Battle Of Kohima 1944: Survivors Recall One Of The Bloodiest Battles Of World War II

In April 1944, 15,000 men from the 31st Division of Japan’s Imperial Army commanded by Lt. Gen. Kotoku Sato arrived with the aim of taking over Kohima - a hill town that was also the British headquarters in the Naga Hills. The station on the Indian border with Myanmar was considered strategically important for Japanese advancement into British-held India.

The battle is often referred to as the 'Stalingrad of the East'. In 2013, the British National Army Museum voted the Battle of Imphal and Kohima to be 'Britain's Greatest Battle'.

86-year-old B.K. Sachu recalled the kindness of a doctor who “could not watch children suffer, he would treat them. From him I understood how good the Japanese were,” he said.

An Angami Naga boy Viketouzo Miachieo, 22, displays ammunition from World War II that he found a few years ago while cleaning the area beside his house in Kohima.

A 55-year-old Angami Naga Kekhrieselie Mepfuo, recalls the day on February 18, 1976, when a war-time era bomb exploded killing eight of his friends in Kohima. “I still think about it. It is better not to because it hurts too much. But how can I forget?” said Mepfuo, the only survivor from the explosion.

Medium M3 Lee tank that was abandoned when it went down this hill and crashed against a tree while climbing the Kohima Ridge to support British troops of the 2nd Division on May 6, 1944, in Kohima.

Khriepra-u Rutsa, an 85-year-old Angami Naga woman, smiles as she speaks about her experiences as a young girl during the battle between the Japanese and British Commonwealth forces in her village in 1944. "One night a group of Japanese came home and ate all our chicken. They’d roast the chicken over the fire and devour it,” Rutsa said.

Kuou Kesiezie, a 108-year-old Angami Naga survivor of the Battle of Kohima. Kesiezie, who worked as a British army porter during World War II in 1944, vividly remembers sprinting down the Pulie Badze mountain area. She had hurried back homewards after dropping off a load of supplies when she realized she still had an ammunition belt strapped around her waist, she recalled with a chuckle.?

Kuozeu Vizo, a 98-year-old Angami Naga woman, clasps her hands together as she speaks about memories of the bloody battle. The sight of her village bombed and burned black was as spellbinding as a rice field, golden and ripe for harvest. "I still wonder how they even knew which land belonged to whom when they started rebuilding the village," Vizo said.

For the locals, World War II was a conflict brought to their quiet lands by outsiders, and along with it, immeasurable loss. A population that had never been exposed to life beyond the village saw battle tanks and fighter planes dropping bombs over their beloved land. "We really suffered during the war," Vichuzo Rutsa, a 101-year-old Angami Naga said.