Wartime in Burma: A Diary, January to June 1942

Appendix: An Eyewitness Account of U Sein Tin's Death

Appendix AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF U SEIN TIN’S DEATH The following is a translation of the short eyewitness account of U Sein Tin’s death that U Hla added as an appendix to his 1966 book about the life and work of the writer. The printing of this book had already been completed when a friend arrived who was able to give a full account of what had happened at the Ga-da rest house. It seems that the informant was himself present at the event and was closely associated with U Sein Tin. U Sein Tin’s real interest lay in the promotion and advancement of Burmese literature. It would be true to say that he always worked toward this end. Compared with this, his other interests were minor. His greatest pleasure was in discussing Burmese literature with his friends. When he firstcametoShweiboonhisappointmentasdeputycommissionerin1939, every Sunday he would send his car to Mok-hso-chon village to fetch the famous scholar known as Awei-yauk Min, and they would spend from two in the afternoon till five in a leisurely discussion of Burmese history. On other days, after he came home from the office in the afternoon, he would rest for a while and then start writing. When he was out touring the district, he would spend the evenings in writing up accounts of all that he had encountered during the day. He spent little time in talk with members of his household. He would aim to finish with office matters in the morning so that he could devote the time after he came home to his writing. He might play a little golf in the afternoons when he came to Shweibo, but when he was not writing he was usually reading. 204 Appendix The place where he died is a small village called Ga-da, about ten miles from Kanbalu. After the group [of government servants] had been living quietly in the rest house of this little village for about a month, they got the news that the Japanese had moved into Kanbalu. The next day they sent a messenger to Kanbalu to find out how government servants would be treated and whether they would be caused any trouble. When they heard that everything was going well, U Sein Tin consulted his fellow officials about whether they would agree to join together to all travel down to Rangoon as a group. The others agreed that they should all move to Kanbalu in four or five days’ time and assess the situation further from there. U Sein Tin decided to go together with the rest. All through this time of fleeing the bombing and fighting and living as a refugee, he wrote his [War Diary] every day. Three days after the Japanese occupied Kanbalu, he was as usual writing his nightly journal and was still at it an hour after midnight. Between three and four in the morning, a gang of criminals surrounded the rest house on three sides and began firing upon it. Their shots were simply raining down on the building. The people in the rest house had been fast asleep; they had no way of escape and could only cower in their beds. U Sein Tin’s behavior in this crisis was very praiseworthy; he spoke encouragingly to the children, showing no sign of fear or panic, and told them not to be afraid. Calling them to follow, he carried the eldest of the little girls, Mei, out into the thick woodland behind the rest house. Anyone following would have been unable to see them in the darkness. Daw Khin Than Myint, her younger sister , Kyi Kyi, the children’s nurse with Maung Hmwei, and the baby stayed hiding in the bathroom. It began to get light sometime after five in the morning, and U San sent out one of his assistants with a white flag. With this the firing stopped and the bandits came into the rest house compound. There must have been fifty or sixty of them. The one who was acting as the leader, named Thet Tun, made everyone come down from upstairs and sit on the grass behind the house, men and women separately. He then questioned U Ba Than, the SDO. While this questioning was An Eyewitness Account of U Sein Tin’s Death 205 going on, U Sein Tin, anxious about having left all the women on their...