316 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
found a heavily bandaged Netaji lying on a bed and Habibur Rahman
on another bed about three feet away. Nakamura asked Habib to come
closer to help him decipher what Netaji was saying. Netaji’s first words
after Nakamura’s arrival were: “A few more of my men are coming after
me. Please take care of them when they come to Formosa.” About half
an hour later he inquired, “Where is General Shidei?” Later, he said that
he felt blood rushing toward his head. At about nine in the evening, he
said, “I want to sleep.” “During all this time,” Nakamura testified, “not a
word of complaint either of pain or suf fering came from his lips. The
Japanese of fi cers at the other end of the room were groaning with pain
and crying out that they may be killed rather than continue to endure
their suf fering. This composure of Netaji surprised all of us.” After Ne-
taji had breathed his last, Nakamura said, the Japanese stood in one
line and saluted Netaji’s body. Habibur Rahman came and knelt by
Netaji’s bed and prayed for five or six minutes. He then opened the
window and prayed again for about ten minutes, looking toward the
sky. He then went back to his own bed and lay down.^26
Nakamura was present at the cremation, along with Habibur Rah-
man and one Major Nagatomo, and provided a detailed de scrip tion
of the ceremony. The injured Habib held the incense sticks between
the edges of his palms, since he could not hold them in his fingers.
When they returned the next day to collect the ashes, Habib, with his
bandaged hands, had dif fi culty holding the ten- inch- long chopsticks
used to pick up charred bone fragments. Nakamura helped him to
put them in an urn. Major Nagatomo, who also testified, described a
similar pro cess of picking up the bone fragments, according to Bud-
dhist custom. The urn was then taken to the Nishi Honganji temple,
near the hospital. Another urn containing the ashes of General Shidei
was already there. Nakamura explained to the priest that the ashes he
had brought belonged to a person of higher sta tus than Shidei. The
priest was instructed to place the urn at a higher level and offer fresh
flowers ev ery morning. The Shah Nawaz committee also heard from
Tatsuo Hayashida, who had carried the urn on the plane journey with
Habibur Rahman from Taipei to Japan on September 5, 1945. S. A.
Ayer, Habibur Rahman, Rama Murti, Jaya Murti, and Reverend Mochi-
zuki testified on what happened to the urn after it was handed over by