The Second World War (1939-1945) was memorable for India on various accounts, even though India was not personally involved in it. On one hand, Britain’s involvement in the Second World War loosened their authority over India as a colony, but on the other hand, it also created the possibility of India falling prey to another imperial power: Japan.

The Japanese interests in South Asia were guided by their imperialistic ambitions to become the dominant influence in the Pacific region. When they attacked Hong Kong, Malaya, and Singapore, the British declared war against the Japanese empire in 1941.

On the night of 23rd March 1942, the imperial Japanese army landed on Ross and Chatham islands and fired the first shot. Port Blair was also occupied on the same day. By the 4th of July, the Japanese had occupied the Nicobar Islands as well. Following this, the Japanese announced that they had ended British rule in the islands.

Captain Ueda Mytsharu, the commander of the Japanese naval force, told the Nicobar islanders that they were not there to occupy their land but rather to free them from the British. He also urged them to their cooperate and promised that if they aided the Japanese in their mission, the islands would soon be prosperous.

But the islanders were far from free. In December 1942, more than 500 indigenous people were forcibly dragged to Port Blair as “coolies” for the construction of an airship.

In fact, the first known victim of the Japanese was identified on the fourth day of the Japanese invasions in march 1942. A young man named Zulfiqar Ali, fired an air gun at some soldiers who had chased some chickens into his house. The shots failed to injure any of the soldiers, and Zulfiqar Ali was forced to go into hiding. The Japanese soldiers caught him within twenty-four hours. They dragged him down the street and twisted his arms until they broke. Thereafter, they shot him.

The Japanese arrested anyone who was suspected to have any connections to the British. In 1943, when a cargo ship was bombed in the Nicobar by the British, the Japanese started torturing all the English-speaking islanders, suspecting them of being spies. Many of them were thrown into the famous cellular jail, which had already seen far too many deaths and barbarity under the British.

The rest of the islanders were reduced to the position of slaves. They were forced to provide service to the Japanese soldiers. Women were used for ‘comfort’ which actually equated to raping and violating their bodies.

We should remember that the Japanese would not have been fully successful without the aid of the Indians. We may think, why would any Indian wish to join hands with the Japanese who were threatening to occupy their territory? Well, that is a complicated issue.

Nationalist leaders like Gandhi resorted to non-cooperation with the Japanese, just as they had done with the British. But radical leaders like Subhash Chandra Bose, who headed the Indian National Army (INA), argued that British rule in India could come to an end if they allied themselves with another force. The Japanese were already fighting against the British, so they seemed like the right choice. When the Japanese occupied the Islands, they acknowledged the support of Bose and the INA and even released some of the INA members held in the Cellular Jail by the British when they occupied the islands.

The present Flag Point in Port Blair is believed to be the exact point where this historic event took place in 1943.

However, Subhash Chandra Bose has been criticized by many for his role in the Japanese invasions. Some even say that he purposefully ignored the brutalities carried out by the Japanese against the islanders. But at the same time, his supporters argue that when he visited the islands in 1943, he was intentionally kept away from the local people and as such, he did not know about the torture deaths and other violent activities that the Japanese were committing upon the people.

In 1945, the British recaptured the islands, marking an end to the Japanese rule over the islands. But even in this brief period of 1942-1945, some 2000 islanders died of torture and violence by the Japanese. In fact, in 1945, when food and other resources became scarce in the islands, the Japanese forcibly deported some 250-700 people from the south Andaman to an inhospitable island to grow food.

When a rescue mission was sent after the British took control, over a hundred skeletons were found, with only twelve survivors.

The Japanese invasion is most often neglected by the mainlanders, but the indigenous people of the Andaman and Nicobar remember it as one of the most brutal and traumatic phases of their history.