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ミャットさんの記録（原英文と日本訳）
Dr. Hla Mint Myat Burmese Students' Odyssey
In the last Asia Pacific War of 1941 to 1945, Burma was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army from May 1942. Under the scheme of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Japanese Government undertook to educate and train young people from East Asia. The Burmese Government sent two batches of civilian and two batches of military state scholars to Japan from 1943. I was one of thirty civilian state scholars of the second batch selected for studies in Japan. The selection was done jointly by Burmese and Japanese Education personnel. The matriculation standard for Rangoon University was the minimum education requisite. At the age of seventeen I was the youngest in our group and I was selected on the very day that I was to start my studies at the Rangoon Medial College. We were organized as a para-military unit and given basic training and elementary lessons in Japanese language and history. This was done by Japanese Civil Administrators-Messer's Okumura, Tanaka, Hiramatsu, Nakajima and Osawa. The preliminary training lasted for three months and on the eve of departure we were entertained, encouraged and advised by the Japanese Ambassador H. E. Mr. Renzo Sawada and our President Dr. U. Ba Maw. We left Burma by rail on the 11th April 1944 with Messer's Hiramatsu, Nakajima and Osawa. By that time the R. A. F. was active again. At our first stop in a town in southern Burma we were under sustained aerial attack during the night. After spending most of the night in underground shelter we continued our way in the morning. We travelled in two goods-wagons by the infamous Burma-Siam or Dead-Men's Railway. The terrain was difficult through deeply forested mountains, endemic with tropical diseases. The rail and rolling stocks were salvaged from anywhere and the amenities were basic. We were staffed once by the R. A. F. However, we came through and arrived at Bangkok safely. It was a joy as well as strange to see the country mostly untouched by war. We continued our rail journey, in second-class passenger carriages, through Malay Peninsula to Singapore-whence we were to undertake a sea-voyage. We embarked on "Teritsu Maru" ( formerly a French liner ) together with students from Malay, Java, Sumatra and Celebes. Some soldiers brought on board little white boxes and I learnt that these were urns containing ashes of fallen soldiers. We sailed, on the night of 21st May, in a convoy of twelve including four destroyers and an-aircraft carrier as escorts. This was the most dangerous stretch as the U. S. Navy was trying to blockade the route. We had heard that, on previous occasions, some Burmese students and Consular officials were in the drink in the South China Sea due to action by U. S. submarines. We had to do some sentry duties on deck: We had had some alerts and we heard some explosions as the escort destroyers discharged their depth charges. There were no serious incidents except for loss of one fighter airplane through mechanical failure. We arrived at Mohji in northern Kyushu on June 8 1944. We disembarked carrying our baggage and were put up in a Japanese inn. We were suddenly struck by harsh realities of life in wartime Japan. We could not comprehend or believe the very harsh ration system ( Hai Kyu ) as we came from an agrarian county. Be that as it may, we resumed our rail journey through Shimonoseki to Tokyo. It took about twenty-four hours and we arrived on June10 1944. We were temporarily housed in Sarugaki cho, Kanda Ku, until the Burmese Students' Hostel named Peacock Hall-Kujacu Ryo after our national bird, was finished in Kochijoji in the suburbs of Tokyo on the 9th July 1944. We attended the International Students' Institute, Japanese Language School with students from other Asian States. The Institute was in Naka Meguro district of Tokyo. The director was Retired General Iida and the superintendent was Mr. Murakami. The teachers that I could recall were Messer's Kikuchi, Inutake and Yamada. It was six days a week school; I worked hard and enjoyed myself. For about four weeks in summer (August and September ) the school was moved to Niigata. We stayed in pretty, picturesque Japanese inns with hot springs. Most delightful of all, that I remembered, was a relaxed ration law with sufficient supply of food in many restaurants in nearby villages. We carried on with our studies just as the whole nation was toiling hard under increasingly difficult conditions. We guessed and got a hint of unfavourable war situation. At one time we prayed silently for the fall of Saipan in the Marianas. In December 1944 we started to see big silvery U. S. bombers with white vapour trails high in the sky above Tokyo. This became more frequent and in March 1945 Tokyo was subjected to devastating incendiary bomb attacks. Although we were not affected we watched in dismay the intense light and dense billowing smoke in the night sky over Tokyo. We finished our final examination at the Institute at the end of March. Ten Burmese students came to study at Fukuoka Koko in April 1945. On our way from Tokyo we were met at the Hiroshima railway station, by four Burmese students who were about to move to Kyoto Imperial University. At that moment we did not realize their enormous stroke of luck. In Fukuoka, we stayed in a big two-storied Japanese style building with students from other Asian countries. We came to school in electric trams which often run by young schoolgirls of eleven or twelve. We all studied science and the curriculum comprised Japanese, English, German, physics, chemistry, mathematics, zoology and botany. The school was run mainly for the benefit of foreign Asian students because I did not see very many Japanese students. A few that we did see were with varying degrees of physical disability. We assumed that most able-bodied were on active service. In the 1970s and '80s fashionable and highly-priced jeans sold were stonewashed, frayed and torn in places. Little did they know that this trend in fashion was set by Japanese high school students many decades ago. I could vaguely recall the teachers at that time; most were middle-aged, but the physics master looked young. He walked with a slight limp because his one leg was longer than the other. I am afraid I could not remember their names except Mr. Tanaka. He taught Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge and he used to join us at lunchtime to practice conversational English. On the night of 19th June 1945, U. S. Airforce planes attacked Fukuoka including the use of incendiary bombs. Our house was also on fire. We had to flee to escape and somehow arrived at the harbor where we jumped into the water. There were five of us; two of the colleagues, who could not swim, had to be helped. We were half submerged in water holding on to iron rings and mooring ropes of the harbor wall. The burning material from the bomb floated in the water still burning. We were kept busy warding these off by splashing water. In the morning we were all reunited and relieved to learn that all students and staff were safe. We were moved to students' hostel. These had not been lived-in for some time and they were in a sorrowful state. I had lost everything in the fire. The authorities did the best they could by issuing some clothing and books. Some of our colleagues in other parts of Japan donated some clothes and students from Kyoto brought them to us. We carried on as usual. On some Sundays we would go to neighbouring villages to forage for food. Now the U. S. fighter planes were harassing the local rail traffic in and around Fukuoka. Then came the BIG SHOCK. The damage and casualties suffered as a result of bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th August 1945, respectively, were reported as awesome and catastrophic. That was a significant departure from norm. We did not know the type and nature of the bomb. It was reported as a "Parachute" bomb. The general public was instructed to cover oneself with wet blanket or futon in the air-raid shelter to protect oneself from flash burns. Rumours were rife. There were those who would want to defend the motherland to the last and those who would want to seek peace. We were told to listen to Emperor's Pronouncement on the 15th of August 1945. The housemaster and all of us sat and listened. It was in archaic court language delivered in a somewhat shrill voice. The staff were trembling and in tears as they listened. We got the gist of it and the housemaster explained to us fully. He was kindness personified. He urged us to continue to live as normal as possibly can and encouraged us to be cheerful. In this austere time he managed to give each of us two large bottles of beer. We were recalled back to Tokyo and on our way we witnessed the devastation of Hiroshima. All Burmese students were safe. We learned the sad news about Malay students studying in Hiroshima. The U. S. Occupying Authority treated us as Recovered Allied Prisoners of War to be repatriated back to our country. We left Tokyo by U. S. ships for Manila in the last week of September 1945. The British Authorities then arranged our journey back to Burma through Singapore. We arrived back in Rangoon in the last week of October 1945. Thus ended our odyssey. I am grateful for the Japanese Government, who paid all our expenses and looked after us as best as they could. I had witnessed and shred the difficulties and hardships in the last two years of the war. Patriotism and stoic perseverance of the nation was remarkable and admirable. Out of the blue I have come to say "Farewell Ropponmatsu." But wherever it may be, the institution will continue to provide high standards of education for many generations to come.