6 - The Legacies of World War II for Myanmar

Summary

For people of my generation, there is much to remember, much we cannot erase from our memory, try as we may. A stray thought and off we go. World War II, the Japanese occupation with all its privations and cruelties, when men's minds became callous and conditioned to pain — the suffering of it, the infliction of it — the tragic, irreplaceable losses; the poignant moments, the adventure, the sacrifices, the baptism of fire making us stronger (we hope).

Dr Maung Maung, 1945 graduate of the Japanese military academy at Mingaladon and President of Burma for one month in 1988.

The legacies of the World War II for Myanmar have been hugely significant. Indeed, evidence of the war are still observable as one travels across the country. It is a significant factor in the politics and economy of the country today as well. Until just fifteen years ago, men who had their formative political and military experiences in the midst of the war still dominated the country's government. The lessons they drew from the war continue to shape the views of their heirs, the present military government. The multiple armed nationalist movements, the ethnically designed separatist insurgencies that have dominated Myanmar's politics since independence less than three years after the end of the war, all had their origins in the war years. The rhetoric of day-to-day politics still owes much to the legacy of the war. As Bayly and Harper wrote of the period of Japanese Occupation, “Nationalism was now more than an aspiration. It became a routine which long outlasted the departure of Nippon's armies.” Not only did unbridled nationalism overwhelm the institutions of government, but guns came to replace words as an acceptable means of settling major, and sometimes minor, disputes.

Visibly, the war legacy can still today be seen in Yangon and Mandalay as well as other towns and cities in the chassis and grills of the Myanmarmade wooden buses that ply the streets.