by Anuj Dhar
Shri Isoda: At the present moment I think that I had received official information.
Commission: Therefore the statement recorded earlier is not correct?
Shri Isoda: I believe I had received official information.
Commission: My question is about the previous statement. Is that statement correct or not correct?
Shri Isoda: At this moment I think that that statement is not correct. [32]
Maybe it was due to age. Running 78, Isoda was the oldest among the Japanese witnesses. But then, his memory was sharp. Still, he fumbled again.
Commission: You have stated today that you met Field Marshal Terauchi at Dalat and arranged for 2-3 seats for Netaji?
Shri Isoda: At Dalat I did not meet supreme commander Terauchi himself. I met his staff officer Yano.
Commission: You have said today in your earlier statement an hour ago that you met Field Marshal Terauchi at Dalat!
Shri Isoda: I met staff officer Yano and not Terauchi himself. Yano was lieutenant of Terauchi and Terauchi's opinion was conveyed to me by Yano.
Commission: Therefore what you had said today that you met Field Marshal Terauchi is not correct?
Shri Isoda: I did not meet Mr Terauchi himself. [33]
Khosla asked Isoda if Bose had taken off from Bangkok on August 16 in “his personal plane” and the general said yes. Counsel Balraj Trikha took up from there and grilled him as to why then he had to personally haggle for two seats in another plane.
Shri Trikha: Now, at Saigon, Netaji had his personal plane?
Shri Isoda: Netaji’s personal plane was there at Saigon.
Shri Trikha: What made you arrange for him some seat in the other plane when he had his own personal plane?
Shri. Isoda: I did not arrange seat for him. Staff officer Tada did.
Shri Trikha: So you did not know who stopped Netaji [from] using that plane?
Shri Isoda: Perhaps it was the idea of commander-in-chief Terauchi.
…
Shri Trikha: So the personal plane of Netaji was withheld from him at Saigon under orders from Field Marshal Terauchi?
Shri Isoda: I thought so.
Shri Trikha: And on that Netaji got disturbed?
Shri Isoda: He was not surprised. [34]
Despite Isoda’s evidence on record that Bose acquiesced to the change of the planes, Khosla charged in his report that the Japanese
denied him the use of the special plane which had earlier been placed at his disposal. He was denied accommodation for his colleagues in the bomber which was to leave Saigon.
Bose had bitterly complained to his colleagues of a change of plan by the Japanese. He was so angry and resentful that he was prepared to stay on and not go beyond Saigon. He mistrusted the Japanese after their ignominious defeat. [35]
This was notwithstanding General Fujiwara’s emphatic statement to Khosla’s loaded question whether “between Netaji and other Japanese officers, was there complete trust or not?”
Netaji was a very great man. So, there is no question of mistrust between them. [36]
This was also despite Tada telling SA Ayer, whose report was shown to Khosla, that Terauchi had in fact told him to “tell Netaji that all facilities would be given to him to reach Russian-held territory”. [37]
Khosla’s deduction was not based on any evidence before him. Bose’s reaction when Isoda told him that he would have to shift to another plane was clearly indicative of his approval of the idea that he should resume his journey with only one of his colleagues. Bose chose the one who had joined him in his secret meetings with Isoda and others in Saigon—Habibur Rahman.
Tadashi Ando was the military officer in charge of media in Taipei when the plane carrying Bose allegedly crashed at the aerodrome. He told the commission on 30 March 1971 that when he heard about the crash, he felt greatly concerned for General Shidei, his “teacher in the military academy”. So, shouldn’t he have rushed to the airport and look for Shidei? Ando told the commission that he “went to the airport immediately and was told that General Shidei was already dead. Subhas Chandra Bose was taken to the army hospital and those who had suffered minor injuries were taken to other hospitals”.
Khosla asked Ando if he saw the general’s body and his strange response was: “I did not see directly the body of General Shidei.” “Did you see any other dead bodies?” was Khosla’s next question. “I did not see the bodies although I knew that they were dead.” “Did you go to the hospital where Netaji Bose was lying?” Khosla asked him pointedly. “I did not go. I presume staff officer Shibuya knows everything about this accident.” [38]
Another officer who had also heard of the air crash from Colonel Shibuya was Shigetaka Sugiura, an intelligence officer posted in Taipei. His statement to the commission that he “received information that...Chandra Bose [was] arriving” from Shibuya ran contrary to Shibuya’s subsequent claim that the “army authorities were not informed about Mr Bose’s arrival”. Sugiura first affirmed that he “was at the airport when the plane arrived” only to deny it minutes later. The record of his cross-examination reads just as any seasoned intelligence officer’s should. [39]
Lt Col Masanari Shibuya was attached to the army headquarters in Taipei and he was, in Tadashi Ando’s words, the “incharge of looking after Netaji” after the crash. Shibuya told the commission that after he received the telephone call from the aerodrome, he “reported that information to General [Rikichi] Ando, commander-in-chief of the army in Taiwan” and later visited the aerodrome and “saw the wreckage of the plan”.
In the course of examination by GD Khosla and Balraj Trikha, Shibuya conceded that he had in fact seen no wreckage and that his superiors showed little interest even though there had been a major mishap involving an ally and the vice chief of staff of an army which was still on the battlefronts. General Ando gave Shibuya “no instructions” and Isayama was not too much concerned about either Bose or his batchmate Shidei. Shibuya said he went to the hospital soon after the crash following an instruction from Isayama.
But Isayama’s evidence to the Shah Nawaz Committee was that “he learnt of the accident when he went to his office the next morning”. [40] Shibuya himself forgot what he had told the committee:
Khosla: Are you quite sure that when you reached the hospital Mr Bose was alive and you heard only the next day that he had died?
Shibuya: It is certain that Mr Bose was still alive when I reached the hospital, and I heard that Mr Bose died on the following day.
Khosla: You gave evidence before the Shah Nawaz Committee also?
Shibuya: Yes.
Khosla: In your statement it is written that when you reached the hospital Mr Bose was dead and you never saw him alive. Which is the correct statement?
Shibuya: When I reached the hospital Mr Bose was still alive, that is certain.
Khosla: So your previous statement is not correct?
Shibuya: Perhaps the previous statement may be incorrect if you so ask me.
Halfway through his examination, a confused Shibuya told the commission that “if there are any differences between my present statement and previous statement, please take my previous statement as correct and treat my today’s statement as incorrect”.
Trikha had soon picked up another gaping hole:
Trikha: You have stated today that you went to the airport to see the wreckage of the plane. You did not say so before Shah Nawaz Committee in your statement?
Shibuya: I did not make the statement before the first committee. I went to the airport and immediately I went to the hospital. The wreckage of the plane did not strike my particular attention. It was one of the usual things.
Trikha: So you did not see the wreckage of the plane?
Shibuya: I did not see the wreckage of the plane.
As the examination proceeded, Shibuya’s responses raised more questions than they answered.
Trikha: What is the system in the army? When a plane crashes, is it not your duty to inquire
into the matter?
Shibuya: During the war time there were no specific inquiries about air crashes unless that was of specific importance.
Trikha: But here you said that a very special person was travelling. So is it not a special reason to make an inquiry into the matter?
Shibuya: The Japanese army headquarters in Taiwan had nothing to do with this accident because the aeroplane was just to pass the area. It was not in the jurisdiction of the Taiwan army headquarters.
Trikha: But you have just now deposed that if there is any special reason then the inquiry is made. My question was that since a very special person was travelling in the plane, was it not the duty of an officer to make an inquiry?
Shibuya: The decision of the army headquarters at that time was not to touch this case. [41]
Four survivors of the crash also deposed before the commission in Tokyo. Their cross-examination brought out further discrepancies in the air crash story. One could not expect that sort of thing from the men who were senior business executives at that time.
Colonel Shiro Nonogaki, now president of Japan Furnace Material Company, was examined on 7 April 1971. He testified that he was “incharge of the plane” having specially been “appointed by General Shidei”—his teacher in the army academy. When the plane crashed, both Nonogaki and his fellow passenger Takahashi went around the burning wreck shouting out…“Chandra Bose, Shidei, come out!” And then, like Tadashi Ando, Nonogaki too forgot about General Shidei.
…
Shri Trikha: And when you heard the news that General Shidei had died, was there any cremation for him at the airport?
Colonel Nonogaki: I heard it later that he was cremated after I was hospitalised at Hokuto Hospital.
Shri Trikha: You did not go to attend the cremation?
Colonel Nonogaki: No.
Shri Trikha: You had no injuries on you and General Shidei was your superior. Did you not consider it necessary to attend the cremation?
Colonel Nonogaki: It may be worthwhile but I did not go to the cremation.
Shri Trikha: So you do not personally know whether the cremation of General Shidei was done?
Colonel Nonogaki: No [42].
At the start of Major Taro Kono’s deposition, GD Khosla had to tell him to give “evidence from your memory and not from the book” [43] because he and the lawyers had been noticing that many Japanese witnesses were checking their notes while giving evidence. According to one account, they had done so even before the Shah Nawaz Committee.
But in his report, Khosla made example of only Suresh Bose. He attacked him for refreshing his memory with notes while narrating detailed account of his experiences and observations. In his most detailed evidence, Suresh Bose gave file numbers and quoted from the intelligence reports he had seen. He became emotional several times and was not keeping well. More than once, right in front of Khosla’s eyes, the nearly 80-year-old man’s health failed.
Suresh Bose died within months of his deposition, never seeing Khosla’s report running him down. “It will be seen that Suresh Chandra Bose is drawing inferences which are not warranted by the facts”. He was “at pains to enlarge upon his grievances real or imaginary”. His “testimony in the present proceedings was a long diatribe against Nehru and Shri Shah Nawaz Khan”. “The examination of Suresh Chandra Bose’s evidence is a pointless exercise.” [44] Of all the documents brought before him, the only one Khosla deemed fit to be reproduced in full in his report was the government-manipulated note of June 1956 “agreement” of Suresh Bose with the other members of the Netaji Inquiry Committee. Even after his death, Suresh Bose was maligned for daring to challenge the official stand.
Kono, director of Kichi Sony Battery Company Limited at that time, claimed before the commission that after the crash he saw Subhas Bose bleeding from hands, legs, head and face. The others somewhow did not catch this gory sight. Many of Kono’s other statements did not tally with what he had testified to the Shah Nawaz Committee.
Trikha: I am putting to you that you had stated before the Shah Nawaz Committee that “I heard that Mr Bose was in the next room, though badly burnt yet alive. The nurses whose name I do not recollect told me this”.
Witness: That statement is correct.
Trikha: So what you have stated today that you had seen Bose personally in the hospital is incorrect?
Witness: My statement today that I saw Mr Bose lying on the bed is correct.
Trikha: You could see with your eyes?
Witness: Yes.
Trikha: Your eyes were closed due to injuries?
Witness: At that time I still could see.
Trikha: You have stated before Shah Nawaz Committee that “whole of my face had swollen and my eyes were closed and I could not see anything”. [45]
Ex- major Ihaho Takahashi, then Managing Director of the Tokyo Airlines Company, made a similar bloomer:
Trikha: Inside the plane, when the plane had crashed, you were in your senses?
Takahashi: I lost senses for a while.
Trikha: But inside the plane, after the plane crashed, you regained your senses and crawled outside, as stated by you earlier [today]?
Takahashi: Yes, it is correct.
Trikha: I am reading to you your statement made earlier before the Shah Nawaz Committee. “When the plane hit the ground, I became senseless. When I recovered consciousness, I was lying outside the plane at point two.” Is it correct?
…
Trikha: But this statement of yours made earlier is incorrect that you regained your consciousness outside the plane?
Takahashi: I think it may be correct.
Trikha: So what you have said today earlier that you crawled from the plane yourself and you were not unconscious, is that statement correct?
Takahashi: I gained consciousness. I was lying outside.
Trikha: So what you have stated today is incorrect?
Takahashi: Yes.
A howler followed. While Kono and Nonogaki said they saw Rahman beating the fire out of Bose’s clothes following the crash, Takahashi said he “saw Mr Bose coming from the other door. ...He came out walking with his clothes on fire. I could not speak his language. I showed him by rolling on the ground how to put out the fire. Mr Bose followed me and himself rolled on the ground. I and his aide tried to put out the fire. We extinguished the fire”.
There was no mistake about it. Takahashi clarified to Trikha when he was cross-examined: “I caught his legs and showed him how to roll. …I think Mr Nonogaki was there and helping him.” [46]
Wordsmith Khosla crafted a long justification for all these conflicting statements.
Anyone with some experience of hearing witnesses testify knows how impermanent, how subject to erasure, distortion and deception is human memory in the matter of minor details attending a major event. The broad facts stand out fairly clear and positive but all else is enveloped in the mist of oblivion. Memory is prone to play tricks and conjure up imaginary picture to provide verisimilitude to the more easily remembered incident of a murder, an air crash, a death or a rescue. …Inevitably there will be contradictions and discrepancies between the evidence of witnesses who describes an event which occurred a long time ago. [47]
This extremely persuasive logic was not applicable to those who opposed the air crash story. A question was raised about the round watch Bose was seen wearing at the time of his death and the burnt square one Habibur Rahman produced in support of his claim. The exacting standards of evidence put forward by Khosla in this instance were:
Witnesses have made totally contradictory statements about the matter of this watch. Aurobindo Bose (witness No 165), son of Suresh Chandra Bose, said that Subhas Chandra’s father had made a present of a round watch to him. Dwijendra Nath Bose (witness No 162) another nephew of Subhas Chandra Bose said: “That watch was a gift from Subhas’s mother….” [48]
Here were two individuals recalling a six or seven decades old family lore they had most probably heard from the
ir elders. What terribly big difference did it make whether it was the mother who had handed over the watch, or the father? The watch was a gift from Subhas’s parents, plain and simple. Whatever warranted the usage of harsh phrase “...totally contradictory” here?
Also deposing before the commission in Tokyo were the two Japanese doctors who had treated “Chandra Bose” at the hospital in Taipei. Dr Yoshio Ishii and his senior Dr Teneyoshi Yoshimi. Khosla described the former as “another important witness who corroborates the story of the four eyewitnesses of the crash”. This is what this “important witness” told the commission: A patient was identified to him as Chandra Bose by a nurse, who was giving him a blood transfusion. Dr Ishii gave her a helping hand, without enquiring why it was being done and which doctor was in charge. He did not see any bed ticket. [49] He remained by the patient for a good 20 minutes and found no one else around-never mind Rahman insisting before the Shah Nawaz Committee that he was there all the time.
Dr Yoshimi, who “appeared to be a most convincing witness of truth” to Khosla was examined at his residence at Miyazaki. But statements wouldn’t tally with those he had made previously.
