MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN WAR ~ Looking Back
"When
you go home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today"
~ J.M Edmonds
Mr. Utpal Borpujari’s documentary on “Memories of a
Forgotten War” is a chilling reminder that war has cost us so many innocent
lives. The documentary takes us to a tour of the World War II which was fought
across the Eastern corridors of India.
In 1944 ,the North East was the entry
door to the Japanese armies to the then British occupied India, the latter
being a part of the Allied forces. However, the war was not only of the Axis
and the Allied forces. It was a queer war being fought. Japanese forces had
advanced to Imphal and Kohima and along with was the Indian National Army (INA)
founded by Subhash Chandra Bose. INA wanted India to be freed from the yokes of
the foreign tyranny. It was a decisive battle. The documentary shows at
Moirang, Manipur, a thatched hut which served the headquarters of INA, and
which was the place where the Tricolor of Free India was flown. We realize that
both Nagaland & Manipur had the association of direct conflict of World War
II like no other states in India. Memories are still alive amongst the
villagers. In this documentary one can see curious odd little things that the villagers
have collected: spoons, helmets. It was a poignant point in the movie where it
showed that from shell of a bomb, temple bell was made. It was such an ironic
twist of faith. A bomb which tore apart all faith in humanity tolls at the
temple hoping to bring back peace and faith in lives of people.
The documentary provided a rich
tapestry of accounts from all sources even after six decades of the war. Mr.
Borpujari travelled far and wide for this documentary. He met soldiers from the
Allied sides in United Kingdom, America & met the soldiers who fought for
Japan despite the latter’s deep hesitancy to talk about this subject. The
director also gets to meet soldiers from both side of the battle for a joint
commemoration of the Battle of Kohima. It is a historic moment for everyone
present there. Most were meeting each other for the first time after the battle
front. Memories of the war were relived and along with came deep respect. They
were octogenarians, their bodies battered from war and lives, but in their heart
they carried the goodwill & respect and it poured down as tears as the
soldiers who once fought against each other hugged. It was an emotional scene,
and we as viewers too, were moved to tears.
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| British War veteran Roy Welland (Right) and Japanese veteran Isobe Kiichi has fought each in WW I |
The war of Kohima & Imphal
claimed a heavy casualty. Of the 65,000
front-line troops, 30,000 were killed, 23,000 were wounded, and 600 were
captured; among the 50,000 support troops, there were 15,000 casualties. The
Allies only suffered 17,500 casualties in comparison [1]. Japanese
Army possibly suffered the greatest defeat, not because they were killed, but
starvation, bouts of diseases claimed more lives. There were running thin on
supplies. This battle is often referred to as the “Stalingrad of the East”
[2].
All of us watched the documentary with rapt attention.
The screening was organized by two distinguished faculties from IIM Shillong
Prof Natalie West Kharkongor & Prof Sanjeeb Kakoty. And we were fortunate
to have the director along with us during the entire screening of the
documentary. As the documentary winded with the video of the process of
extracting the debris of an American WWII plane from the remote hills of
Arunachal, it struck to us that many such remnants from that era still exists
in India esp. in Manipur & Nagaland unbeknownst of us , in some quaint hill
or under a slow stream. We were left speechless, with so much information, with
so much footage of the dark memories lingering. I realized the truth: that a
war is never fought by the soldiers, it is often fought by the politicians, and
it is only the soldiers who pay the price of their lives, and which was rightly
pointed out by an Indian Major in the documentary.
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| Renko-ji Temple, Tokyo |
The director also shared
with us,that during his shooting of this documentary in Tokyo, Japan, how he
was invited inside the Renkoji Buddhist temple where the remains of Netaji Subhash
Bose is kept in an urn and every day a priest prays to his name. As he was
speaking, I could feel the goose bumps inside and as I looked outside the window
it dawned on me, not far from here where I was sitting in a class in Shillong,
a historic battle was being fought between two nations, sixty four years ago
and the world was to see the horrors and untold misery of millions and millions
of people. As the quote in the beginning is an epitaph in the World War II
cemetery in Kohima reminds us of the sacrifice of those no more for a better
future. It is very pertinent on this
note that younger generations who have never seen such misery and death, learn from
the wisdom of the past and Mr. Borpujari’s documentary was perfectly timed to
remind us all of that. His eye of details and the extent of his work for
reliving these tales was unparalleled. I wish the entire student community
would have poured down to watch this documentary as not many documentaries are
there which holds your breathe and shakes you up from within, makes you cry
with the protagonist and also leaves you with
food for thought. I personally wish him all the best and pray many more such
thought provoking and meaningful documentaries come out from his deft hands.
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