The poor economic conditions faced by the Indians contributed to the low morale in the ranks of the INA. To further complicate matters, news of the 1944 Imphal disaster had made its rounds amongst the INA troops as well, contributing to their sense of hopelessness. Many of the INA soldiers had also begun to believes that the Japanese would soon be defeated by the allied forces. As such, they were reluctant to obey instructions to serve the Japanese forces. During this period, the number of civilians who volunteered to be part of the INA declined greatly as well. In December 1944, only a mere 560 civilians became part of the INA. At that point “there were already 2000 deserters at large in Malaya, and 200 men were disappearing from training camps every month”.