Burma National Army The Burma National Army ( ; ) served as the armed forces of the Burmese government created by the Japanese during World War II and fought in the Burma Campaign . It was originally organized by , and fought alongside the Imperial Japanese Army , but later changed sides and fought alongside the Allies . Formation . In 1940 , Japanese military interest in Southeast Asia increased , because the British were overtly providing military assistance to Nationalist China against which Japan was fighting in the Second Sino - Japanese War . In particular , they were sending war materials via the newly opened Burma Road . Colonel Suzuki Keiji , a staff officer at the Imperial General HQ in Japan , was given the task of devising a strategy for dealing with Southeast Asia . He produced a plan for clandestine operations in Burma , which was then a British colony . The Japanese knew little about Burma at the time and had few contacts within the country . The top Japanese agent in the country was Naval Reservist Kokubu Shozo , who had been resident there for several years and had contacts with most of the anti - British political groups . Suzuki visited Burma secretly in September 1940 , meeting with political leaders Thakin Kodaw Hmaing and Thakin Mya . The Japanese later made contact with a Burmese student activist in China named Aung San . Aung San had left Burma in 1940 and had entered China in an attempt to make contact with communists in the country . He reached Amoy , where he was detained by Suzuki . Suzuki and Aung San flew to Tokyo . After discussions at Imperial General HQ , it was decided to form an organisation named Minami Kikan , which was to support Burmese resistance groups and to close the Burma Road to China . In pursuing those goals , it would recruit potential independence fighters in Burma and train them in Thailand or Japanese - occupied China . Aung San and the first Thirty Comrades were trained on Hainan Island . Another early recruit was Bo Ne Win . Thakin Tun Oke was selected to be a political administrator and organizer when the group entered Burma . Suzuki assumed the Burman name , " Bo Mo Gyo " for his work with Minami Kikan . Actions of the Burma Independence Army . On 7 December 1941 , Japan attacked the United States and Britain . On 28 December , at a ceremony in Bangkok , the Minami Kikan was declared dissolved and the Burma Independence Army was formed in its place . The BIA initially numbered 227 Burmese and 74 Japanese . Some of the Burmese soldiers were second - generation residents in Thailand , who could not speak Burmese . The BIA formed several small units which were assigned to participate in the invasion of Burma in January 1942 , initially as intelligence - gatherers , saboteurs and foragers . As the Japanese entered Burma , many Burmese volunteers joined the BIA . By the time the Japanese forces reached Rangoon on 8 March , the BIA numbered 12 , 000 , and eventually swelled to 18 , 000 . Many of the volunteers who joined the BIA were not officially recruited , but rather individuals or gangs who took to calling themselves BIA to further their own activities . The Japanese provided few weapons to the BIA , but they armed themselves from abandoned or captured British weapons . Battle of Shwedaung . One action in which the BIA played a major part was at Shwedaung , near Prome , in Southern Burma . On 29 March 1942 , a detachment from the British 7th Armoured Brigade commanded by Brigadier John Henry Anstice was retreating from nearby Paungde . Another detachment of two Indian battalions was sent to clear Shwedaung , which lay on Anstice ' s line of retreat and was held by the II Battalion of the Japanese 215th Regiment , commanded by Major Misao Sato , and 1300 men belonging to the BIA under Bo Yan Naing , one of the Thirty Comrades . Two Japanese liaison officers named Hirayama and Ikeda accompanied the BIA . With Anstice ' s force and the Indian troops attacking Shwedaung from two sides , the roadblocks were soon cleared , but a lucky shot from a Japanese anti - tank gun knocked out a tank on a vital bridge and forced the British to retreat across open fields where Bo Yan Naing ambushed them with 400 men . Eventually the British and Indian force broke free and continued their retreat , having lost ten tanks , two field guns and 350 men killed or wounded . The BIA ' s casualties were heavy ; 60 killed , 300 wounded , 60 captured and 350 missing , who had deserted . Hirayama and Ikeda were both killed . Most of the BIA ' s casualties resulted from inexperience combined with over - enthusiasm , and lack of equipment . Though Burmese political leader Ba Maw and others eulogised the BIA ' s participation in the battle , the official Japanese history never mentioned them . Inter - communal fighting . Some units were involved in attacks on minority populations ( particularly the Karen s ) and preyed on Indian refugees . The worst atrocities against the Karens in the Irrawaddy Delta south of Rangoon cannot however be attributed to dacoits or unorganised recruits in that rather they were the actions of a subset of regular BIA and their Japanese officers . The top leadership did eventually stop the actions against the Karens in the delta . Disputes between the BIA and the Japanese military police , the kempeitai were not related to the BIA ' s excesses against civilians however , but rather were over the BIA ' s attempts to form local governments in various towns in Burma . The Japanese intended to form an administration on their own terms . The first such dispute had been over the administration of Moulmein . The Japanese 55th Division had flatly refused Burmese requests to form an administration in the town and even forbade them to enter the town . Establishment of the Burma National Army . After operations ceased in the spring of 1942 , the BIA was disbanded . In its place , the Japanese created the Burma Defence Army ( Burmese : ဗမာ့ကာကြယ္ေရးတပ္မေတာ္ ) along with civil organisations designed to guide Burma toward nominal independence . A new force of 3 , 000 men were recruited and trained by Japanese instructors as regular army battalions during the second half of 1942 . In August 1943 , the State of Burma was granted nominal independence by Japan . Ba Maw , a politician imprisoned by the British before the war , became premier . Aung San became Minister of Defence in the new regime , and also Commander - in - Chief of the renamed Burma National Army , with the rank of Major General . The BNA eventually consisted of seven battalions of infantry and a variety of supporting units with a strength which grew to 11 , 000 . Most were from the majority Bamar population , but there was one battalion raised from the minority Karen people . Although Burma was nominally self - governing , it remained under Japanese military occupation . The resulting hardships and Japanese militaristic attitudes turned the majority Burman population against the Japanese . The insensitive attitude of the Japanese Army extended to the BNA . Even the officers of the BNA were obliged to salute the lowest - ranking privates of the Imperial Japanese Army as their superiors . Change of sides . During 1943 and 1944 , the BNA made contacts with other political groups inside Burma such as the communists who had taken to the hills in 1942 . Eventually , a popular front organisation called the Anti - Fascist Organisation ( AFO ) was formed with Thakin Soe , a founder of the communist party in Burma , as leader . Through the communists and a Japanese - sponsored force known as the Arakan Defence Army , the Burmese were eventually able to make contact with the British Force 136 in India . The initial contacts were always indirect . Force 136 was also able to make contacts with members of the BNA ' s Karen unit in Rangoon through agents dropped by parachute into the Karenni , the Karen - populated area in the east of Burma . In December 1944 , the AFO contacted the Allies indicating their readiness to launch a national uprising which would include the BNA . The situation was not immediately considered favourable for a revolt by the BNA by the British and there were internal disputes about supporting the BNA among the British . The British had reservations over dealing with Aung San . In contrast to Force 136 , some prominent Civil Affairs officials in South East Asia Command ( SEAC ) HQ wanted him tried for his pre - war activities , and for murder over a case in 1942 , in which he had personally executed a civilian of Indian ancestry . The first BNA uprising occurred early in 1945 in central Burma . In late March 1945 , the remainder of the BNA paraded in Rangoon and marched out ostensibly to take part in the battles then raging in Central Burma . Instead , on 27 March , they openly declared war on the Japanese . BNA units were deployed all over the country under ten different regional commands . Those near the British front - lines on or near the Irrawaddy River requested arms and supplies from Allied units operating in this area . They also seized control of the civil institutions in most of the main towns . Allied cooperation . Force 136 had issued Aung San along with others a safe pass , and on 15 May , he met with Lieutenant General William Slim commanding the British Fourteenth Army in Burma . Thakin Soe and Aung San hoped for the BNA to be accepted as allied forces and the Anti - Fascist Organisation to be acknowledged as the provisional government of Burma . Slim refused to accept the AFO as a government and insisted that the BNA submit to being disarmed by British forces in areas where the fighting was over . The AFO agreed to this in return for recognition as a political movement and promises that the officers and men of the BNA would be incorporated into the new Burma Army . The BNA was renamed the Patriotic Burmese Forces ( Burmese : မ်ဳိးခ်စ္ဗမာ့တပ္မေတာ္ ) , and cooperated in driving the Japanese from Southern Burma . Eventually , the AFPFL ( political party successor to the AFO ) was brought into the Civil Government of Burma . The PBF was disarmed after much negotiation and its personnel were recruited to form the basis for three new battalions of the reconstituted postwar Burma Army . Other ex - BPF / BNA soldiers were formed into Aung San ' s PVO party militia organisation . SEAC saw the alternative to cooperation with the AFPFL to be a difficult counterinsurgency campaign in Burma at a time when British troops were being withdrawn from Asia , and the Indian Army could no longer be counted on to impose British rule in places like Burma . The structures they put in place allowed the British a graceful exit from Burma but set the stage for insurgencies in 1947 and then a full civil war in Burma in 1949 .