Nagaland CM meets BCS Chairperson

DIMAPUR, MAY 24 (MExN): Nagaland State Chief Minister, Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu today hosted lunch for Chairperson of the Burma Campaign Society (BCS), Akiko McDonald and held an interaction with her on ways to bring better reconciliation between the British and the Japanese along with the Naga people in whose land the Battle of Kohima took place.  

The aim of the BCS is “to encourage reconciliation and enhance mutual understanding and the spread and exchange of information about any aspect of Britain and Japan’s wartime encounter during the Second World War, and matters subsequently arising from it,” informed a press note from the CMO.  

The BCS aims to provide opportunities for the international public to access historical data, war memoirs of individual soldiers, diaries, photos, films, presentation of academics’ research by holding events, exhibitions, and discussion forums. It also aims to proactively participate in War Memorial Services in the UK, Japan, and India as well as in Burma, and broaden knowledge.  

McDonald became very interested in Lieutenant General Sato, because her father, Taiji Urayama, was a lieutenant (veterinary surgeon, 31st Regiment Mountain Artillery) in the 31st Division which was under the command of General Sato.  

Hirakubo, a previous chairman of the Burma Campaign Society, was also a lieutenant (supply officer, 31st Regiment Mountain Artillery) in the 31st Division.   “I strongly believe that both my father and Hirakubo owe their lives to the battlefield decisions taken by General Sato,” she had stated in an article published in Japan Times a few years back. This motivated her to look not just into the exploits of Lieutenant General Kotoku Sato but also his character and personality.  

“Lt General Sato, who was once stigmatised as dishonourable and insane, made such a crucial decision to withdraw his men of the 31st Division of the 15th Army from the Kohima Battle, the front line of the Imphal Operation. During the battle Lt. General Sato disobeyed his General’s order to advance, and instead pulled his troops back to the nearest food and ammunition dump to save his men from starvation, deadly diseases and dying from their wounds. Not long after this the British-Indian army regained the Naga area completely, thus ending the Imphal operation,” she pointed out.  

“The catalyst for my realisation about the lingering animosity of some ex British soldiers was the visit to the UK by the Japanese Emperor in 1998, which brought about demonstrations and anti-Japanese sentiment. 

About this same time I met Hirakubo, who was chairman of the Burma Campaign Society (BCS), an organisation set up to bring about reconciliation between Japanese and British old soldiers who had fought in Burma,” she recalled. After, Hirakubo passed away in 2008, McDonald became chairwoman of BCS. 

She stated that her aim in the BCS is trying to bring about reconciliation between old foes.