s view of Tagore is correct, but reading books written
by other scholars on Tagore, I notice there is a tendency to referring to the relationship between Japanand Tagore exclusively in terms of cultural aspects. Even when they touch upon politics, they try toemphasize that Tagore was critical about Japan by merely citing the fact that Tagore opposed the war
Japan waged.
But it was a historical fact that Rash Behari Bose, Indian independence fighter, came to Japan in
the capacity of Tagore’s relative. Behari Bose did not say much about himself, but he was engaged insecret activities, some of which were close to terrorism by today’s criteria. However, at that time, there
was no other resort and Behari Bose was not directing people from a safer position, but he, himself,
was acting in the middle of dangers, thus, becoming a suspect wanted by the British authorities.
Then, trying to establish a base in Japan, Behari Bose, although having nothing to do with theTagores directly, came to Japan on the false claim that he was a relative of Tagore and in order toprepare for Tagore’s visit to Japan. Tagore himself cannot have been ignorant of the situation and musthave helped Behari Bose come to Japan in one way or another.
It was popularly known that Mr. Touyama Mitsuru of Genyosha, a political body, helped Behari
Bose when the latter was on the edge of being rearrested in Japan. When Tagore visited Japan, he met
with Mr. Touyama and there is a picture taken of them on the occasion. In addition, later, Chandra
Bose came to Japan and eventually led the Indian National Army in their fight for independence. Allof these events became possible because Behari Bose came to Japan prior to Chandra Bose and94

organized various supporters, held the official international conference for independence in Japan andcreated various organizations to help India.
The same was true of the Chinese revolutionaries. Sun Yat-sen was the best example. Korean
patriotic fighters also came to Japan. At that time, almost the entire Asia became colonized. Under
such circumstances, Japan was the only country that other Asians could depend on and thus, Japan
became the only choice when it came to building a foothold for independence outside the country.
Thus, it is incorrect to say that the cultural exchanges held at that time had nothing to do with politics.
Pema: Patriots in East Asia were greatly expectant of Japan, and they studied the modernization ofJapan as foreign students learning in Japan and tried to participate in political activities. You justmentioned Sun Yat-sen. I would like to point out that Sun Yat-sen had both right and wrong sides.
I think Sun Yat-sen was a great revolutionary, but his ultimate goals were to overthrow the Qing
dynasty controlled by Manchurians and realize a Chinese-centered country once again and modernize
it. Therefore, Sun Yat-sen’s first political objective was to defeat the Manchurian dynasty and the Qing
Empire. He also held up the slogan, “Expel Manchuria and Prosper Han (China).” Among the basic
political ideas of Sun Yat-sen, the exclusion of Manchurians was not the only one, but clearly there
was also the idea of Sino-centrism, meaning that the rest of Asia should be ruled by the Chinese people.
And this idea was inherited by Mao Ze-dong, self-proclaimed successor to Sun Yat-sen and by ChiangKai-shek and eventually led to the hegemonism held by the present-day Chinese Government.

Pan-Asianism was right
M.C.: Dr. Pema, what do you think of the role that Japan played in Asia, as Mr. Sarker just mentioned?
Pema: As Mr. Sarker said, at least, it was correct to say that Japan was almost the only country in Asia
that successfully introduced modernization and at the same time tried to stand independent from theWest. Though we should not equate Western Europe to modern age, but at least, from the end of the
19th century to the 20th century, Western Europe was a symbol of modernization in the eyes of the
Asians. It is a historical fact that in adopting the Western technologies and achievements, Japan wasadvanced and superior to the rest of Asia and Japan should be rightly proud of it. Japan implemented
the modern industrial revolution and became a capable military power that could cope with Western
Europe.
At the same time, Okakura Tenshin, foremost, Nitobe Inazo, Uchimura Kanzo and other prominent
Meiji intellectuals understood not only Western technologies, but also Western religion and philosophy
and tried to absorb what they could sympathize with. Their endeavors saved Japan from becoming amere imitator of Western technologies alone. Both Nitobe and Uchimura became Christians. But at
the same time, they never forgot the Japanese spirit or the traditional mentality of the Japanese people95and in their efforts to make the Japanese spirit and Christianity compatible with each other, they wrote
many books like Bushido, The Soul of Japan in English. I think such attitudes of Japan gave Asia thesense of trustfulness that Japan did not imitate Western Europe but tried to show the new path for
Asians to take.
After the Meiji Restoration, first, Japan started endeavoring to protect herself from the Western
aggression and to remain independent. Then, gradually, Japan came to think that caring for herself was
not enough, but she had to help the Asian peoples oppressed under the Western colonial rule andliberate the colonies, hand in hand with the Asian patriots striving after independence. Especially,
civilian patriots tried to realize this idea, which came to be called Pan-Asianism.
There were Japanese patriots who genuinely believed that Asian liberation and establishing justicewere in Japan’s national interests and acted to achieve the cause. They were Touyama Mitsuru,
Miyazaki Toten, Kita Ikki and many other unknown people who also risked their lives for the cause. I
do not mean to say that all that Japan had done in terms of politics, diplomacy and wars was right, but
at least, this principle of “Pan-Asianism” was right and I am confident to say that it still means much
today.
Sarker: Nitobe’s Bushido was translated in India. And there was a wonderful lady named Koura Tomi.
When Tagore came to Japan and gave lectures, she accompanied him and was deeply influenced byTagore. Ms. Koura left great achievements in women’s and peace movements. She wrote a thesis in
English at an American university and obtained her doctor’s degree.
All of them were Japanese people and Asians and as such, they proudly and confidently
accomplished remarkable works in the Western world. At the same time, Western intellectuals
awakened to Asia and tried to “Look East,” paying respectful attention to Asian culture as something
beyond the Western boundaries. And that led to Tagore’s winning Nobel Prize for Literature and many
Western literary people highly valued Tagore’s works.

Shibusawa Eiichi and Tagore
M.C.: As a great figure in the Meiji era, Shibusawa Eiichi is designated to appear on the new Japanesebill and his life is also to be depicted in a popular NHK historical drama on TV, which is slated to bebroadcast soon. What do you think of this?
Sarker: As Professor Pema just mentioned, Shibusawa Eiichi was the symbolic figure when it comesto Japan’s modernization and industrial revolution. Without him, we cannot talk about the modern
history of Japan. Shibusawa not only started various enterprises, but also engaged in every kind ofsocial work. It is very interesting to learn that such a symbolic figure of the modernization deeply
sympathized with Tagore and cherished his relationship with the great Indian. Tagore visited Japan96

five times in total. During his visits, in 1916, 1924 and 1929, Shibusawa met with Tagore and spenttime together at welcome parties and dinners and other occasions.
In order to promote the friendship between Japan and India, the Japan-India Association wasestablished in 1903 by Okuma Shigenobu, Nagaoka Moriyoshi and Shibusawa Eiichi, who
respectively served as the first, second and third President of the Association. The person who was themost eager to invite Tagore to Japan was Shibusawa Eiichi and the Association promoted the trade andeconomic cooperation between Japan and India. The activities of the Association were suspended
temporarily because it had supported the Indian independence movement during the Greater East
Asian War. After India became independent in 1947, the Association resumed its activities. The history
and the precious relationship between Shibusawa and Tagore are little known to the Japanese or the
Indians today. Now that Shibusawa has been chosen to appear on the new Japanese 10,000-yen bill(to be issued in the early 2024 fiscal year), we must reevaluate the history of the time when Shibusawa
lived.
Pema: Regarding Shibusawa Eiichi, it is perfectly adequate to revalue him as the man who
accomplished Japan’s modernization and made the systems of capitalism and limited liability
companies. But when we take up Shibusawa now, it is utmost necessary to consider what Shibusawa
would have thought of the way capitalism is run in today’s society. In my view, the capitalism at thepresent time is going in the wrong direction, with economically successful people being treated aswinners in the society, nonchalantly denigrating the weak people, monopolizing the wealth capitalist
economy produces and justifying such an unfair social trend. According to Shibusawa Eiichi’s idea,
the interests of the people and the interests of the community or the common interest matter, and one
should always take heed of such values. Shibusawa tried to unite economy on one hand and morality
and social justice on the other. On the contrary, Japan’s capitalism today is united with the totally
opposite values of egotism such as “As long as it fares well with my own company, that will do,” or“That all counts if I myself can make profits.”
If Shibusawa’s portrait is to be used on the prestigious face of the bill, Japan should have thereflective view of the time and instead of using Shibusawa to justify the capitalism, should reconsider
the common interests of the community.
Some think that since rich people have become rich through their own endeavors, we should avoid
heavy taxation of the rich, or that it is unconditionally great to have Japanese names on the list of theworld’s top billionaires. Such thinking is exactly the opposite to what Shibusawa wanted. And fromthe perspective of how capitalism should be, such a trend would never bring a good outcome.
Certainly, it is necessary and a matter of course, to a certain extent, that one becomes better off
according to one’s own hard work, but it is completely different if one gains one’s profit at the cost ofothers or by making others unhappy. Speaking in terms of “Asia”, essentially, there is an attitude in97the Asian tradition to think that it is wrong for one to become happy at the cost of others, especiallywithin the Buddhist thinking.
Sarker: What was great about Shibusawa was that he made a great social contribution. This is true ofthe wealthy Indian people. They build schools and public buildings. This tradition is still alive today.
Pema: Apart from the recent new rich Indians, traditionally rich Indian families have built schools andtemples, using the profit money or they try to think of the profit for the entire society. Here is an
example from my childhood. In the 1960s, there were many of Gandhi’s disciples in India, and theywent to rich people and landlords, obtained land from them, and gave the land to poor people. Unlike
communists who violently robbed landlords and rich people of their fortunes, wise Indians persuadedrich people that giving to the poor was a good act and a valuable social contribution and thus led therich to save the poor.
Many of those who had fought for independence with Gandhi engaged in social activities andmovements after India got independent, instead of working for the important government offices. That
is why they were respected by the people. Gandhi himself was so. When Gandhi was assassinated, he
was neither a statesman nor a government official. If I dare say, he was no longer a political activist,
but a symbolic religious figure in a sense. Without any social status or decoration, the Indian people
greatly respected him.

Chandra Bose seen by Gandhi and Nehru
Pema: One more thing about Gandhi. In Japan Gandhi is understood too one-sidedly. Many Japanesepeople take Gandhi’s non-violence principle for pacifism or the principle of non-resistance. Certainly,
during his long struggle for independence, Gandhi may have changed some of his words or chosendifferent ones according to the political situations from time to time or to who listened, or referred tothose words in order to win over the views of the European and American pacifists. But we must not
misunderstand him, taking up partial pieces of his words.
Gandhi was non-violent, but he was never non-resistant. He had firm and persistent will to fightfor justice to the end, but in Japan people overly emphasized Gandhi’s wish for peace and it issometimes ignored or slighted that Gandhi was a fierce fighter against injustice.
And it is not fully understood, either that Gandhi was a nationalist in a sense. Gandhi clearly statedto the effect: “A true nationalist must be a true internationalist. And a true internationalist must be atrue nationalist.” His words mean that respective nations and states must mutually recognize respective
culture and sovereignty based on the equal status. Without this recognition, true international peace
will never be realized. Peace in Gandhi’s understanding stands on such basis.

98

Sarker: Speaking of Gandhi, importantly, I think that neither Gandhi nor Nehru could make Hinduism
and Islam conciliated or united together, and consequently India and Pakistan came to be separately
independent, which then resulted in the historical tragedy of Bangladesh. And the only one that
accomplished this difficult task of conciliation and unification of the two religions was none other than
Chandra Bose.
One more thing to add. Although Gandhi was great, he also made mistakes. When an election washeld within the Indian National Congress Party, which was at the center of the independence movement,
Chandra Bose won with many supporters for his policy, but Gandhi did not make Chandra Bose
chairman. This was not fair from the viewpoint of democratic rule. Moreover, Gandhi did not like
Chandra Bose’s view that military action was necessary and practically expelled Chandra Bose.
Following this incident, Chandra Bose left India, feeling disappointed and discouraged that he could
no longer do anything within the independence movement.
Pema: To be fair with Gandhi, it was also Gandhi that highly evaluated Chandra Bose for his great
leadership and gave him the honorific title of “Netaji” (respected leader in Hindi). Gandhi truly wanted
Bose to continue to engage in the independence movement together with Nehru.
Sarker: If Chandra Bose had managed to get along with Nehru, he would have made a good leader.
And certainly, that was what Gandhi wanted. But Chandra Bose’s character and acting policy did notallow that to happen. After Nehru came to depart with Chandra Bose for good, he never once referred
to Chandra Bose and when Nehru came to Japan after the War, he never mentioned Chandra Bose. So,after the War, achievements of Chandra Bose, Behari Bose and Pan-Asianist Japanese who supported
Behari Bose like Touyama Mitsuru were hardly known in India.
Pema: Regarding Chandra Bose, though, many bronze statues of him were built in India, probably
second to those of Gandhi in number. In that sense, Chandra Bose was very popular among the Indians.
I don’t know about today’s situation, but in old days, there were many calendars using the portraits ofChandra Bose and they sold very well.
Sarker: It was true that at the people’s level, he was popular. But in Nehru’s diplomatic policy afterIndia accomplished her independence, the Indian National Army or Chandra Bose were hardly
mentioned at the political or diplomatic stage. Only after Nehru died, the two subjects came to betalked about freely. In the state of West Bengal, partly because the leftist power was prominent there,
at some time, Chandra Bose was said to be a puppet of Tojo Hideki.
Pema: In the state of West Bengal, the communist party held power for more than thirty years, and the99situation was somewhat unusual. As Mr. Sarker just mentioned, it was true that after India became
independent, the Nehru administration never willingly admired Chandra Bose nor Justice Pal, who
was the only judge to state the right view at the Tokyo trials, at the state level.
I guess, probably it was because India had a certain sense of reservation against Britain and since
the Allied Countries after the Greater East Asian War introduced their historical view depicting Japanas a villain, India, eager to join the international community, was somewhat hesitant to speak freely.
However, the leaders of the Indian independence movement must have endeavored together andrespected one another, in their own different ways. In Japan, in the past, though present-day politicians
are different, those belonging to both ruling and opposition parties held respective ideals and sense ofjustice and even if their values were different, they trusted each other.
The same was true of intellectuals. Beyond their conservative and radical stands, they respectedeach other’s merits and were eager to learn from each other. In this sense, I feel nowadays people are
getting smaller in view of human capacity in the entire world.
M.C.: Gandhi, Bose and Nehru were great statesmen to be found once in decades.
Sarker: Sun Yat-sen of China may have had many faults from the present perspective, but a statesman
as great as he has not emerged since. This is evident if we look at China today.

Cultural exchanges between Japan and India led to the independence of India
M.C.: The Battle of Imphal is often referred to as the greatest blunder for having incurred so many
victims of deaths from starvation. Mr. Sarker, what do you think of the Battle?
Sarker: I declare that without the Battle of Imphal, the Indian independence would have never beenrealized. Even if it had, that would have happened much, much later. Chandra Bose formed the Indian
National Army composed of Indian soldiers held prisoners of war by the Japanese Army and acted
bravely to relieve India. How overwhelmingly their patriotic act awakened the Indian spirit! The Battleof Imphal itself ended up in a disastrous failure and it was pitiful that there were so many casualties.
But it was true that after the War, the spirit of the Indian National Army spread all over India, which
made it possible to achieve the national independence.
After the Greater East Asian War, the Indian National Army was about to be put on trial at martial
court in India by Britain. In fact, however, the Indian National Army fought for the independence ofIndia and did not commit any crime. So, the movement to save the Indian National Army, claimingthat the INA’s spirit was the very will of India, spread all over India and eventually led the IndianArmy, particularly the Navy, to rise for the movement. Therefore, Nehru and those who criticized
Chandra Bose’s policy were obliged to oppose the opening of the martial court.
100For the first time in the Indian history, the movement to support the Indian National Army wasable to unite India of Hinduism, Muslim, and various ethnic tribes into one. Britain had no other option
but to leave India. Later, this fact was officially admitted by the British Prime Minister Atlee.
And behind this great movement was the historical fact that Japan fought throughout four years
against the entire world. It was true that Japan was finally defeated but Japan, a country in Asia, fought
to the end against Europe and the United States, which led to the liberation of almost all the Westerncolonies. And the Indian National Army fought with this brave Japan and with her help they bravely
risked their lives, endeavoring to make India independent with the efforts of the Indians. Thisawakened the true determination to achieve independence.
Pema: What was important is that India prevented Britain from holding a martial court. In the firstplace, a martial court is held in order to judge soldiers who have broken the military rules in accordancewith the military code but it is not up to the victor to judge the vanquished in accordance with thevictor’s values. Above all, at the time of the Battle of Imphal, Indian soldiers were deployed as a unit
belonging to the British Army to protect India under the British rule. Therefore, though Britain fought
against Japan, India did not fight against Japan in a sense. And the Indian National Army cooperated
with the Japanese Army but did not fight as the Japanese Army. The Indian National Army fought as
an army of Indians striving for the independence of India with Chandra Bose as their leader. Why,then, was it that the Indian National Army was to be judged at the British martial court? In this logicalcontext, we can clearly see the significance that the independence or the state bears.
M.C.: In that sense, we can say that apart from the strategic errors, without the Battle of Imphal, theIndian independence would have never been accomplished, can’t we?
Pema: That is perfectly correct.
Sarker: We must not forget here that it was Behari Bose that made the Indian National Army or at least
laid its foundation. If Behari Bose had not started to organize the Indian National Army prior to
Chandra Bose, Chandra Bose cannot have achieved the formation of the Indian National Army all byhimself.
Pema: But Behari Bose was not very influential among the general Indian public. After laying thefoundation of the Indian National Army, next came the financial task of how to collect a huge sum ofmoney to maintain and arm the Army. That role was successfully carried out by Chandra Bose. When
Chandra Bose called for donations all over Asia, greatly impressed by his speeches, Indians living inSoutheast Asia eagerly responded to his call, rich people abundantly donating money and individuals
101unsparingly giving valuable accessories like gold bracelets they possessed. That was exactly due to
Chandra Bose’s charisma.
Behari Bose was well-informed and had organizational and clerical skills but did not have muchof charisma like Chandra Bose’s. So, Behari Bose called Chandra Bose to Japan and tried to make
Chandra his successor. This showed the greatness of Behari Bose as a man. He laid the foundation andretired from the role to hand the baton to the next fitter runner.
At my office, I still have CDs of Chandra Bose’s speeches. His speeches in English are excellent
and those in Bengali are equally moving, though I don’t understand Bengali. Even today, I get
encouraged and empowered listening to his recorded speeches.
Sarker: The relationship that started with the cultural exchange between India and Japan eventually
brought the independence of India through the cooperative fighting of the Japanese Army and theIndian National Army. I think here lies a miraculous history of Asia in the twentieth century. I
understand that Japan has had deep and intricate history and relationship with the neighboring Korean
Peninsula and China. And the history between Japan and India must also be correctly taught to thepeoples of Japan and India and Bangladesh and inherited by the future generations.

Conclusion“Program to foster 100,000 foreign students”
In 1984, I came to Japan as a foreign student to learn the Japanese language and culture under the
program to “foster 100,000 foreign students” during the Prime Minister Nakasone’s administration.
At that time, Bangladesh was under the Ershad military regime and in very unstable social
circumstances. Many university graduates went abroad to study or work. I was majoring in history in
my master’s course at the University of Chittagong. I quarreled with a history department professor
over his class and almost instantly I quit school. Then, as many Bangladeshi people did, I decided to
study in the United States, but I was somewhat hesitant to carry it out.
At such a time, I learned that Japan, a Buddhist country, was accepting foreign students and I wanted102

so much to go to Japan that even though it was against my late father’s wishes, I still came to study inJapan. Though my father wanted me to study in the United States, after I decided to go to Japan, he
wholeheartedly wished me good luck for my studies in Japan and advised me to learn about JusticePal.

The encounter with Professor Azuma Kazuo
I came to Japan and entered a Japanese language school and immediately liked the country. People areso polite and kind and everywhere you go, the environment is always kept clean. With the country
being so completely different from my homeland Bangladesh, I came to feel wonder and respect
toward Japan.
By 1987, I got quite used to living in Japan and at that time, I met Professor Azuma Kazuo of Tsukuba
University for the first time at an event held at the Bangladeshi Embassy. Professor Azuma and hiswife Keiko were both scholars on Tagore. Mr. and Mrs. Azuma always invited me to their house anddiscussed with me the cultural exchanges between Tagore and the Japanese people. I did not know that
Tagore visited Japan many times and felt fascinated by the history of the exchange between Tagore
and the Japanese.
In the Bengali society, some intellectuals knew about the contacts between Japanese and Bengalese,but such a history was hardly known to the general public. From the time when I was a student at the
University of Chittagong, I had been contributing articles to magazines and newspapers and wanted
to convey the fascination I felt to other Bengalese.
Immediately after I came to Japan, I was so much charmed by the beautiful Japanese newspapers andmagazines displayed at bookstores that I really wanted to learn the printing and publishingtechnologies. With the helpful introduction of Japanese friends, I got employed at several printing
companies and learned silk printing, offset printing, printing plate processing and proofreading,
together with the self-taught DTP (desktop publishing).
Late in the 1980s, the number of migrant workers from Bangladesh increased and I thought ofpublishing a magazine for those Bangladeshi workers living in a different Japanese environment awayfrom home without much pleasure or information, using my own experiences living in Japan. In 1991,
I published an informative magazine in Bengalese titled Machitro. At first, I had serious financial
difficulties, but luckily was able to obtain advertisement from ITJ (International Telecom Japan Inc.),
predecessor of SoftBank, which enabled me to publish the magazine monthly on a regular basis. For
several years prior to the last issue, the magazine became seasonal, but the publication continued until
1032002.

The encounter with Mr. Tanaka Masaaki
I worked from 1998 to the middle of 2002 at a printing company. There were many books on the
shelves of the company. Around 1999, while I was looking at books, I came across a book titled Dr.
Pal’s Theory of Non-guilty Japan written by Mr. Tanaka Masaaki. Glancing through the pages, I
realized the book was about Justice Pal, the person my father had mentioned when I was about to leave
for Japan. I asked the company president for the permission to borrow the book and he allowed me totake it with me.
As the book was written in Japanese, I could not understand it well, but I read it as hard as I could.
When I went to the president again to return the book, he said, “Don’t you want to meet Mr. Tanaka
Masaaki, the author?” I said, “Yes, I do!” Then he said, “There is Mr. Tanaka’s phone number in theauthor’s profile at the back of the book. Why don’t you call him up?” It is unthinkable now, but thebook was old and there they were, Mr. Tanaka’s address and telephone number. Although I hardly
expected to speak to Mr. Tanaka in person, with little expectation, I dialed his number and there hewas! Mr. Tanaka answered the phone in person and told me to come over to his house.
Mr. Tanaka welcomed me, saying, “You are the only Bengali I met after Mujibur Rahman.” Mr. Tanaka
said that he liked Mujibur Rahman and took me to his bedroom to show the picture of Mujibur Rahman
standing at the pillowside. It was a photograph of Mujibur Rahman and Mr. Tanaka Masaaki shaking
hands taken on the occasion when Mr. Tanaka visited Bangladesh in 1972 and offered to invite Mujibur
to Japan.
I was moved by the precious picture and asked if I could borrow it for copying. Mr. Tanaka gladly
accepted my request and took the frame off. There, an identical photo appeared, and Mr. Tanaka said,“Oh, you are lucky! You can keep this.” So, he gave me the precious photo.
Then, Mr. Tanaka said to me, “You had better study the Nanjing Incident from now on,” and gave mea copy of his book Summary of the Nanjing Incident: 15 proofs for denying the massacre, signing his
name on the book for me.
On that wonderful occasion, Mr. Tanaka told me a lot about Justice Pal and Mr. Shimonaka Yasaburo.
Then, I did not know Mr. Shimonaka Yasaburo, but I knew that the company I worked for was a
subsidiary to Heibon-sha. Mr. Tanaka told me that Mr. Shimonaka Yasaburo established Heibon-sha
company. And I was very much impressed by this fateful connection, that I worked for a subsidiary of104

Heibon-sha of Mr. Shimonaka Yasaburo. In my heart I felt sure that my father introduced me to Mr.
Tanaka.

My sincere wish that the Japanese achievements be widely known in my home country
After my lucky encounter with Mr. Tanaka, I endeavored to study Justice Pal and the Tokyo Trials andthrough my friend Rophikle Alom, I came to get acquainted with Ms. Tojo Yuko, granddaughter of theformer Prime Minister Tojo Hideki. Ms. Tojo taught me, in depth, about the Tokyo Trials, Justice Pal,
former Prime Minister Tojo, Behari Bose, Subhas Chandra Bose and Yasukuni Shrine.
Before I came to Japan, I did not know Behari Bose. Although I knew Subhas Chandra Bose, I was
not aware of his relationship with Prime Minister Tojo Hideki and Japan. Examining these events inhistory, I was simply flabbergasted to learn that it was Japan that paved the way for Asia, including
India, to become independent and that Japan achieved the feat at an enormous cost on her part.
Eventually, I came to think that in the Indian and Bangladeshi history textbooks, we should state thefact that Japan greatly contributed to the independence of India and thank Japan on the state level.
Sincerely hoping that people in Bangladesh and India know the facts, I have introduced Japaneseculture and history and exchanges between the Japanese and the Bengalese in three-volume series
titled Japan We Know and We do not Know (in Bengalese, only first volume both in Bengalese andJapanese).
It is a great honor this time that I was given the opportunity to introduce the history of exchanges
between the Bengalese and the Japanese in the Japanese language. To younger generations who do notknow the War, I would like to convey the sincere gratitude I feel as an Asian and Bengali and I willcontinue to study the history and to disseminate it far and wide.
Last but not least, I sincerely thank you, the late Professors Azuma Kazuo and Azuma Keiko, Mr.
Tanaka Masaaki and Ms. Tojo Yuko. May you all rest in peace.
And my deepest gratitude to you, Professor Pema Gyalpo, Mr. Miura Kotaro and Mr. Nishiyama
Yoshihiko of the editing department of Heart Publishing for your great assistance in completing thisbook.
For 36 years since I came to Japan, I was greatly helped by many Japanese and Bengalese. I would
like to express my heart-felt gratitude to all of you. Last year, I turned 60, Kanreki as you say inJapanese, the age to be reborn. I always feel in the bottom of my heart that thanks to all of you, I have105

become what I am today.
Probir Bikash Sarker

Bibliography (in order of quotation in the book)* Prime Minister Abe’s address “Confluence of the Two Seas” at the Indian Parliament, the websiteof the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan* Swami Vivekananda Chicago Speeches, Vedanta Society of Japan
https://arunshanbhag.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/vivekananda_chicagospeech.pdf* Okakura Tenshin, Ideals of the East
* Okakura Tenshin, The Awakening of the East106

* Azuma Kazuo, Tagore, Kodan-sha.
* Hara. Kayo, Indian Independence Fighters and the Japanese People, Tenden-sha.
* Rash Behari Bose, Struggle for Independence, Showa-shobo, 1942.
* Azuma Kazuo, The World of Tagore, Daisan Bunmei-sha.
* Souma Kokko, A Note on Rash Behari Bose, from Pan-Asianism, Chikuma-shobo.
* Rash Behari Bose, The Victory of the Youthful Asia, Heibon-sha.
* A. M. Nair, An Indian Freedom Fighter in Japan, Futo-sha.
* Rash Behari Bose, Bose Exclaims, Seiun-do.
* Inagaki Takeshi, Revolutionary Chandra Bose, Shincho-sha.
* Address by Tojo Hideki at the Greater East Asian Conference.
* Address by Chandra Bose at the Greater East Asian Conference.
* The Greater East Asia Declaration.
* Subhas Chandra Bose, The Path to Independent India, Introduction by Oukawa Shumei, Prosperous
Asian Headquarters of Imperial Rule Assistance Association.
* Joint Study: The Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal, Vol. I, II, compiled by Tokyo Trials Study
Society, Kodan-sha, Gakujutsu-bunko.

107

Profile: Probir Bikash Sarker
Mr. Probir Bikash Sarker was born in 1959 in the Comilla District of Bangladesh andgraduated from the History Department of the University of Chittagong.
While studying at the university, Mr. Sarker was interested in the history of Japan, which led
Asian countries to become independent through the Pacific War. He came to Japan in 1984
through “the program to invite 100,000 foreign students to study in Japan” during Prime
108

Minister Nakasone’s administration. While studying at a Japanese language school, hemarried a Japanese woman and has lived in Japan since then.
Mr. Sarker has studied Japanese printing technology and publishing business. He published
for the first time in Japan a Bengali information magazine “Monthly Machitro” (1991-2002)
and was an editor-in-chief of a Bengali children’s newspaper “Monthly Kishorchitro” (20072014).
Through his life in Japan for over 35 years, he wrote a trilogy titled Jana Ojana Japan,
introducing Japanese culture, customs and history to Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, as
well as many other books. He is a scholar on Tagore, publisher, editor, writer and court
interpreter in Japanese.
At present, he is a director at the Asian Solidarity Council for Freedom and Democracy anda research fellow at the South Asia Study Center of Gifu Women’s College.

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