|
The Indian National Army was an auxiliary force to the Japanese Army in
its southern mainland campaign during the Second World War. It was created
primarily by the recruitment of Indian prisoners of war who, in the course
of service in the armed forces of the British Indian Empire, had been
captured by Japanese forces.
The Japanese fostered the INA at least as much for its propaganda value
in the portrayal of their war aims as anti-colonial, as for the military
value of INA forces in the field.
The Indian prisoners recruited to the INA regarded themselves as freedom
fighters attempting to liberate their country from imperial rule. The INA
was initially founded under, and commanded by, Captain Mohan Singh, but
control later passed to Subhas Chandra Bose once he had made the journey
from Germany to Japan via the Indian Ocean.
The troops eventually reached India during the course of Japan's conquest
of Burma but made no progress after Japan's retreat started in full.
At the conclusion of World War II, the government of British India
brought to trial on treason charges some of the captured INA soldiers. The
initial trials collapsed in the pre-independence political climate, after
which the British Government and the Congress Party leadership tacitly
agreed that the existence of the INA was a shared embarrassment which should
be forgotten as soon as possible.
|
