This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents referred to in this story are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner loosely based on real events. Any resemblance to actual persons or events are unintended and purely coincidental.
About the author
Ashish was born and raised in India. Over the years, his work in the technology sector has taken him to dozens of countries on five continents. His extensive travels and firsthand work experience in multiple countries have given him the opportunity to see several cultures from a unique vantage point. He enjoys writing fictional stories about the exceptional people and the fascinating places he has seen. Ashish currently resides in Northern California with his family.
For my parents, my brother, and my wife Roma.
1942: Shan treasures
Aung Lung was not happy. At barely twenty, he was still young, but he was already quite frustrated. Aung was deeply troubled by the Japanese occupation of Burma and the tacit approval of that occupation by its leaders. The tribal leaders seemed to welcome the Japanese even though their own people were against it. Aung thought the hill tribes of Northern Burma and his generation of youth deserved better.
Unfortunately, he was in the minority. After he completed his high school and intermediate college in Rangoon, he had hoped that he would go to that exclusive college in India where other Chaofa (Shan ruler) children went. He had even completed the entrance examination that was mandatory for that college. But his life went in a different direction. He was not happy because he was seeing his father and many of the other tribal leaders reading the political situation incorrectly and bowing to the Japanese. Collectively, the leaders of Burma were unable to understand that Japan would not win the war. Apparently, most of them loved Japan because it was an Asian power.
Of course, his father and the other leaders did not see it as “bowing.” They saw it as “cooperation” with the Japanese for liberating Burma from British rule. He often felt that his father was forgetting that his grandfather was the Chaofa of his Muang (kingdom). He could not imagine how a descendent of Khun Lung and Khun Lai could be a follower of the Japanese Imperial Army. Since he had failed to convince his father, Aung tried expressing his views to his brothers, cousins, and extended family. He even tried to remind them of their proud Shan heritage. Most of them were equally adamant. They would not even listen to Aung’s reasoning once, so the conversation could not even start.
Neighboring Thailand had chosen the Japanese side, and Aung thought that they could have influenced the Burmese leaders. He was shocked to see so many tribal leaders so inspired by the Japanese Imperial Army and its recent successes in the battles in Southeast Asia. It had a lot to do with that outspoken Japanese officer Suzuki. Aung had heard that Colonel Suzuki often called himself Bo Mogyo and claimed that he was connected with Myingun Min, the Burmese prince in exile.
Most of the elders had started believing in the concocted Minami Kikan stories of Burmese independence. They thought Suzuki’s “thirty comrades” would actually create a strong Burmese National Army that could have the capacity to stand up to the British. Aung could not pinpoint where that admiration was coming from. But he reasoned that it could be because of the recent Japanese wins against the British—everyone was surprised by Japan’s military prowess. Perhaps the leaders had seen those as Asians finally conquering mighty Europeans!
If the Japanese could defeat the British, so could the Shan or the Karens, just with a little help. Japanese support for the fledgling Indian National Army (INA) assembled with Indian Prisoners of War (POW) in the Malay Peninsula and other parts of South Asia was something the leaders would always use as an example to illustrate their point—as if that one isolated example meant everything in the context of Burma.
He had overheard his father present the case as, “Japan wants countries like India and Burma to be independent from British rule. Aren’t the Japanese going to go to Imphal and Kohima with the Indians? We know they are. Aren’t the Indians using the Japanese to get rid of the British? We know they are. If the Japanese can do it for India, they can do it for Burma too. After all, Japanese are Asians like us. Just like many of us here, Japanese are Buddhists too; they understand us.
“They would naturally want all Asian countries to be independent, outside European influence. I have to agree with Colonel Suzuki. It just makes a lot of common sense.”
The other tribal leaders around his father who were listening nodded their heads in agreement. Just by being Asians and Buddhists, the Japanese were suddenly trustworthy to most of the Burmese leaders! They suddenly understood the Burmese.
Aung was shocked. The Shan leaders were convinced that once independence was achieved, the Shan, Kachin, Lisu, and the other tribes would be well integrated into the Burmese society, and their homeland would see lasting peace, prosperity, and development. Aung knew that several Shan tribal leaders were visiting Rangoon often in their efforts to secure the future of their tribes under Japanese rule. Many of those leaders thought that the Japanese were in Burma to emancipate the Shan, Kachin, Karen, and Lisu people. It seemed that only a minority, like Aung, disagreed with that viewpoint. Aung did not have a problem with being in the minority. He was just mortified by the extent of brainwashing colonel Suzuki and his Minami Kikan team had done.
Aung had been told that Colonel Suzuki was personally involved in the military training of the Burmese National leaders in Japan. To Aung, that meant that Suzuki was serious about pushing the British out. It did not automatically mean that Colonel Suzuki was for Burma and its indigenous people. To Aung, he was not. He was looking after Japan’s interests, while telling the Burmese what they wanted to hear.
Aung himself was well read. He studied Japanese Imperialism with great interest because he was initially fascinated by the rising Asian power. His views on the Japanese approach started changing only after he studied the Japanese attacks and atrocities in China and Manchuria. Aung did not believe that the Japanese had any incentive in making Burma independent and training or supporting its armed forces.
In fact, if Burma became an independent country with a strong army of its own, it could become a problem for Japan. He thought the political views of the Shan leaders on the Japanese intent were naive. He knew that the Japanese Army occupied Burma mainly for its strategic location, oil, and minerals. Once they plundered the oil, rubies, sapphires, and jade, they would have no interest in Burma or the well-being of the Burmese. It did not matter to them.
Historically, the Japanese never occupied a country to help and emancipate its people—Aung could not think of one example. Aung’s indignation reached its peak when two weeks ago, he secretly saw his father handing over some of the treasured family heirlooms to that local Japanese major from Suzuki’s division. He was the local tribal liaison for Colonel Suzuki’s team. Aung had heard that the major’s goal was to bring the Shan Chaofas and other tribal leaders together.
Those treasures should not have been given away just because someone talked about Shan unity or showed fake respect to the Shan or even learned a few words of their Shan language. Aung asked his father, “Pho, you did not have to give away our family treasures to the Japanese. Those objects were symbols of our Shan cultural heritage. Money cannot buy those objects. The Japanese do not respect our heritage, but you are a leader—you have to. Grandma loved those two objects very much; she used to tell me so many stories about those objects.”
His father got very upset and responded, “I don’t have to take lessons on Shan culture from you, Aung. I do not need it. If you understood our Shan culture, you would have learned to talk to your elders with respect. You consider yourself wiser than you actually are. I think that school in Rangoon has made you very arrogant. I will do what I, and I alone, consider good for my tribe and my family.
“I gifted the Jade Buddha and the Jade marriage bowl to as tokens of goodwill for a good reason. Colonel Suzuki and Major Morita are trying very hard to unify the tribes of Northern Burma. For a strong and independent Burma, the tribes must unify—they cannot remain fragmented with