A Long Won Forgotten Frontier- Kohima and Imphal

Kohima, a town nestled in the hills, now the capital of Nagaland, is always bustling with activity, from people getting fruits and vegetables from the neighboring villages to the bustling tourist vehicle taking people to all the different tourist spots in the area. But the most important of all is the Kohima war cemetery, made in order to protect the few remains of those who fought a forgotten battle at a forgotten frontier of India. Who knows that the most decisive battles of the far-east of the Second World War could have happened in a place like Kohima/Imphal.

In 1944, under the code name U-Go,the Japanese and the INA (Indian National Army) launched an invasion into India through Kohima and Imphal. Their objective was to take over the supply dump at Dimapur, enter the Brahmaputra valley, and root out the British out of India. But, during this time, the tide had turned towards the allied side, but for the allies, countering the thick and dense forests of eastern India and Burma was still not so easy. On their retreat from Burma, they had been humiliated in the worst of things, with a disease afflicted army of troops, and a year long stalemate, by which time they had to be prepared for the inevitable, which never happened.

When the Japanese attacked Imphal in March by crossing into India through Moreh, the British had been outwitted at that point. Many lessons about the Japs had still not been learnt. The Japs also were not prepared for a long siege against the allies. By April, the Japanese had surrounded Imphal, while the siege for Kohima had just begun. During the siege of Kohima and Imphal, Indian soldiers fought valiantly for both sides, though most of them fought for the Raj, while a few of them went to the INA under Subhash Chandra Bose. The battles on both the places was won by the troops of the Raj, but was forgotten almost entirely, as it came to be overshadowed by the D-day landings at Normandy, France, which was the largest seaborne landing ever made in the history of mankind.

Much of the tale about both the battles has been truly forgotten to an extent that much of the population of this country would never have known as if a battle of such an extent ever happened in our history. During the battle, it was noted that the Indian troops were not fighting for their own country, but for the Raj, who were their only paymasters, who gave them a salary much less than their British counterparts, but still remained loyal for the sake of honor of their own paltans and regiments, which still remains till date in every regiment of the Indian army. They were fighting an enemy they were not much acquainted to, nor to the thick jungles of the northeast, prone to a variety of diseases, such as malaria, dysentery, etc. Still, under all odds, they fought what the British called "one of the toughest enemy ever faced in history".

Still, they have long been forgotten, with no credit given to soldiers who fought in these parts for God and Country. Most of those who know about it, only credit the INA, for their indomitable spirit & patriotic fervor for trying to free their motherland, India. But what of the troops who fought for the Raj, who never got recognition, fought without many basic amenities, under the worst conditions of the tropical jungles of the east, battled many different diseases, such as malaria, dysentery, jaundice, etc., and achieved all objectives, to protect the famed colony of the Raj?

Nevertheless, a time may come when they will be honored in a much spirited way, and the Kohima epitaph, inscribed at the very same cemetery, may be taken with much more fervor, as it may be read:
When you go home,
Tell them of us,
And say,
For your tomorrow,
We gave our today.