At a time when India is commemorating the 125th birth anniversary of the indomitable Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, and his disappearance and passing away is still shrouded in mystery, it is worth our while to revisit a seminal work, Verdict from Formosa: Gallant End of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, authored by Harin Shah, a veteran journalist who visited Taiwan, then called Formosa, in 1946, one year after the tragic air crash in which Netaji was believed to have died.

The book was published in 1956, and this article is based on the aforesaid book which the author claims is “the eye-witness account from the crash to cremation collected on the spot in Formosa.” Shah writes in his book that he was “the only Indian having had the good fortune to visit Formosa after the end of the war” and “the bearer of conclusive eyewitness (accounts) collected in Formosa, checked with Netaji’s co-victim in the air-crash Col. Habibur Rehman and upheld by leaders like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel” and opines that “Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose embraced heroic martyrdom at Taipei”.

Although several books have been written about the mystery surrounding the disappearance and passing away of Netaji and a number of enquiry commissions appointed by the government have submitted their reports, Shah’s book is arguably the earliest one based on interviews with informed people in Taiwan, then called Formosa.

The book shows how Netaji was held in high esteem by the Taiwanese people. The author takes the readers on a tour of the hoary era of Asian resurgence during and after World War II when the peers of Netaji like Chiang Kai-shek, Aung San and Dr Sukarno dominated the emerging Asian firmament. He makes a reference to the ‘United Front’ tactics in China when the Kuomintang Party under the leadership of Chiang kai-shek and the Communist Party of China forged an alliance to liberate China from warlords and at the same time both KMT and the Communist Party of China were competing to come to power in China. World history would have been entirely different had the KMT succeeded in preventing the Communist Party from forming the government in China.

The inept handling and misreading of the ground situation by the US also contributed to the failure of the KMT in assuming power in China. In 1946, Harin Shah was at Nanking, the headquarter of the KMT regime in China, heading the Free Press of India News Service launched by S Sadanand. From there, he flew to Taipei via Shanghai along with a battery of foreign correspondents and arrived on 30 August 1946. As unraveling the mystery of Netaji’s disappearance was his main objective, he talked to a cross section of people about this immediately after his arrival in Formosa.

He was pleasantly surprised that the first question they shot at him was about “Chand la Bose”, who they added voluntarily they knew had died in Taipei. He talked to a cross section of intelligentsia in Taipei who were knowledgeable about Netaji. He writes that enquiries about the reaction of Indian people to the heroic deeds of Netaji and his final martyrdom by Formosan newspapermen soon after he set foot on Formosan soil were disarming. He was gratified to find that some Formosan newspaper friends had genuinely undertaken to piece together available evidence about Netaji’s death in the Taipei plane-crash. He visited the Taiwan Railway Hotel, where Netaji had stayed. He also met Huang Chao-chin, the Speaker of the provincial Assembly of Formosa who gave him extremely useful guidance in reaching the links in the story.

Shah discussed the issue with as many people as possible while in Taiwan, then called Formosa. An important personality whom he met in Formosa and who threw light on Netaji’s life and times in Formosa was Prof. K S Wei of Taipei University. Culling out the noting in his diary after meeting Prof. Wei, Shah writes in his book attributing to the former, ”… he died in August 1945… News published in Formosa papers… But no photos… He came by a bomber. Bomber was taking off. Gasoline tank leaked. He died in Japanese hospital… He was very brave. I was not in Taihoku at the time of his death. Whenever any accident occurred at the airport, Japanese used to cordon off. So probably, no eyewitness except Japanese military officers… I shall ask my friends to find out more…”

Professor Wei sent across a book written in Japanese through Ms Noliko, the hotel attendant, to Shah’s room. The Professor’s covering letter, scribbled on the blank back page of the Contents in the book, said, ” … please find page 107 of this book. Mention is made of his death. That will give you some information. Yesterday, I called on a Japanese Professor of Taipei University, who was with the Japanese Military Headquarters as an interpreter when Bose’s death was made known. The exact date was August 1945, 19th at 1.30 a.m.” The name of the Japanese book was 20 years of Pacific Hurricane. It mentioned the death in an air-crash at Taipei. One more inference that Shah drew was from Dr. Lee wanchu, who was the editor of the Chinese-language newspaper Shin Sheng Jir Pao, published from Taipei. Dr Lee was also the Deputy Chairman of the Provincial Assembly of Formosa. Dr Lee personally went through the files in his office of the closed-down Japanese newspaper Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shimbun, published from Taipei and found the issue of the newspaper carrying an official press note on Netaji’s death through plane-crash at Taipei.

Dr Lee gave Shah a copy of the original Japanese newspaper carrying the news. It said, “A press-note issued at 2 p.m. on 22nd inst. (August 1945) by the Intelligence Bureau of the Japanese Garrison Commander, Taihoku (Taipeh), states that Chandra Bose, Leader of the Provisional Government of Free India set out on a plane from Singapore on 16th August en-route Tokyo. He was proceeding to Tokyo to discuss with the Imperial Government. At 14 hours on 18th, the plane met with an accident in the vicinity of Taihoku airfield and Chandra Bose was heavily wounded.”

The report added, “Although he was given treatment at the Tunti (Chinese word meaning ‘South Gate’ Military Hospital), it proved of no avail, and he passed away on 19th August at zero hour.” Shah visited the South Gate Military Hospital which was under Japanese control at the time of air-crash. With the cooperation of the Chinese Head of the Hospital, Col.Wu Kuo Hsing, Shah met sister Tsan Pi Sha who was working with the military hospital from Japanese times. She dropped a bombshell, to quote the author, when she said, “He (Netaji) died here. I was by his side”. She told Shah that Netaji had received injuries from burning. He was burnt as a result of the air crash which took place at the Taioku airport just before he was brought to the hospital. It was about noon time on August 18th that he was brought to the hospital. He was very severely burnt. He died the same night at about 11, she added.

Shah also met Japanese people and ascertained vital facts. One such person whom Shah interviewed was Dr Kunio Kawaishi, the then Professor of Surgery at the University Hospital in Taipei. When Netaji arrived on his last trip to Formosa, Dr. Kunio was the Director of the University Hospital. Dr Kunio believed that Netaji probably died at the airport itself; so serious was the burning injury. The book has so many startling revelations which only an authentic and objective investigation can confirm or contradict.

(The writer is a retired Joint Secretary of the Lok Sabha Secretariat and a Senior Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research)