Chapter 874: Imphal

Even in the 21st century, Southeast Asia, especially the jungles of Burma, remains a largely undeveloped, pristine wilderness. And in early April of 1939, this place was almost no different from what it had been hundreds of thousands of years ago—a vast, primeval forest, rarely trodden by man.

Yet, in these recent days, the jungle was unusually bustling. A torrential downpour had just passed yesterday, and the slippery ground was covered in decaying leaves and damp, rotting tree roots. A monkey would probably sprain its ankle on such terrain, let alone a human.

A sallow-faced, emaciated man of Asian descent pushed aside the large leaves blocking his view and stared with listless eyes at the lush, green ridge on the other side. There was nothing here but an endless sea of trees. Anyone would be tormented by the constantly repeating scenery, eventually collapsing in a deserted corner to die a painful, lonely death.

From his attire, this was a Japanese soldier. On his head was a standard-issue Japanese army helmet, the yellow five-pointed star on it looking very worn. Tucked inside the helmet were the two standard-issue ear flaps, these things that resembled “butt flaps” were the “nape curtains” on a Japanese army cap, a small Japanese characteristic.

What these flaps were for was a matter of much debate. The more reliable explanations were to prevent shrapnel from injuring the neck and to drive away mosquitoes… As for the claim that they were for the Emperor’s blessing, that was complete nonsense. Although the Japanese believed in ghosts and gods and had truly done things like believing themselves to be invulnerable, the idea of pasting couplets next to their ears to ward off evil was probably too far-fetched.

But leaving aside what these two characteristically Japanese pieces of cloth were for, the Japanese soldier before them, apart from the helmet on his head, had no other distinct Japanese military features.

He was almost naked from head to toe, carrying a standard-issue Japanese Type 38 rifle with a bayonet fixed. The belt around his waist was loose and sagging, with nothing on it but a few ammunition pouches.

Pushing aside the branches and leaves blocking his path with his hand, this Japanese soldier mechanically moved his legs forward, stumbling as he continued to walk. Behind him followed one after another of sickly-looking Japanese soldiers. They marched silently on a pathless path, without even the strength to speak.

The Japanese 15th Army had hastily prepared and launched the Battle of Imphal. The 15th Army’s commander, Mutaguchi, had even boasted that he would, with the fastest possible speed, defeat the British forces in India and control the Indian Ocean.

Before this campaign began, in the 15th Army’s headquarters, Mutaguchi, as the commander, would gather all the officers and men of the headquarters every morning to deliver a long-winded speech. The most frequent thing he said in his ramblings was: “If this Imphal operation is not successful, and I cannot be promoted to a full general in the army, I will never return to Japan.”

Of course, apart from this unparalleled determination, this general could not produce anything else of substance for his subordinates. If Freericks, the logistics officer-turned-commander of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, was known as the “materiel reserve division commander,” then this Lieutenant General Mutaguchi could be said to be a true logistics supply killer—a killer of his own logistical supply.

Based on his experience gained from a path of burning, killing, and looting in China, he felt that his troops could live off the land along the way and did not need to worry about logistical supply problems. And so, before the rainy season arrived in March, he had urged his troops to set off, dreaming of conquering India, and had embarked on a tourist route to Imphal to scare the British to death.

The British really had no way to fight the Japanese in the Burmese jungle. Their forces were insufficient, and they couldn’t win—so Mountbatten, without a second thought, had abandoned the Chinese army, which was fighting alone, to cover the British rear, and had fled all the way back to the Imphal headquarters.

The Chinese forces, unable to hold on their own, had also chosen a strategic retreat, giving up some of the areas leading to Imphal. And so, the Japanese army, which had achieved a phased victory, had advanced with a triumphant song, charging towards an Imphal that seemed already destined to be theirs.

The script that Mutaguchi had outlined was originally like this: the Japanese army would pass through the “familiar” tropical rainforest of Burma at a relatively high speed, and then suddenly appear before the unprepared British army, launch a surprise attack on Imphal and succeed, and the mountains of supplies there would then allow the 15th Army to be revitalized, making the capture of India not a difficult matter.

However, on the 15th day after the campaign had broken out, that is, when the Japanese army had traveled two-thirds of the way through the entire Burmese tropical rainforest, their supplies had run out. Because of a heavy rain, many of the animals they had been driving as rations had been lost on the dense forest paths, and the rest had been consumed by a hundred thousand hungry mouths.

And so, despair began to set in. In the areas the troops passed through, the men did not even spare the tree bark and wild grass. Many suffered from malnutrition and contracted malaria, dysentery, and cholera. The combat effectiveness of the troops plummeted like a waterfall. Typhoid, the most taboo disease for an army, also began to break out and spread throughout the entire Japanese force.

The frontline units saw that if things continued to develop like this, they would all be buried in this Burmese tropical rainforest before they even reached Imphal. So they had no choice but to send a telegram to the 15th Army headquarters requesting support.

The 33rd Division’s plea for help was tearful and tragic: “Our army has run out of food. We hope Your Excellency, General, can allocate supplies in time, otherwise the entire unit is in danger of being wiped out.”

The result was that after receiving the telegram from the frontline Japanese troops requesting food replenishment, Lieutenant General Mutaguchi simply did not believe what his subordinates were saying. He replied as follows: “The Japanese have been a grass-eating people since ancient times. You are surrounded by such a dense jungle, and you report a lack of food? What is this all about!”

As the Japanese army approached Imphal, the British defense line, strengthened by Indian troops and some American forces, appeared before them. The battle then broke out. After fighting for a day, the Japanese army, due to a lack of ammunition, had to give up the idea of a one-battle victory.

The 31st Division’s commander, Sato, requested a resupply of ammunition and food, but was refused by the 15th Army headquarters. A despairing Sato, with the remnants of his 31st Division, violated military orders and retreated, opening the prelude to the complete collapse of the entire Japanese army.

In response to the frequent telegrams from his troops using lack of supplies as an excuse to trouble him, and even Sato’s 31st Division’s blatant disregard for orders and unauthorized retreat, Mutaguchi summoned all the personnel of his headquarters for a lecture.

He stood before everyone and, in a voice he considered very powerful, rambled on to his subordinates: “Gentlemen, Division Commander Sato has violated military orders and has arbitrarily abandoned the Kohima front. Because he could not fight without food, he arbitrarily retreated. Can such a person still be called a soldier of the ‘Imperial Army’? A soldier of the ‘Imperial Army’ must continue to fight even if he has no food.”

Seeing his subordinates listless due to a lack of nutrition, the halfway-through-his-speech Mutaguchi became even more furious. He waved his arm to rally them. “You can’t fight a war without weapons, ammunition, and food? This can never be a legitimate reason… If you have no bullets, don’t you still have a bayonet? If you have no bayonet, you still have your fists. If you have no fists, you can use your feet to kick. Even if all of these are gone, can’t you still use your teeth to bite… Do not forget the Yamato spirit that a Japanese man should have! Japan is a divine land. The gods will surely protect us…”

The result was that because Mutaguchi’s lecture was too long, after about an hour and a half, some of the malnourished officers successively collapsed due to cerebral anemia. The entire lecture thus came to nothing, and the attack on Imphal could only continue with a stiff upper lip.

Starving, without ammunition… the Japanese, a year after the start of the war, in the Battle of Imphal in Burma, finally experienced how the Chinese army had faced a strong enemy. The British opposite them were eating curry and steak, firing fiercely from their machine gun bunkers at the charging Japanese. And with every step the Japanese advanced, someone would fall from hunger.

As the battle progressed, whether they could take Imphal was still unknown. But even if the Japanese 15th Army were to capture it, they would probably no longer have the ability to launch a new offensive.

What’s more, near the Japanese rear transport and supply line, which had been completely submerged by floods and mudslides, there were still tens of thousands of soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force wandering about. Although they did not know for what reason they had given up their defense line, they could not let the Japanese army feel completely at ease about their rear. Who knew when the Chinese Expeditionary Force would head south and cut off those few goat paths, plunging the entire 15th Army into a state from which there was no recovery.

In the end, gritting their teeth and holding on until yesterday, the Japanese army finally received a telegram from the high command: “Begin to execute Operation ‘U’. Advance in another direction to Burma, to wipe out all invading enemies!” Everyone knew that the so-called “advance in another direction” was just self-deception. This was a complete and utter rout.

The 33rd Division, which had held on to the very end, completely collapsed. Under the British counter-attack, they fled in disarray. The facts proved that even the British forces, which had been easily kneaded and flattened by the German army, still had a fighting chance against the Japanese. Of course, the American forces that had been reinforced at Imphal also played an important role.

The 15th Division also gave up its attack and fled for its life, throwing down its helmets and armor as it retreated. They even abandoned the tanks they had originally treasured, leaving these precious things on the side of the road, hastily burning them.

And so, the scene at the beginning of the chapter appeared. The Japanese soldiers, with their wounded, walked painfully on the road of their defeat. They walked dejectedly towards the place where they had started. From time to time, someone would just fall down, and then roll into the distance, never to be seen again. The rest looked on numbly as their comrades fell, without even the strength to try and save them.

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