War Documentary: Africans Who Fought Against Japan in Burma

Journalist Barnaby Phillips traveled to Nigeria, Japan, and Burma to learn about how how Africans and Japanese fought each other during World War II. Here is his documentary, “The Burma Boy,” which aired yesterday on Al Jazeera:

Some 100,000 African soldiers were taken from British colonies to fight in the jungles of Burma against the Japanese. They performed heroically in one of the most brutal theatres of war, yet their contribution has been largely ignored, both in Britain and their now independent home countries.

In the villages of Nigeria and Ghana, these veterans are known as ‘the Burma Boys’. They brought back terrifying tales from faraway lands. Few survived, even fewer are alive today.

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13 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - September 3, 2011 at 5:01 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags:

Dnirgal

Very interesting documentary, i didn’t know this part of history.

I didn’t avoid me to think that war could be very stupid, or pointless because did you see in the documentary at 30:00 mn? Isaac drove a Toyota car, even if decade years ago, i fought against Japanese….maybe it doesn’t mean nothing, but for me, it’s disturbing.

Japanobserver

Why would it matter what product has with national origin when the quality of the product is great. I’ve seen plenty of Jewish people drive Mercedes, BMW, and Volkswagen, which actively participated in the German War effort. The workers of those corporations say Mitsubishi are no longer the companies they were of the past.

Fish_Taco

I don’t think it is an unusual idea. When I was growing up one of my friends grandfathers was a WWII vet and he refused to purchase any Japanese products. He was even disappointed when he found out his grandson bought Sony walkman for example. He didn’t have outright hatred for the Japanese, he was just adamant about “not giving a dime to the people who killed his friends and tried to kill him”. I’m not going to pretend that I know what it would have been like to have friends dying around me and the only thing I could do is to try and kill other people. Seems like something like that could have a lasting impact. This was in the 80′s which was 40 years after the fact as opposed to 2011 almost 70 years later. Even at the time it seemed unlikely that many soldiers he had fought against would be actively in the work force, but now it would seem pretty impossible.

Anyway I guess the point is you might find many people who had active roles in the war not so readily supporting countries they had fought against. Jewish people do drive German cars but how many Jews that survived camps drive them? I think your response is actually very logical and I agree that it probably should not matter once the conflict is resolved. But I can also understand if someone who went through tremendous trauma is still holding a grudge.

Piglet

Just a small comment: Jewish people were not “at war” with Germany. They were specifically targeted and exterminated by the Nazis. But indeed you can see a renewal of Jewish life in Germany (with local communities expanding dramatically), and I don’t know many Jewish people who would refuse to buy German products.

http://twitter.com/IsolaValentine Natalie ‘DSQ’ B.

Wow, very intersting I hope these men get the recognition they are due as soliders.
Rob

Wow, Thank you for posting this. So much happened during World War II.
Hamachiman

Very fascinating. It’s ironic since African Americans as far as I know did not fight on the front lines of Burma, one of the more grueling theaters in the Pacific (Incidentally a group of Nisei Americans did fight on the front lines as part of the famed Merill’s Marauders unit, the forefather of today’s 75th Ranger Regiment).
Lily Marie

Towards the end I couldn’t stop my tears. Having spent time in both Burma and Nigeria, it was particularly poignant to see the unlikely meeting of people from the two countries. Thank you so much for posting such a wonderful report!
Pops

These troops and their engagements, accomplishments are noted in the excellent account of the war in Burma written by Field Marshal William “Bill” Slim, “Defeat into Victory.” It’s written in a very readable style, and provides great insight into this forgotten theater of war.
lunairejam

Wow, good to see some reporting on this. My grandfather (English) commanded a troop of Nigerians during the Second World War, and I’ll always remember the two stories I heard about it. The first was that when they were stopping off in India, and the locals were unloading the supplies off the ships, they were so small and spindly that they could barely manage passing the equipment down their lines. So the Nigerian guys (who were twice their size) just stepped in and took over, tossing the supplies and equipment to each other like they weighed nothing, to the amazement of the local Indians.

The second one was when they were in the jungle (in Burma?) on patrol and heard a sound, the snapping of twigs or somesuch. My grandfather turned around to tell everyone to jump in to the vegetation and hide, only to find they had all already disappeared, having instantly melted away into the type of jungle they understood a lot better than he did!
Ehinome4life

i was just wondering do people like this get any sort of compensation for their bravery because it was not their war in the first place and then after the war they were left with noting its just like ok its over now u can go back to your homes

CanTho

Not really– veteran pensions for e.g. algerians in the french army were cut when they gained independence from france. (check out the entry in wikipedia)

CanTho

a large percentage of french and british troopers were colonials, non-europeans.
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2011/08/american-white-awareness-during-world-war-ii/

War Documentary: Africans Who Fought Against Japan in Burma

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