Wartime in Burma: A Diary, January to June 1942

Preface

Preface The Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7/8, 1941, made a single conflict, World War II, out of what had been two separate wars—Japan against China on the one hand, and Germany and its allies against Russia and Britain on the other— in which the United States had so far played no official part. Pearl Harbor made the American participation official. Japan now had a limited opportunity for establishing a power base in Southeast Asia, and made brilliant use of it. French Indochina had no power to resist; the defenses of Malaya were misconceived and did not last long; Siam found it prudent to join the victors; and by January, Tavoy in the south of Tennaserim had been occupied by the Japanese. Among those who felt themselves threatened by these developments was the author of this diary, U Sein Tin, a member of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and deputy secretary in the Ministry of Home and Defense Affairs in Rangoon. He reacted in two ways. First, he arranged for his wife, Daw Khin Than Myint, and their three small children to leave Rangoon for a place of safety in Prome—prudently, since his house was severely damaged in the first Japanese air raids on December 23–25. Second, he began to write a detailed daily account of his life in wartime Burma. Only a part of this journal, from January 5 to June 5, 1942, has survived. This was originally published in 1966, and a translation of it forms the body of this book. The first part of the diary, which he began writing on December 8 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and which consisted of some three hundred pages of foolscap, was lost when the family’s possessions were carried off by a gang of dacoits in June 1942. When the part that has x Preface survived of the diary opens, on January 5, 1942, Sein Tin is working in the Secretariat in Rangoon and living in the house of a colleague. His family has moved from Prome and is living in Ma-ubin, a small town in the Irrawaddy delta, fifty miles from Rangoon, where his wife’s fatherandsisters arealsoliving.He can makeonlybrief weekendvisits to them by the overcrowded and rather unpredictable steamer service on the river. During the week he has to attend his office by day and spend nights disturbed by air-raid warnings that call for hurried descents to the underground shelter, although since the Christmas raids the attacks have all been on the Mingaladon airfield, twelve miles north of the city. The situation was essentially unstable—government offices were being dispersed in anticipation of air raids on Rangoon city, causing disruptionofgovernmentbusiness.Worse,beforetheendofthemonth Sein Tin’s own hometown of Moulmein, south of Rangoon, was under siege and the threat of an attack by land on Rangoon was becoming very real. There was a growing likelihood that the city would have to be abandoned to the enemy and that the government would move to Mandalay in Upper Burma. This presented Sein Tin with difficult decisions about how best to provide for the safety of his wife and children . In his position he could make no move until he was ordered to, and when that order came it would probably be at very short notice. If his wife and children were in Ma-ubin when he had to leave, he would probably have no time to arrange for them to move with him; if they came to Rangoon so as to be ready to move, they would be exposed to the danger of air raids for an uncertain period. On January 30 the news came that Moulmein was in the hands of the Japanese, so that Sein Tin was now cut off from his brothers and sisters. Singapore was on the point of falling, and it was becoming apparent that the government would have to leave Rangoon quite soon, but there was still no decision about the date. Sein Tin remained caught in his dilemma. Finally, on February 13, he did force himself to decide and traveled to Ma-ubin to bring his family back, to be ready to depart as soon as it became possible. In fact, it was a well-timed move; there was a break in the series of air raids, and on February 16 Sein Tin was ordered to leave for Mandalay at once. [3.17.150.89] Project MUSE...