A classified 60-year-old Japanese government document on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s death that was made public on Thursday concludes that the legendary freedom fighter died in a plane crash in Taiwan on 18 August 1945, backing the official version.
Bosefiles.info, a UK website set up to document evidence on the circumstances surrounding Netaji’s death finally made the report public which was classified by Japanese authorities and was kept a secret by the Indian government.
According to the website, the report was completed in January 1956 and submitted to the Indian embassy in Tokyo, but since it was a classified document, neither side released it.
The report reaches the conclusion that Netaji met with an air crash on 18 August 1945 and died at a Taipei hospital the same evening.
In a more detailed description of the incident, the report says: “After the plane had taken off and risen about 20 metres above the ground, one petal of the three-petaled propeller of the left wing was suddenly broken, and the engine fell off.”
The Japanese government report on the death of Netaji, who was 48 years old then, backs the Shah Nawaz Khan-led inquiry instituted by the then Indian prime minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, which had investigated the matter later in 1956.
Ashish Ray, creator of bosefiles.info, said that the Japanese government has independently corroborated and vindicated bosefiles.info’s previous chronicling of events.
I am reliably informed that Japan’s diplomatic archive plans to release the document at the end of September. A copy of the document has been given to the Indian government. The fact is the Indian embassy in Tokyo and the ministry of external affairs in Delhi had misplaced the copy given to it in 1956.Ashish Ray
(With inputs from PTI)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)