Death of Subhas Chandra Bose

A memorial to Subhas Chandra Bose in the compound of the Renkōji Temple, Tokyo. Bose's ashes are stored in the temple in a golden pagoda. Bose died on 18 August 1945. His ashes arrived in Japan in early September 1945; after a memorial service, they were accepted by the temple on 18 September 1945.

Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose died on 18 August 1945 from third-degree burns sustained after the bomber in which he was being transported as a guest of Lieutenant General Tsunamasa Shidei of the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army crashed upon take off from the airport in Taihoku, Japanese Formosa, now Taipei, Taiwan.[1][a][2][b] The chief pilot, copilot, and General Shidei were instantly killed.

Bose, who had become soaked in gasoline before exiting the burning bomber, was transported to the Nanmon Military Hospital south of Taihoku, where his extensive upper-body burns were treated for six hours by the chief-surgeon Dr Taneyoshi Yoshimi, two other doctors Dr Truruta and Dr Ishii, and half a dozen technical staff and nurses. Bose went into a coma and died between 9 PM and 10 PM Taihoku time. Bose's chief-of-staff, Colonel Habib ur Rahman, who had travelled with him, and who lay nearby with severe burns, recovered. Ten years later he testified at an inquiry commission on Bose's death, the burn marks on his arms conspicuously visible. General Shidei's descendants commemorate his death every year at the Renkōji Temple in Tokyo, where Bose's ashes are also deposited.

Many among Subhas Chandra Bose's supporters, especially in Bengal, refused at the time and have refused since to believe either the fact or the circumstances of his death.[3][c][4][d][5][e] Conspiracy theories appeared within hours of his death and have persisted since then,[6][f] keeping alive various martial myths about Bose.[7][g]

  1. ^ a b Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 2a.
  2. ^ a b Bandyopādhyāẏa 2004, p. 427.
  3. ^ a b Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 2b.
  4. ^ a b Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 22.
  5. ^ a b Wolpert 2000, pp. 339–340.
  6. ^ a b Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 2.
  7. ^ a b Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 210.


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