I would like to sleep a while: Netaji’s last words

LONDON: Moments before Subhas Chandra Bose reportedly died at Nanmon Military Hospital in Taipei after a plane crash on August 18, 1945, he told a doctor, “I feel as if blood is rushing to my head. I would like to sleep a while.”

The legendary leader’s last words, and other little known details of his last day, were released Saturday to substantiate reports that he did not survive the crash.

These details have been in the public domain but confined to archives, inquiries and interviews. They are now being released by London-based journalist Ashis Ray through a website.

The Indian government will also start releasing classified Netaji documents from January 23, his 119th birth anniversary — a move expected to settle the question of whether he survived the crash or not.

The latest details include quotes from a 1995 interview with the doctor, Taneyoshi Yoshimi, who says he attended to Bose in his dying moments. “A lieutenant called Nonomiya told me this is Mr (Subhas) Chandra Bose, a very important person, and I should save his life at any cost. That’s how I knew who he (Bose) was,” said Yoshimi. When it became obvious to the doctor that Bose was sinking, he asked him, “What can I do for you?” Bose replied, “I feel as if blood is rushing to my head. I would like to sleep a while.” Yoshimi gave him an injection. After some time, he was no more.

In a testimony to British authorities after World War II, Yoshimi said: “I personally cleaned his injuries with oils and dressed them. He was suffering from extensive burns over his body, though the most serious were those on his head, chest and thighs. There was very little left on his head in the way of hair or other identification marks.”

The report goes on to say that on Yoshimi’s request, the civil government offices sent him an English interpreter named Nakamura, who claimed to have very often interpreted for Bose.

Tsuruta, another doctor in the hospital, was questioned by JG Figgess of the British Army in 1946. The latter’s report said, “Bose asked him in English if he would sit with him through the night. However, shortly after seven o’clock (in the evening), he suffered a relapse and although the doctor once again administered a camphor injection, he sank into a coma and died shortly afterwards.”

Harin Shah, a Mumbai-based journalist who travelled to Taipei, wrote a book in 1956, Verdict From Formosa, in which he quoted nurse Tsan Pi Sha who looked after Bose in the hospital. “So you definitely know he is dead,” Shah asked her. To which she replied, he noted, with a tone of rebuke, “Yes, he died. I have told everything about it. I can prove he died.”