Discovering the lost souls of the WWII Battle of Imphal

The Battle of Imphal took place in 1944 while the former Imperial Japanese army occupied Burma, now Myanmar. When retreat became inevitable, a great number of soldiers lost their strength to starvation and illness — hence the road they retreated along became known as "Skeleton Road." Even today, the road is littered with the remains and belongings of those who perished there.

In the middle of February, I entered Chin State in the western part of Myanmar, which was used as part of Japan's military route and has been restricted to foreigners for quite a long time. We touched down in Kalemyo Airport and headed off toward the Indian border in a four-wheel-drive car. Halfway along Tiddim Road, which former Japanese soldiers traversed by foot, the road became unpaved from the middle, and even after 12 hours, our long journey had not yet ended.

There were many lost articles that belonged to Japanese soldiers in the villages that I visited. Inside the houses I found helmets, bayonets and even blackened mess kits. In the village of Mualkai, I visited the house of Nin Kwa Zam, 75, who said her father had been killed by Imperial Japanese soldiers. The room was dimly lit by a grenade that had been refashioned into a lamp.

"When the war ends, I'll come back," a Japanese soldier told Dorachi, 87, of Gikon Village, before leaving. The two never met again. While her eyes gaze off into the far distance, she talks of the love that she embraced during those days. I was relieved to hear that even at such a tragic battlefield, such a scene of youth could unfold.

I was reminded of a story I heard back in Japan before this visit, from a man who survived the same battle who said, "We had to eat to survive, so we had to cast away our guns and only carried our mess kits." I wondered if the owner of the mess kit that the villager was holding in her hands was sleeping somewhere along the "Skeleton Road." Seventy years have passed since then, but only regret for what was left behind comes to mind.

The battle of Imphal began in March 1944. The Japanese army aimed to capture an allied forces military base located in Imphal, which lies in the northeast part of India. Out of the 100,000 people that participated in the battle, 30,000 are thought to have perished and another 40,000 wounded. Despite insufficient rations, Japanese soldiers trekked over a steep mountain and battled British soldiers, but their lack of supplies became even more severe, and they lost the battle.

Malaria and dysentery ran rampant through the Japanese soldiers. The remains of numerous soldiers can still be seen along the road that they attempted to use to retreat into Burma. After the war, "The Battle of Imphal" has become a term used to describe a reckless strategy.