Japan captures the Andamans !

S Balakrishnan *

Japanese memorial

March 23 1942 - a different ‘sun’ rose over the horizon of the Andaman & Nicobar Group of Islands that are strung across the sea like an emerald necklace. The A&N Islands are described as the Islands of the Marigold Sun.

But on that day - 23 March 1942 - it was a different sun that shone over the horizon of the Islands. It was an unusually bloody Red Sun. The forces of the Emperor of the Land of Rising Sun, the Imperial Japan, had landed on the Islands of Marigold Sun.

Fearing the eventuality of fall of the A&N islands to the advancing Japanese forces during the course of World War II, the British Administration of the Island Group had scampered to the Indian mainland – like rats of a sinking ship - leaving the hapless islanders to fend for themselves.

In a way the islanders felt relieved; the suspense and fear would soon come to an end. What had to happen had happened at last; the islanders had resigned themselves to the unfolding events. It was a fait accompli and they just had no role in it.

The series of success to Japan created panic in India and consequently there was a mass evacuation from Andamans, Madras (now Chennai) and Calcutta (now Kolkatta). The fear of Andamans being captured by the Japanese caused the British Indian Government to arrange official evacuation of the people of the Islands from January 1942 onwards.

Preference was given to the civilians and more particularly to the British masters and their colonial servants. However, at that time there were no political prisoners (freedom fighters) imprisoned in the Cellular Jail. They had all been sent back to jails in mainland India.

In the meanwhile, there were successive air raids on Andamans. Meerankutti, narrating to me those black days, remembered Japanese planes dropping bombs on Aberdeen jetty and aerodrome, but luckily no one perished. Those who were holed up in the capital town of Port Blair might have later regretted not having been killed in air raids! Such was the Japanese atrocities.

Though initially, fed with the British rule, people waved to the Japanese planes shouting, “Aao, aao, jalthi aao, yaha koyee British nahee” (Come, come, come soon, there is no British here). Poor souls! “We never knew then’” regretted Meerankutti, “that it would all turn out to be even worse than jumping out of frying pan into the fire; it was still worse.”

Not only the British but even the Japanese were fully aware of the strategic location of the A&N Islands. The island group could play vital role both during peacetime and wartime. The group’s vantage location in the Bay of Bengal / Andaman Sea could act as a springboard for launching attacks on the nearby territories of India, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, etc.

Woodburn Kirby narrates how the occupation of Andamans was devised and accomplished: "As early as the 7th of Feb (1942), the Imperial General Headquarters had issued orders for their (A&N Islands) capture. The opportunity to do so occurred when reinforcements were being sent to Burma (now Myanmar) by sea after the occupation of Rangoon (now Yangoon).

A battalion of 18th Division which was en-route to Rangoon from Malay, together with a naval component consisting detachments from 9th and 12th Special Base Forces, sailed from Penang on the 20th March and, three days later, Port Blair was occupied and an air base quickly established.”

Japanese bunker

Some coastal villagers sighted the fleet of Imperial Japanese Navy moving about near the coast of Port Blair on the night of 22nd March 1942. Like ghosts, warships were creeping towards the dark outline of the capital town of Port Blair. The first bomb was fired at about 3 AM. The reply from the shore was a dreadful silence. But the townspeople were awake with fear and expectation, though no one stirred out.

Then suddenly, as if an echo of the first shot fired by the Japanese, there was a boom. It was the wireless station in Shadipur area that was up in flames; the next was the South Point telegraph office that was destroyed as per the British plan to damage the logistics.

The waiting Japanese then fired the second bomb. This time also there was no return shot; only stony silence! It seemed no one even breathed. The impatient Japanese troops then landed on the coast of Port Blair even as 23rd March dawned. The god-forsaken islanders, who stirred out mustering courage, saw a bloody red sun fluttering in the air.

The Japanese troops numbering about 20,000 easily outnumbered the whole population of Andamans - 21,316 (as per 1941 census). The Nicobaris numbered 12,452. With the fleeing of a good number, the population figure had dramatically come down. The people slowly gathered at the Aberdeen Jetty rejoicing at the warmth of the ‘rising sun’ without realizing that the ‘sun’ would slowly get hotter and hotter to ultimately burn them.

Their enthusiasm was so great that the police had a tough time dispersing them to their homes. The occupation of the Andaman island group was a smooth one. It was remarkable in the sense that it was over within twelve hours of landing and without virtually firing a shot. Four columns of the Japanese force landed at various locations and occupied the capital town of Port Blair without any opposition.

As instructed beforehand by Mr. C.E. Waterfall, the Chief Commissioner, all the ‘white people’ had gathered at his bungalow. This lot consisted of those who could not flee or who had to officially stay back, or volunteered to stay back. They were all arrested, including the Anglo-Indians, and imprisoned in Cellular Jail. Later, they were shifted from the Jail to Ross Island and kept as captives.

From there, the CC was taken as prisoner of war to Rangoon, Burma (now Yangoon in Myanmar). But Meerankutti remembers it as Singapore. He happened to be at Chatham Island from where the vessel that carried the CC along with other fourteen persons sailed off to Singapore.

The CC remained there till the Japanese surrendered at the end of II WW. One Colonel Bucho was appointed the Civil Governor to manage the affairs of the Islands. Thus, virtually without firing a single shot, the occupation of Andamans was peacefully over, though the happenings that were to follow were not that peaceful.

Red Sun continued to blaze harshly for the next 3 ½ years over the beautiful Islands of the Marigold Sun, when the occupation forces committed all sorts of unimaginable wartime atrocities. It was a long and unbearable nightmare.