Japan confirmed Bose death in plane crash: Probe report
A hitherto unreleased 1956 probe report by the Japanese government had confirmed that the iconic Indian leader Subhas Chandra Bose died in the plane crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945, reinforcing the view of earlier probes and official reports.
Bose’s Germany-based daughter, Anita Pfaff, who earlier said she was annoyed with people continuing to believe “asinine” theories that he survived the crash, believes India should bring his ashes from Tokyo to India.
The Japanese government report – comprising seven pages in Japanese and 10 pages in English – is likely to be officially released later this month, according to Ashis Ray, the London-based grand-nephew of Bose, who has collected known and lesser-known documents related to his death over the years.
The report, titled ‘Investigation on the cause of death and other matters of the late Subhas Chandra Bose’, concluded that he met with an air crash at Taipei on August 18, 1945, and died in a hospital there the same evening.
It says: “Immediately after taking off, the airplane in which he (Bose) rode fell to the ground, and he was wounded,” About 3.00 pm, he entered the Nanmon Branch of Taipei Army Hospital... and about 7.00 pm he died, it adds.
The findings state that on August 22, he was cremated at the Taipei Municipal crematorium.
From January, the Centre began declassifying hundreds of files related to Bose, following demands by members of his family.
A section of the family and others maintain Bose survived the crash and lived incognito in India for several years. Ray said: “This is yet another decisive breakthrough. There is no reason why the Government of India should not accede to Bose’s daughter Anita Pfaff ’s request to transfer her father’s ashes from Tokyo to India.”
The report was said to be completed in January 1956 and submitted to the Indian Embassy in Tokyo, but since it was a classified document, neither side released it.
Ray added: “I am reliably informed 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.”