A Life Immortal 313to 1956, evidence for the air crash accumulated and became weightier,
since there had been six Japanese survivors in addition to Habibur
Rahman, and several other direct witnesses at the hospital. In August
1946 an Indian journalist, Harin Shah, visited Taiwan and gathered in-
formation on what he described as the gallant end of Netaji. He met
among others a Chinese nurse named Tsan Pi Sha, who said she had
cared for Netaji at the Nanmon (Southgate) Military Hospital during
his final hours on August 18, 1945, and gave correct de scrip tions of
both Netaji and Habibur Rahman. The on- the- spot journalistic in quir-
ies convinced Harin Shah that the news of Netaji’s death as a result of
the air crash was true.^19
On October 19, 1946, a British captain named Alfred Raymond
Turner recorded a statement by Captain Yoshimi Taneyoshi, the sur-
geon in charge at the Taipei hospital, inside the Stanley Gaol in Hong
Kong. When the injured were brought from the airport to the hospital,
a Japanese military of fi cer had pointed out “Chandra Bose” to him. He
was urged to make ev ery possible effort and to give Bose “the very best
of treatment.” His patient had suf fered extensive burns. “During the
first four hours,” according to Dr. Yoshimi, “he was semi- conscious,
and practically normal, speaking quite a good deal.” The doctor be-
lieved that the first words he spoke were in Japanese, asking for water,
which he was fed through a hospital cup with a spout. It has been
speculated that Bose was unlikely to have used the Japanese word meju
for water and may have said something about “Mejda,” his elder brother
Sarat. “As most of his speaking was in En glish,” Yoshimi continued in
his statement, “a request for an interpreter was made, and one was sent
from the Civil Government Offices named Nakamura. He informed
me that he had very often interpreted for Chandra Bose and had had
many conversations with him. He appeared to have no doubt that the
man he was speaking with was Chandra Bose.” His patient began to
sink into unconsciousness after four hours, and died later that night.
His adjutant, an Indian colonel, who was also under Yoshimi’s care,
wanted Bose’s body to be taken to Tokyo. The doctor therefore injected
Formalin into the body and had the coffin partly filled with lime,
which was taken to the airport on August 20 by warrant of fi cer Nishi.
The of fi cer returned saying that the body, “for some unknown reason,”