UK website releases eyewitness accounts of Netaji plane crash
A British website, set up to catalogue the last days of Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose, has released what it claims are eyewitness accounts of
the day he was reportedly killed in a plane crash in Taiwan on August
18, 1945.
The latest set of documents quote several people who
were reportedly involved in the matter related to the accident as well
as two British intelligence reports that revisited the crash site to
establish the facts.
The website also sheds light on what may have
been the freedom fighter's dying words, which reflected his devotion to
the cause of India's freedom.
"For 70 years, there have been
doubts in certain circles whether such a tragedy at all took place. Four
separate reports each corroborating the other constitute irresistible
evidence to the contrary," says a statement issued by
www.bosefiles.info.
The documents say that early in the morning on
18 August 1945, a Japanese Air Force bomber took off from Tourane in
Vietnam with Bose and 12 or 13 other passengers and crew. Also on board
was Lt Gen Tsunamasa Shidei of the Japanese Army and the planned flight
path was Heito-Taipei-Dairen-Tokyo.
The three-member Netaji
Inquiry Committee, instituted by the government of India in 1956 and
headed by Major General Shah Nawaz Khan of Bose's Indian National Army
(INA), was told that since "the weather was perfect and the engines (of
the aircraft) worked smoothly" the pilot decided to overfly Heito and
proceed straight to Taipei, arriving there late morning or early
afternoon.
Major Taro Kono, a Japanese Air Staff Officer and one
of the passengers, told the committee: "I noticed that the engine on the
left side of the plane was not functioning properly. I, therefore, went
inside the plane and after examining the engine inside, I found it to
be working all right."
He added the accompanying engineer "also tested the engine and certified its air-worthiness".
Captain
Nakamura alias Yamamoto, the ground engineer in charge of maintenance
at the airport, concurred with Major Kono "that the engine of the left
side was defective".
He said the pilot told him "it was a brand new engine".
He
went on to say: "After slowing down the engine, he (the pilot) adjusted
it for about five minutes. The engine was tested twice by Major
Takizawa (the pilot). After being adjusted, I satisfied myself that the
condition of the engine was all right. Major Takizawa also agreed with
me that there was nothing wrong with the engine."
However, son
after the aircraft was airborne there was, according to Colonel Habib ur
Rahman - Bose's ADC and a co-passenger, a loud explosion.
He described it as "a noise like a cannon shot".
Nakamura,
who was watching from the ground, said: "Immediately on taking off, the
plane tilted to its left side and I saw something fall down from the
plane, which I later found was the propeller."
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