Kohima Background

Mountbatten was the commander of the Southeast Asia Theater for the Brits from 43 to the end of the war.  The true victor however in the long struggle in Burma, 42-45, was General, later Marshal, Bill Slim, a natural leader, who trained the Fourteenth Army, they often called themselves the Forgotten Army, and led them to victory over the Japanese, fighting in some of the worst terrain on Earth, retaking Burma and repelling an attempted Japanese invasion of India at Kohima and Imphal in April to June 44.

His memoir, Defeat into Victory, is one of the best military memoirs of all time.  A good grunt’s eye view of that conflict is Quartered Safe Out Here, by the late novelist George MacDonald Fraser, who served as an infantryman in Burma.

Out of respect for his men, especially those luckless enough to have spent time as guests of the Emperor, Mountbatten largely shunned the Japanese for the remainder of his life.  He met Emperor Hirohito during his visit to the UK in 1971, but only after he was commanded to do so by the Queen.  In his will he specified that no Japanese diplomats were to attend his funeral.  His views were not atypical of the Brits who fought against the Japanese.