The Taihoku mystery

http://www.thestatesman.net/news/79829-the-taihoku-mystery.html

There have been three enquiry commissions to investigate the truth, but their hearings were either inconclusive or their findings were rejected. And yet our governments have kept some secret files on Netaji as classified documents and this proves that he was a victim of an international conspiracy. For a variety of reasons, the Taihoku tale has Cut no ice ~ NIRMALENDU BIKASH RAKSHIT

Around 50 members of Netaji’s family recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with an appeal for declassification of the secret files concerning Netaji’s mysterious disappearance after 16 August 1945. They also wrote to the Prime Minister asking for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to unravel the truth behind his sudden exit. They claimed that there have been three enquiry commissions to investigate the truth, but their hearings were either inconclusive or their findings were rejected. 

It is well-known that the iconic leader was reportedly killed in an aircrash at Taihoku (Formosa) on 18 August 1945. However, Indians have found no convincing reason to believe it. After the fall of his allies ~ Germany, Japan and Italy ~ Netaji realised the futility of continuing the war from South-east Asia. He wanted to go to the Soviet Union to seek its help in his struggle for freedom and sought to reach Dairen where the Soviet troops had already reached.

We do not know whether the Japanese authorities in Saigon had accepted his proposal. But on 16 August, they offered a seat to Netaji in a Tokyo-bound plane, and after considerable pressure they provided another seat to Col Habibur Rahman to accompany Netaji. The other associates of Netaji ~ Guljara Singh, Pritam Singh, Devnath Das, SA Ayar and Abid Hussain ~ were left behind. Moreover, on 19 August the Japanese gave the assurance that one of them could be immediately brought to Netaji by air, and the others would get their seats in the next plane which would fly via Hanoi. Eventually Mr Ayar, a minister of the provisional government, boarded the first plane. But, during his journey, he came to know that Netaji had died on 10 August in an aircrash at Taihoku (S A Ayar, Azad Hind Fauz, p 97).

The mystery deepened in Saigon. Certain facts need to be noted:

* Had Netaji been killed in an aircrash on 18 August, then why on the 19th did the Japanese promise to take his five associates to Japan in order to meet him? What was the mystery behind it?

* According to Tokyo Radio (22 August 1945), his plane crashed in Taihoku air field at 12 noon on 18 August. He was under treatment in “a hospital in Japan where he died at midnight”. But on 25 August, Taiwan ~ Sin-Pau, the Taihoku newspaper, announced that Netaji had died in a local hospital. So, where exactly did he perish?

* The radio news bulletin was actually prepared by Mr Ayar, but he was not present at the spot of the aircrash. Was he on the staff of the radio network? Then the question survives as to why, four days after Netaji’s reported death, the draft of the bulletin needed the help of Mr Ayar’s pen?

* Neither his death certificate nor the municipal record of his cremation could be produced before any investigating authority. Even the photograph of the body has not been available. Only a Japanese, named Ichiro Okura died on that day in Taihoku hospital.

* Habibur Rahman, after returning to India, sought to popularise the Taihoku tale. But he too did not find Netaji’s body. He reportedly lost consciousness after the aircrash and, in the meantime, Netaji was cremated. Mahatma Gandhi did not believe the story of Taihoku and he rebuked Habibur for his deliberate falsehood.

* The British and American detectives found no solid proof of Netaji’s death in the aircrash. According to American experts, “Habib’s report is unsatisfactory” (C-5, Intelligence Bureau). Perhaps the news was circulated in accord with Netaji’s own plan so that he could do his job from the underground (main file No. 10 Mis., INA p 273). Even Lord Wavell, the Viceroy, did not believe it. He wrote on 24 August in his diary, “I wonder if the Japanese announcement of Subhas Chandra Bose’s death in an aircrash is true. I suspect it very much (Viceroy’s Journal, p 164). He again wrote on 22 September, “According to the Japs of Singapore, S C Bose is definitely dead, but I shall be sceptical till further information (Ibid p 174). Even Lord Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy, told Mr N S Gore, the Indian High Commissioner in Britain, in 1978 that “there is no official record of Subhas Chandra Bose’s death in an aircrash” (Samar Guha ~ The Country Must Know What Happened to Netaji, p 9).

* In a letter to J A Thibi on 17 August, Netaji wrote ~ “Who knows an accident may not overtake me?” The question survives ~ Why on the eve of his disappearance, did he apprehend the probability of an aircrash? Was mention of the accident a product of his own mind?

* On 24 October (67 days after the so-called aircrash),

S F Moodie, the home member of Viceroy’s Executive Council, wrote a note for London in which he considered the probable action to be taken against Netaji. The suggestions included (1) bringing him to India for trial; (2) punishing him wherever he was; and (3) raising him for trial in a friendly state. But, finally, he suggested, “Leave him where he is and don’t ask for his surrender” ~ (The Transfer of Power, vol. VI, p 107). This indicates that Netaji was at that time a captive in a friendly country and that the Taihoku tale was his brainchild. And yet Prime Minister Nehru stubbornly stuck to the Taihoku theory. On 5 March 1952, he told H V Kamath in the Lok Sabha that the death of Netaji at Taihoku was “settled without doubt”. But he had no proof of it, and hence, he wrote to Suresh Chandra Bose, Netaji’s brother, on 13 March 1962 ~ “I cannot send you any precise and direct proof”.

* He realised that the people did not believe the Taihoku story and, under tremendous pressure, he appointed an enquiry committee, headed by Shah Nawaz Khan, an officer of the INA. However, Radha Binod Pal, a Judge of the International Court, was eager to conduct an investigation into the matter. But, Nehru presumably did not like to unravel the truth.

* The witnesses made divergent and conflicting statements on every issue. But the committee, by its majority, accepted the Taihoku tale in order to serve Nehru’s personal interests. Suresh Chandra Bose, in his “Dissentient Report”, firmly set aside the Taihoku version and held that no such death had ever happened (p 143).

In his view, “The aircraft accident and the incidents subsequent to that did not take place and the evidence adduced thereon is concocted and false. Moreover, the ashes “may not be those of a human being at all” (main file No 10, Misc). For a variety of reasons, the Taihoku tale has cut no ice. As Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi appointed another enquiry commission under Mr Justice Khosla. It too accepted the Taihoku tale. But, once again, the witnesses gave irrelevant, divergent and confusing answers to every question. The issue remained shrouded in mystery. When the Janata Dal came to power in 1977, it summarily rejected both the reports as false and unacceptable. The Vajpayee Government appointed a new commission under Mr Justice Mukherjee. It trashed the aircrash theory and also disclosed that the Taihoku government had informed Nehru in 1956 that no such aircrash had occurred there in 1945. The Prime Minister had hoodwinked his countrymen by suppressing this crucial information.

Dr Purabi Roy has collected some evidence which suggests that Netaji was in Russia long after 1945 and, according to Dr S Singh, a former MP, Netaji was found in a Soviet jail. Yet our governments have kept some secret files on Netaji as classified documents and this proves that he was a victim of an international conspiracy.

The writer is a former Reader, New Alipore College, Kolkata