Death of Subhas Chandra Bose

Subhas  Chandra Bose is supposed to have died from third degree burns from the plane crash in Japanses occupied Formisa (i.e. modern day Taiwan) on 18 August, 1945. However, this fact is not accepted, especially in Bengal. Conspiracy theories abound about the true nature of Netaji death.

 

The Last Stand

During the last week of April 1945, Netaji and his senior INA officers, several hundred enlisted INA men and one hundred women, left Rangoon by road for Moulmein. Accompanied by Lt. General Saburo Isoda, the head of the Japanese-INA liaison organization Hikari Kikan, their Japanese military convoy was able to reach the right bank of the Sittang river. But, very few vehicles were able to cross the river because of American bomings. Netaji and his party walked the remaining 80 miles to Moulmein over the next week. Moulmein then was the terminus of the Death Railway, constructed earlier by British, Australian, and Dutch prisoners of war, linking Burma to Siam (i.e. modern day Thailand). At Moulmein, Bose's group was also joined by 500 men from the X-regiment, INA's first guerrilla regiment, who arrived from a different location in Lower Burma. Netaji stayed in Bangkok for a month, where soon after his arriva l he heard the news of Germany's surrender on May 8. Afterwards, for the next two months, i.e. June and July 1945, Netaji was in Singapore.

 

During the first two weeks of August 1945, events began to unfold very rapidly. With the British advancing down the Malay peninsula and with daily American aerial bombings, Netaji's physical presence in Malaya and Singapore was becoming riskier by the day, and his Chief of Staff J. R. Bhonsle suggested that he prepare to leave Singapore. On 3 August 1945, Bose received a cable from Gen. Isoda advising him to evacuate quickly to Saigon (i.e. modern day Ho Chi Minh City) in French Indochina (i.e. modern day Vietnam), which was still under Japanese administration.

 

On 9 August the Soviet invasion of Manchuria began and the Japanese Kwantung Army beat a quick retreat southward in their puppet state of Manchukuo, about which Bose was told on 10 August, and not much earlier he has heard about the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

Finally, on 16 August, after being informed of the unconditional surrender of Japanese armed forces to the Allied armies, Bose decided to leave for Saigon along with a handful of his aides.

 

Historian agree up to this point on the course of Netaji's life.

 

The Countdown Begins

Between 16 August, when Netaji received news of Japan's surrender in Singapore, and shortly after noon on 17 August, when Bose and his party arrived at Saigon airport from Saigon city to board a plane.

 

Version 1
Netaji flew out from Singapore to Saigon, stopping briefly in Bangkok, on the 16th. Soon after arriving in Saigon, he visited Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi, head of the Japanese forces in southeast Asia, and requested him to arrange a flight to Soviet Russia. Although until the day before, Russia had been a belligerent of Japan, it was also seen, at least by Netaji, as increasingly anti-British, and, consequently, a possible base of his future operations against the British Raj.

 

Terauchi, in turn, cabled Japan's Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ) in Tokyo for permission, which was quickly denied. He somehow managed to arrange room for Netaji on a flight leaving Saigon on the morning of 17 August, 1945 bound for Tokyo, but stopping en route in Dairen, Manchuria, which was still Japanese-occupied, but toward which the Soviet army was fast approaching, where Netaji was to have disembarked and to have awaited his fate at the hand of the Russians.

 

Version 2

Netaji left Singapore with his party on the 16th and stopped en route in Bangkok, surprising INA officer in-charge there, J. R. Bhonsle, who quickly made arrangements for Bose's overnight stay. Word of Netaji's arrival, however, got out, and soon local members of the Indian Independence League (IIL), the INA, and the Thai Indian business community turned up at the hotel. Netaji sat up half the night holding court and in the morning flew on to Saigon, this time accompanied by General Isoda. Arriving in Saigon, late in the morning, there was little time to visit Field Marshal Terauchi, who was in Dalat in the Central Highlands of French Indo-China, an hour away by plane. Consequently, Isoda himself, without consulting with higher ups, arranged room for Netaji on a flight leaving around noon.

 

The Plane Crash

Just as the bomber was leaving the standard path taken by aircraft during take-off, the passengers inside heard a loud sound, similar to an engine backfiring. The mechanics on the tarmac saw something fall out of the plane. It was the portside engine, or a part of it, and the propeller. The plane swung wildly to the right and plummeted, crashing, breaking into two, and exploding into flames. Inside, the chief pilot, copilot and General Shidea were instantly killed. Rahman was stunned, passing out briefly, and Netaji, although conscious and not fatally hurt, was soaked in gasoline.

 

When Rahman came to, he and Netaji attempted to leave by the rear door, but found it blocked by the luggage. They then decided to run through the flames and exit from the front. The ground staff, now approaching the plane, saw two people staggering towards them, one of whom had become a human torch. The human torch turned out to be Netaji, whose gasoline-soaked clothes had instantly ignited.

Rahman and a few others managed to smother the flames, but also noticed that Netaji's face and head appeared badly burned. A truck which served as ambulance rushed Netaji and the other passengers to the Nanmon Military Hospital south of Taihoku. The airport personnel called Dr. Taneyoshi Yoshimi, the surgeon-in-charge at the hospital at around 3 PM. Netaji was conscious and mostly coherent when they reached the hospital, and for some time thereafter. Netaji was naked, except for a blanket wrapped around him, and Dr. Yoshimi immediately saw evidence of third-degree burns on many parts of the body, especially on his chest, doubting very much that he would live. Dr. Yoshimi promptly began to treat Bose and was assisted by Dr. Tsuruta.

 

Soon, in spite of the treatment, Netaji went into a coma. A few hours later, between 9 and 10 PM (local time) on Saturday 18 August 1945, Subhas Chandra Bose, aged 48, was dead.