Battle of Imphal to be commemorated
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 04 2014:
Manipur Tourism Forum and 2nd World War Imphal Campaign Foundation will be organising the 70th Anniversary Commemoration of the Battle of Imphal (WWII) from March to June 2014 .
Announcing this during a press meet at Manipur Press Club here today, A Anganmba, founder member of 2nd World War Imphal Campaign Foundation, explained that this was the period when an epic battle of the Second World War (WWII) between the British-led Allies and the Japanese and the Indian National Army (INA) was witnessed on the soil of Manipur 70 years ago.
From March to July of that year, over 200,000 Japanese, Britons, Indians, Gurkhas and men from several other nations clashed in the hills and valley of Manipur in what has since been described as one of the greatest battles of the Second World War.
The Battle of Imphal is also significant from a national perspective.
It saw Indian soldiers fighting on both sides in the Second World War - together with the Japanese as part of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's INA and with the British as part of the British-Indian Army.
The area surrounding the Moreh Road is the only place in India where more than 6,000 men of the INA's 1st Division was deployed and fought during the War.
The INA flag was also hoisted for the first time in the country at Moirang on 14 April 1944, he recalled.
For Manipur and its people, the Battle of Imphal in particular and the Second World War in general, was a period of no less importance.
The year 1944 saw destruction and fighting take place on an unprecedented scale across Manipur.
Many thousands were displaced.
It was also for the first time that the land saw such a diverse gathering of nationalities and people from around the country and the world.
Indeed, it would be hard to find a household in Manipur today that was not affected in one way or another by the dramatic happenings of 1944 and the Second World War, Angamba added.