FORGOTTEN SOULS This Is the Story of Their Silent Sacrifice Even As Their Mortal Remains at the Ramgarh Chinese Cemetery Continue to Languish
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10 NEW DELHI, 13 MAY 2018 FORGOTTEN SOULS This is the story of their silent sacrifice even as their mortal remains at the Ramgarh Chinese Cemetery continue to languish. They were Chinese soldiers fighting the Japanese alongside the British at the Burma border in 1941-42 SOMEN SENGUPTA If Ramgarh was a haven to the war two-storied red roofed Buddhist tem- exhausted Chinese, the same place was ple built in typical Chinese style with a a nightmare for Americans who arrived statue of the Buddha inside the prayer ore than 70 years ago, thou- from California after a long journey. They hall. The first floor has a hanging bal- sands of miles away from found the place dusty, hot, and itchy, cony from where the entire cemetery with their homes and far from the almost like a jungle. There was hardly the graves and war memorial is visible. warm affection of their any entertainment though American Recently a high profile diplomatic del- Mloved ones, they faced death in unknown movies and magazines were plenty in egation from China visited the cemetery territory. A death that was silent and supply. Yet they were committed in and requested the Indian government painful. It was kept secret for diplomatic their assignment and started training the to convert it into a tourist spot. They purposes. They came back from the jaws soldiers with great dedication. showed great interest in its mainte- of death to a place promising to make The training was divided into two areas nance. But this led to controversy as the them better fit for a bigger battle. Many —infantry and artillery. The initial work Taiwanese government made it clear that of them did return to the front and were included housing, rehabilitation, cloth- these soldiers belonged to Chiang Kai glorious in victory over the Japanese. But ing and medical treatment. The British Shek’s nationalist army. lack of food, medicines and drinking water Infantry supplied artillery and tank Taiwan iterated that their government made most of the soldiers perish. Those training equipments while the Ameri- had provided the financial support for who managed to retreat to a dry, dusty cans taught radio signalling, machine this cemetery and so China could not and small cantonment town of India operations and rifle handling. have any say in the matter. With this new named Ramgarh, then in Bihar and In the next couple of years Ramgarh twist of tension, memories of the Chi- now in Jharkhand, arrived hungry, would see a revolutionary change in the nese soldiers who perished more than scruffy and mentally drained. confidence and body language of the war 70 years ago have come into the lime- They were not sons of the soil, yet it torn Chinese soldiers. They gradually light. is Indian soil which holds the story of became a force of strong and efficient However the dusty road of Ram- their silent sacrifice. Their mortal remains soldiers. garh, the theatre of this drama, looks as continue to languish. In the summer of 1944, General indifferent as ever. Who were they? They were all Chi- Joseph W. Stilwell led his expertly trained nese soldiers fighting the Japanese Chinese forces into combat against the along side with the British at Burma bor- Japanese in North Burma. In the hard- der in 1941-42. Human civilisation was fought Hukawng and Mogaung valley passing through its darkest hours while campaigns and the attack at Myitkyina, World War II raged. With the Japanese the Ramgarh-trained Chinese divisions bombing at Pearl Harbor on 7 Decem- formed the bulk of the forces and defeat- ber 1941, USA was egged into war. ed the enemy to ensure a glorious vic- Japan, already at war with China since tory over Japanese. The hard work of Ram- 1937, was turning into an unstoppable garh had paid off. power of Asia, matching the military skill However, it was not a story with a happy of the Germans in Europe. Both Shang- ending. Already exhausted by the long hai and Nanking were bombed by the journey from Burma front to Ramgarh, Japanese army, and China was trying to many of the Chinese soldiers were slow- retaliate with the help of USA. Japan con- ly collapsing. Those suffering from quered Singapore from the British and extreme malnutrition succumbed to also captured Rangoon along with a large death, and more casualties were report- part Burma. ed due to malaria, snake bite, cholera In April 1942 Japan was in full con- and dysentery. Many were not fit to sur- trol of Rangoon and blocked Burma Road. vive the hot and humid Indian climate. Chinese soldiers fighting there under Thus, Ramgarh became the final rest- British army general Stilwell was forced ing place for many Chinese soldiers. to retreat. Both armies were defending The large number of deaths in the the front under Sino-British Common camp forced the necessity of a military Defense Agreement signed between cemetery near the cantonment where the British government and the Repub- the dead could find peace with honour. lic of China. In mid-1944, a Chinese named Cen With debacle staring them in the face, Cheng Tung Kuo founded the cemetery many of them tried to retreat to China for these soldiers in Ramgargh. In 1945, but a large group continued fighting for with the end of World War II, when the three months; they ended up in utter mis- cemetery became public knowledge, it ery without any support. Badly humil- was found with 667 graves, and sur- iated, this large group of soldiers was called prisingly most of the grave stones were back to India with a plan to be trained marked “Unknown warrior”. by American soldiers. The puzzling part is how could so many And this is where the story of US Army graves be in this cemetery? There had Chinese Training & Combat Command been no war in Ramgagh. of Ramgarh begins. A secret deal was Such a number could not have died sealed between Chiang Kai Shek and the due to snake bite or malaria whereas there America to recall these Chinese soldiers was hardly any reported death of British from the front and train them under Amer- and American military officers in that ican army at a covert place in India. Con- camp in the same period. One can con- sent of New Delhi was easily obtained jecture that this large number of “unknown and Ramgarh cantonment area was warriors” may be those who perished selected. in the deep jungles of Burma and It became the first military training Manipur while fighting the Japanese. centre by US army anywhere outside Maybe a thumb was taken from their mor- mainland America during the World War tal remains and buried here in a simu- II years. lated grave. Japan followed this ritual with In 1940, Ramgarh was a difficult their dead soldiers in the battle of Kohi- place to find on the map of India though ma and Imphal. However, this is only an it was not that nondescript a place. Sit- assumption to account for the large num- uated very near to Ranchi and well ber of graves. This enigma about Ram- connected with Calcutta by road and rail, garh cemetery is there even today. It is it first came in the news when Indian now locally known as “China Kabarsthan”; National Congress organised its annu- hardly any local people visit it. al session here under the presidency of A massive gate with a marble plaque Maulana Abul Kamal Azad in 1940. in Chinese script adorns the entrance At almost the same time, Subhash where a tablet was installed later. It Chandra Bose, erstwhile president of Con- describes the importance of this place gress who was then expelled from the in a perplexingly long sentence. It reads party, organised the ‘Anti Compromise “The cemetery is the permanent home Conference’ in Ramgarh with some of the heroes of the armed forces of Repub- other political organisations. When the lic of China who sacrificed their lives and huge mobilisation of a foreign army com- died with honour in combined opera- menced there, the history of the place tion with the British and American was reshaped overnight. forces to build the China-India highway When Chinese soldiers were coming and successfully preventing the Japan- to Ramgarh via Assam and Bengal, a group ese forces from occupying India and not of high skilled American army trainers allowing them to join the German forces were boarding a ship from South Cali- in Middle East”. fornia without them even having an From the main entrance a straight tree- inkling on where they were being dis- lined road enters the cemetery and patched. It was 19 March 1942 and ends at a tall memorial in white marble World War II was peaking. They were head- with Chinese inscription on it. It is ded- ed for a dusty place of Bihar in India to icated to various people and regiments. spend time with a group of soldiers who On the back, a tablet in English explains had hardly been exposed to any mod- the meaning of Chinese inscriptions on ern warfare of that time. it. The north side of the war memorial The first batch of Chinese soldiers contains homage to all “departed mar- arrived in Ramgarh on 17 July 1942 and tyrs and departed souls” and President till September of that year, nearly 9000 Chiang Kai Shek; whereas on the east of them were slowly assembled. From side, the name of Can Cheng Tung Kuo them, 5000 were from the 38th Division who built this war cemetery in 1944 is and 2500 from 22nd Division.