JAPANESE MILITARY OPERATIONS AND INDIA: STATEMENT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, GENERAL HIDÉKI TOHJO, APRIL 6, 1942
The Imperial forces which previously occupied Rangoon, an important base in Burma, and then took possession of the major strategic point in the eastern Indian Ocean, the Andaman Islands, which have hitherto been a place of exile for patriots of Indian independence, have now at last dealt severe blows to the British forces and military establishments in India.
The grim determination of our Empire to crush the United States and Britain is thus being steadily translated into action. If India should remain as before under the military control of Britain, it would, I am afraid, be unavoidable that, in the course of our subjugation of the British forces there, India will suffer great calamities.
As it is, of course, farthest from the thought of Japan to consider the Indian people as enemy, Japan deeply sympathizes with them who are likely to suffer the ravages of war.
What Japan's intentions are toward the Indian people was made clear in my address delivered before the Imperial Diet on March 12. In short, I am firmly convinced that now is the golden opportunity for the Indian people to exert their utmost efforts for the establishment of their long-desired "India for the Indians" in order to secure India's status as it ought to be.
The British influence in India is now about to be exterminated. I wish once again to repeat at this juncture Japan's expectation that not only the leaders in India but the four hundred million people there, while avoiding unnecessary calamities which will result from their being misled by sweet flatteries of Britain, the nation destined to downfall, will take full advantage
of this Heaven-sent opportunity and break away from the British bonds which have so long shackled them and thus go vigorously forward to realize truly their long-cherished aspiration, the "India for the Indians."