25 Interesting Facts about Death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Posted on : July 14, 2018 By
Biography 

Subhash Chandra Bose died on 18 August 1945. Following are sequence of events that happened on that day-

  • Around 2:25 PM, Subhash Chandra Bose boarded the bomber plane with his assistant Habibur Rehman. The pilot, Co-founder pilot and Vice Chief of Staff of the Japanese Kwantung Army, who was to have made the negotiations for Bose with the Soviet army in Manchuria, also boarded the plane.
  • Around 2:30 PM as the bomber with Bose on board was leaving the standard path taken by aircraft during take-off, the passengers inside heard a loud sound, similar to an engine backfiring.
  • The mechanics on the tarmac saw something fall out of the plane. It was the engine, or a part of it, and the propeller.
  • The plane swung wildly to the right and plummeted, crashing, breaking into two, and exploding into flames.
  • Inside, the chief pilot, copilot and Lieutenant-General Tsunamasa Shidei,were instantly killed.
  • Habibur Rahman was fainted due to injury in accident.
  • Subhash Chandra Bose was unhurt and conscious. He was completely soaked in gasoline.
  • Soon Rahman regained his senses. He and Subhash Chandra Bose attempted to leave by the rear door, but found it blocked by the luggage.
  • They then decided to run through the flames and exit from the front.
  • Soon, ground staff reached the spot where plane crashed. The ground staff saw two people staggering towards them, one of whom had become a human torch.
  • The human torch turned out to be Bose, whose gasoline-soaked clothes had instantly ignited.
  • Rahman and a few others managed to smother the flames, but also noticed that Bose’s face and head appeared badly burned.
  • A truck which served as ambulance rushed Subhash Chandra Bose and the other passengers to the Nanmon Military Hospital south of Taihoku.
  • The airport personnel called Dr. Taneyoshi Yoshimi, the surgeon-in-charge at the hospital at around 3 PM.
  • Bose was conscious and mostly coherent when they reached the hospital, and for some time thereafter.
  • Bose was naked, except for a blanket wrapped around him, and Dr. Yoshimi immediately saw evidence of third-degree burns on many parts of the body, especially on his chest, doubting very much that he would live.
  • Dr. Tsuruta and Dr. Yoshimi promptly began to treat Bose.
  • Soon, in spite of the treatment, Bose went into a coma.
  • A few hours later, between 9 and 10 PM (local time) on Saturday 18 August 1945, Subhas Chandra Bose, aged 48, was dead.

Cremation of Bose

  • Bose’s body was cremated in the main Taihoku crematorium two days later, 20 August 1945.
  • On 23 August 1945, the Japanese news agency Do Trzei announced the death of Bose and Shidea.
  • On 7 September Lieutenant Tatsuo Hayashida carried Bose’s ashes to Tokyo. He handed over ashes to the president of the Tokyo Indian Independence League, Rama Murti following morning.
  • On 14 September, people in Japan held  a memorial service in Tokyo. The priest of the Renkōji Temple of Nichiren Buddhism in Tokyo received ashes of Bose few days later.
  • There they have remained ever since.

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