230 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
On his return from Rome in mid- November, Bose had already started
negotiations with Ribbentrop and the Japanese ambassador, Hiroshi
Oshima, to find an alternative way of traveling to Asia. The military at-
taché, Colonel Yamamoto Bin, left for Japan by air across Turkish and
Soviet territory in late November, to make the necessary arrangements.
The courtesy extended by the Soviet Union to a Japanese diplomat, al-
lowing the use of its airspace, did not extend to India’s anticolonial
revolutionary.^70 “I could do much more for my country,” Bose wrote to
Ribbentrop on December 5, 1942, exactly a week after his daughter’s
birth, “if I could be somewhere near India.” He continued his urging: “I
believe it is technically possible for the German Government to help
me to travel to the Far East—either by aeroplane or by submarine or by
ship. There is a certain amount of risk undoubtedly in this undertak-
ing, but so is there in ev ery undertaking. That risk I shall gladly and
voluntarily take. At the same time, I believe in my destiny and I there-
fore believe that this endeavor will succeed.”^71
By mid- January 1943, the plans for Bose’s submarine voyage to Asia
were finalized. Emilie came to Berlin on January 20, so they could
spend a few days together. A small party was held at the Sophienstrasse
home on January 23, to celebrate Subhas’s forty- sixth birthday. There
was much work to be done. Speeches were recorded that were to be
broadcast during Bose’s journey. The one berating the BBC as the
“Bluff and Bluster Corporation” of British imperialists was not espe-
cially well done, as it contained a long passage from an earlier speech.
There was an unanticipated dif fi culty by the time it was broadcast: a
fast by Gandhi coincided with Bose’s departure, and Bose had not been
able to make any mention of this key development. Another speech,
commemorating the Amritsar Massacre on April 13, could be broad-
cast without references to recent military and po lit i cal developments.^72
Bose made his final public appearance in Berlin on January 26, 1943,
at a big ceremony to observe Inde pen dence Day. The in de pen dence
pledge of the Indian National Congress was read out. According to the
Azad Hind, the “very colorful and eminent gathering” of some six hun-
dred guests included the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Rashid Ali El-
Gilani of Iraq. The hall was decorated with red tulips and white lilacs.
Netaji entered, dressed in a black sherwani, and addressed the assembly