A War of Empires: Japan, India, Burma & Britain: 1941–45

"This is really a big picture, strategic book. It’s a great explanation of the political background and drivers of all of the nations that were involved in the war in British India—the Japanese, the British, the Indians and all the factions. It really helps to unpick it, because I think that’s something that really puts a lot of people off about understanding the war in Burma, that the social and political backdrop is so complicated. Rob does an incredible job at taking you through it all, because we’re not just talking about the British Army, the Indian Army and the Japanese army. We’re talking about the hill tribes. We’re talking about the Indian National Army. We’re talking about the different parts of Burmese society and where their loyalties lie, the Chinese, the US. It covers a huge area. If you’re coming to this fresh, it can feel overwhelming. A War of Empires is the book to read to really give you the context of the experiences of people like Alastair. It’s about all of them and understanding what each nation’s motivations were for being in Burma. The book does a lot of mythbusting as well. There’s this old idea that Japan wanted to invade Burma for the resources—rubber and things like that. That’s not really true. They invaded Burma because they wanted to cut off the American supply to China, because the Japanese had been fighting China for a long time. It’s about understanding why the Americans were so invested in China. China was very, very important to America. It wasn’t actually that important to the British, but because it was important to the Americans, it became important to the British and so therefore it became important to British India. The book is about the geopolitics of it all, and that’s what makes it a fascinating read. It all links to the Burma campaign and what the Burma campaign meant for imperialism and for British India after the war. There is quite a lot in the book about the Indian nationalist cause and whether this affected the conflict as much as some say or not. It’s also about the American idea of imperialism. They wanted to support China because they thought China would be good for America. People forget that China was an ally in the Second World War. So it’s really giving that context. It’s a must-read if you want to understand why the men and the women who were part of this vast 14th Army were there in the first place."