IMPHAL: The 70th anniversary of WW II Imphal battle was marked here last evening with Takeshi Yagi, Ambassador of Japan as Chief Guest.
Yagi speaking on the occasion said Indo-Japan ties have improved. He expressed gratitude towards Manipur government for maintaining the war memorial at Maibam Lotpa Ching, Bishenpur district.
Manipur Tourism Forum (MTF) and World War II Imphal Campaign Foundation will observe the anniversary till June 28.
Yagi along with the organisers visited Maibam Lotpa Ching war memorial and paid tributes to the soldiers, who died during the war.
Forum official said “in 1944 when the Japanese, along with Indian National Army (INA) units, launched Operation U Go, with its main objective of capturing Imphal, Manipur’s capital. The period from March to July of that year saw fierce fighting take place across the state.
About 1,20,000 men of the British Army on one side and 70,000 Japanese soldier on the other participated in the war.
Around 7,000 men from INA’s 1st Division which included Gandhi and Azad Brigades, part of the Subhash Brigade, as well as INA Special Groups attached to the Japanese Divisions fought against each other.
The fighting around Imphal, Kohima in Nagaland (known jointly as the Battle of Imphal-Kohima), was the turning point in the Burma Campaign of the Second World War.
It was at Imphal-Kohima that the Japanese invasion of India and march through Asia was stopped, with the British-led Allies subsequently driving them out of Burma in 1945.
The Japanese lost some 30,000 men in what was one of their single greatest military defeats.
British military historian Robert Lyman notes in his book, ‘Japan’s Last Bid for Victory’ that Imphal-Kohima battle was one of the four great turning-point battles of the Second World War. The battles at Stalingrad, El Alamein, and in the Pacific between the US and Japanese navies were the other three.
Two battlefield treks and a (non-WWII) walking tour called the ‘Imphal Walk’ will also be organised. (UNI)
