subhash chandra bose

TESTIMONIES OF TAIWANESE OFFICIALS IN UK FOREIGN OFFICE FILE PUT TO REST CONTROVERSY OVER SUBHAS BOSE’S CREMATION

January 21, 2016

London 20 January:

Introduction:

Evidence provided by a Taiwanese official, Tan Ti-Ti, who was in charge of issuing cremation permits in Taipei, together with that of other local officials, put to rest any controversy about the last rites performed on Subhas Bose’s body.

Bose died as a result of a plane crash at Taiwan on 18 August 1945.

Tan Ti-Ti personally attended to Bose’s body at the concerned crematorium. His testimony is contained in the British Foreign Office’s file number FC1852/6 of 1956.

It also transpires from the file that Japanese army officers probably did not issue a death certificate in Bose’s name to maintain secrecy about his demise. 

Ko Keng Yuan, who was the Director of the Health Centre in Taipei, stated the matter of Bose’s death and whether the Cremation Permit was issued under an assumed name “were important secrets of the Japanese military”.

The proof contained in the Taiwanese police report sent to the British Foreign Office was, the file indicates, forwarded by the UK High Commission in Delhi to the Indian government in July 1956.

Tan Ti-Ti and C K Yen Testimonies:

Albert Franklin, British Consul General in Taiwan wrote to the Taiwanese government requesting an investigation into the death of Bose on 15 May 1956.

In response, C K Yen, Chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government, sent a detailed police report dated June 27, 1956. This included an interview with Tan Ti-Ti, who said the cremation took place on 22 August 1945.

A Japanese army officer who accompanied the body told him: “The deceased was Bose, the Indian leader (on occasions he mentioned him as the Indian commander) who, proceeding to Tokyo on important business, was injured when his plane was involved in an accident.”

The previous day – 21 August 1945 – the same Japanese officer, according to Tan Ti-Ti, “submitted the death certificate of a certain Ichiro Okura”.

Yen clarified to Franklin that during World War 2 in the case of military personnel (Bose was then Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army) without family members in Taiwan, “permission for cremation was granted on the strength of a certificate from a military hospital”. This appears to have occurred in the case of Bose.

The police findings based on a report prepared by Taiwan’s Department of Health said: “There is a register of cremations at the Municipal Health Centre (formerly under the Welfare Section of the Taipei Municipal Government) and the officers of the Health Centre are of the opinion that the entry (regarding cremating Bose) was made in the name of Ichiro Okura.”

Tan Ti-Ti confirmed that on the day of the cremation the same Japanese army officer “came to the crematorium in a car in the company of an Indian”. He went on to say “the Indian (it was said he was Bose’s follower, some said he was an aide-de-camp; he was dressed in the white garment of Japanese soldiers under medical care, wore slippers, parts of his face were bandaged; he was tall and swarthy, wept bitterly and seemed extremely sorrowful”. This was obviously Bose’s ADC Colonel Habibur Rehman, who survived the crash, since the description fits him perfectly.

Tan Ti-Ti asserted he and another person called Lin Sui Mu opened the coffin. He added the body of Bose had been “put into a coffin for conveyance to Tokyo but the coffin was too big for aeroplanes available at the time”. It was, therefore, cremated in Taipei.

The next day (23 August 1945), the Indian (Col Rehman) and the same Japanese army officer came to collect the ashes, Tan Ti-Ti further maintained.

Matches Colonel Habibur Rehman’s Testimony:

Tan Ti-ti’s version of events matches with Col Rehman’s statement recorded by him on 24 August 1945 (posted on 16 January 2016), which said: "I requested the (Japanese) Army authorities to arrange for the early transportation of the body either to Singapore or Tokyo, preferably to Singapore."

He went on: "On 21-8-45 a senior Japanese Staff Officer informed me in the hospital that the length of box (coffin) did not allow the box being put into the plane. He suggested that the body be cremated in Taihoku (Japanese name for Taipei). Seeing no other alternative, I agreed to the suggestion and the body was cremated on 22-8-1945 at Taihoku under the arrangement of the Army authorities. The ashes were collected on 23-8-1945.” 

Corroboration of Harin Shah Visit:

Tan Ti-Ti also corroborated the visit to Taipei in 1946 of Indian journalist Harin Shah of the Free Press Journal. Shah had gone to investigate the circumstances of Bose’s death and cremation. 

ENDS