For all that has been written about the Second World War, comparatively little attention has been paid in the West to the campaigns waged in southeast Asia. Whereas the fronts in Europe and North Africa and the battles waged in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans have been the subject of innumerable memoirs and works of history, the confrontation between the Japanese Empire and the Allies there receives only a fraction of the interest. This is especially surprising considering that it was Japan’s desire for the resources of the region was the motivation behind their expansion of the war, a decision that set the stage for the collapse of their empire.

While there are many reasons why the events on southeast Asia have not received the attention they deserve, a major one is the barrier imposed by language. While there is no shortage of English-language materials for prospective scholars, these provide only a limited perspective on a complex mélange of events that drew many different groups into the conflict. One of the great strengths that Louis Allen brings to his history of the Burma campaign is his facility with languages. Thanks to his fluency in Japanese, Allen was able to draw upon a wide range of Japanese sources – documents, histories, and interviews with surviving participants – to provide a more balanced account of the war that was fought in the region.

In doing so, Allen expands his focus from a narrow account of military operations to one that considers the vitally important local context in which the war took place. He begins the book not with the Japanese assault on Burma but the prewar Burmese political environment, in which ambitious patriots chafed under British rule. The Japanese exploited this discontent, drawing upon their claims as a liberating Asian power to win over the support of key figures in Burma and India. This appeal was enhanced by their dramatic victories over the Western powers in early 1942, which undermined Western claims of racial superiority and established Japanese dominance throughout the region.

Yet whereas Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies were swiftly conquered by the Japanese, Burma became an ongoing battleground as the front lines between the Japanese and the British stabilized at Burma’s border with India. Despite being constrained by the relatively low priority accorded to the region by their superiors, British commanders sought to disrupt Japanese operations and reclaim the initiative. This gave the eccentric Orde Wingate an opportunity to embark upon the first of his two extended “Chindit” expeditions behind Japanese lines, which proved of limited military value but provided a powerful boost to British morale in the region. Thanks to Wingate’s activities and a determined training regimen, the British prepared to go on the offensive.

The Japanese had offensive plans of their own, however. Aspiring to disrupt British rule in the subcontinent, in March 1944 the new commander of the Japanese Fifteenth Army, Mutaguchi Reyna, launched U-Go, or Operation C, an ambitious invasion of northeastern India. Instead of forcing the British to retreat as before, though, the Japanese were locked into debilitating battles at Imphal and Kohima against well-supplied British and Indian forces, who eroded the overstretched Japanese and turned the tide of the war in the theater. With their units exhausted, the Japanese had no other option but to withdraw from Burma, which degenerated into a scattered flight by the time the war against Japan came to an end.

As a veteran who served in the theater, Allen’s account reflects his direct knowledge of the people and events he describes, which he supplemented with considerable research in both British and Japanese archives as well as the relevant publications in both English and Japanese. This allows him to provide a history of the war in Burma that gives equal attention to both sides, a quality too often lacking in English language books about the war in the region. The narrative that emerges captures something of the epic nature of the fighting, with soldiers battling each other in some of the most unimaginably difficult conditions of the war. Where the book falls short is with surprisingly limited coverage given to the logistics of the war in the region (especially given the importance he accords it) and the absence of any analysis of how Burma fit into the strategic thinking of both sides in the conflict. Yet while this results in an awkwardly circumscribed account in some respects, it is no less indispensable because of it. For while there is still plenty more to be learned about the war in this underappreciated and often misunderstood theater, it is unlikely that anyone will ever be able to improve upon Allen’s magnificent chronicle of the combat that took place in it. ( )

Excellent reading and thorough account. Top notch book. ( )

Thorough, with better maps and military groups ids, it would have been an excellent resource. ( )

Very thorough record of a remarkable campaign in which the
British/Indian forces under Slim went from total defeat to total victory ( )

Very thorough account of a remarkable and (to Americans, at least) little-known theater of war ( )