My Memories of Imphal From 1941 : Chapter 15 :: Download
Dr Mohendra Irengbam *
Ima Keithel (Mothers’ Market) by the bank of Nambul River on the north-east side of Maharani Thong in 1942
Part 15
Beginning of Japanlan in Manipur
I was there in Imphal in the beginning of 1942 when the Japanlan came. After the prevailing disquiet of 1941, when World War II was only the sound of distant drums, far away across the sea, the shadowy silhouette of Japanlan began to cast its shadow across the bright firmament of Manipur, like the dark clouds of an impending storm.
Everybody knew for a few months that the Japanese were coming, when many mules arrived in Imphal for the transport of military logistics into the jungles of Burma through Morey, the town on the Indo-Burma border. It did not however, make much of a deep and dialectical flow of feelings among the laid-back Manipuris until the surprise Japanese bombing of Imphal town on Sunday May 10, 1942.
No one had the foggiest idea that the Japanlan would transform and broaden the social, religious, economic, and educational horizons of Manipuris for ever. Nobody had a clue that it would be so magical, and the genie would never return to its bottle.
At the beginning of 1942 it was evident that the Japanlan was just around the corner. We had heard about Adolf Hitler and Chiang Kaishek. There were bomb shelter trenches dug up in the bazaar area and along the main roads like Uripok and Sagolband. Some were straight, some V-shaped.
The British Administration told Imphalites to dig up such shelters in their Ingkhols. We had a V-shaped covered trench, dug out in our inkhol. Blackouts at night were imposed to prevent any ray of light escaping from houses that might help the Japanese in their air raids. Shrill sirens occasionally blasted during the daytime from the cantonment in Kangla.
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* Dr Mohendra Irengbam wrote this article for e-pao.net
The writer can be contacted at irengbammsingh(AT)gmail(DOT)com
This article was webcasted on March 26 2023 .
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