Imphal
In 1942, the Japanese had successfully conquered Burma and then stood poised on the border with India. The Japanese invasion and conquest of Burma in 1942 was so successful and rapid, that their supply lines ran out before they could advance further into India. Needing to stop and rest, the Japanese Army gave the British a chance to respond to the incursion. General Slim and the Burma Corps were able to set up a base in Imphal to stave off the encroaching Japanese threat. "If the Japanese had moved swiftly for Imphal then the outcome that was to change the war in the region may have been very different."[footnoteRef:1] [1: "The Battle of Imphal 1944." History Learning Site.]
Under Lieutenant-General Kawabe Masakasu, the Burma-Area Army of the Japanese command was considering an immanent advance into Assam province. The province was a critical geographic juncture. Known as "the hump," this mountainous region straddling India, China, and Burma was the point where allied aircraft, including that of the Americans, were bringing supplies from India to China. Masakasu's military strategy was therefore not developed with the interest of colonizing India but rather, thwarting the British and American aerial control of the region.
Moreover, the British air force had been using northeastern India as a key transit zone and supply route between its station in India and China. The Japanese believed that the British were repositioning themselves in Imphal under General Slim in order to take Burma back after it had been so carefully won by the Japanese.[footnoteRef:2] Therefore, the Japanese invasion of this part of India would be a strategic maneuver, carefully calculated, and ultimately fatal for the Japanese. [2: "The Battle of Imphal 1944." History Learning Site.]
lthough the Japanese made some advances, the Burma Area Army ultimately failed in two critical battlefronts at Imphal and Kohima, fifty miles from each other. The Battles of Imphal and Kohima were in fact major turning points...
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