A Study Of Japan's Factors In The Rise And Fall Of The Indian National Army

Fostering pro-Japanese forces as a strategy was widely adopted by the Japanese government in the Second World War in order to achieve its ambition of invading Southeast Asian countries and weakening the power of Britain. With the implementation of the policy of “southward advance”, conflicts between Japan and Britain became increasingly intensified. Therefore, Japan took advantage of Indians' hostility toward the Britain to establish Indian National Army(INA) with the majority of soldiers made up of Indian and British war prisoners. The establishment and development of INA was not only directly related to the split of the leaderships in Indian domestic independence movement but also closely to the war situation at that time. The First Indian National Army was established by Japan in 1942 under the situation of Japan's having achieved sweeping progress. Due to irreconcilable conflicts between Japan and INA, Mohan Singh, the leader of INA was arrested by Japan in the end, which led to the collapse of the First Indian Nation Army. The war situation Japan deteriorated sharply in 1943, due to the limited military power, Japan was in desperate need to seek more assisting forces to consolidated its scheme of building Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and attacking India. The INA was re-established by Japan with Subhas Chandra Bose as the leader when Japan was in a dead end. However, it was impossible for Japan to reverse the war situation, and the Imphal campaign launched by Japan and INA ended in failure, indicating the end of the cooperation between Japan and INA. With the failure of Japan and the death of Subhas Chandra Bose, the INA fell apart again, becoming Japan's sacrificial object in the end. Based on the facts of establishment and development and development of INA, this thesis mainly explores the cooperation and conflicts between Japan and INA, hoping to reveal Japan's factor in the rise and fall of the Indian National Army.