Roads to Delhi 241A special effort at reaching mutual un der stand ing was required, be-
cause of a breakdown in communication between the Indians and
the Japanese in Southeast Asia that had preceded Bose’s arrival. Indo-
Japanese relations had been off to a good start in October 1941: a
young idealistic Japanese major, Fujiwara Iwaichi, made contact in
Bangkok with an Indian anticolonial activist, Giani Pritam Singh, of
the Indian Inde pen dence League, the premier nationalist or ga ni za tion
for the large population of Indian expatriates. Fujiwara headed a small
liaison unit known as the Fujiwara Kikan, charged with winning Indian
support for Japan’s military effort. During the campaign in north Ma-
laya during December 1941, Fujiwara and Pritam Singh befriended
Captain Mohan Singh of the 1/14 Punjab Regiment of the British In-
dian Army—a regiment that had been decimated by Japanese forces.
They took him to the town of Alor Star and assured him that the Japa-
nese had no intention of holding Indian soldiers as prisoners- of- war.
Japan wanted “Asia for the Asiatics” and was prepared to help form an
Indian National Army to wrest India’s freedom from British rule. They
would try to get a man of the highest caliber and po lit i cal integrity,
Subhas Chandra Bose, who had already escaped the clutches of the
British, to lead them in Southeast Asia. By the end of December 1941,
Mohan Singh was persuaded and helped the Japanese to win over In-
dian soldiers to their side as the military campaign moved swiftly
southward down the Malay Peninsula.^6
After the fall of Singapore on February 15, 1942, the Indian soldiers
were separated from their British counterparts and handed over to the
Japanese by the British commanding of fi cer. On February 17, Indian
soldiers of all ranks gathered at Singapore’s Farrer Park, while the Brit-
ish of fi cers and their men were assembled at Changi, an area in the
eastern part of the city. Colonel J. C. Hunt curtly announced that In-
dian soldiers should conduct themselves from now on according to
Japanese directives, and left Farrer Park. Fujiwara then rose to deliver a
carefully prepared speech. Lieutenant Kazunori Kunizuka translated
his Japanese words into En glish, and Colonel N. S. Gill, an Indian sol-
dier, rendered them in Hindustani. “The Japanese Army will treat you
not as POWs,” Fujiwara declared with sincerity and passion, “but as
friends.” Japan was prepared to help the Indian soldiers in their free-