Dear all,

I am writing a book 'Exodus Burma' for The History Press, which is the 
story of the exodus of half a million people from Burma following the 
Japanese invasion of 1941/2. Approximately 200,000 people of Indian 
origin left by boat for Calcutta or Chittagong. The other 300,000, of 
which circa 30,000 were European, Anglo-Burmese, Anglo-Indian, Chinese 
or tribal Burmese eg Kachin, walked from Burma to India over the 
mountain ranges on the Assam/Burma border. Thousands died on the journey 
from disease or starvation. Refugee camps were set up by a few colonial 
officials who stayed at their posts in Burma, while camps were set up 
and run by tea planters from Assam in the mountains. They were supplied 
largely by air. Many of those who walked, left in early May after the 
remaining British-held airfield in the north was bombed and all hope of 
air transport vanished. The monsoon broke on May 12th that year, earlier 
than anticipated, and refugees found themselves up to their thighs in 
mud, and unable to cross swollen rivers. Those who reached India were 
put in camps if they had nowhere else to go, and although I have found 
little information on them, they were still in existence in 1945. It has 
to be assumed that some Indians returned to the province or village from 
which their parents or grandparents had originated.

As far as I am aware, it is the only occasion when the British have been 
true refugees: ie homeless, penniless, starving, walking into an unknown 
future. I would very much like to discuss that question with someone. I 
would also like to know the legal and academic definition of the term 
refugee.

With the millions of displaced persons in Europe at the end of World War 
II, I suspect the refugees from Burma were 'forgotten'. Certainly most 
of those who helped them were absorbed into the armed forces, retired, 
or died as a result because conditions were so dreadful. Is this refugee 
exodus 'taught'? And if not why not? Was the experience of setting up 
refugee camps in Assam and Burma in 1942 utilised in the greater crisis 
at the end of World War II?

If anyone would be prepared to discuss this with me I would be very 
grateful. Incidentally there is the mere shadow of a memory about this 
exodus in modern Myanmar, largely because it is very hard to find anyone 
old enough to ask!

Please send all replies to: [log in to unmask]

With best wishes and thanks,

Felicity Goodall
[log in to unmask]

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