Martyrs' Day ( my, အာဇာနည်နေ့, ) is a Burmese national holiday observed on 19 July to commemorate Gen.

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his go ...

and seven other leaders of the pre-independence interim government, and one bodyguard —

Thakin Mya Dobama Asiayone ( my, တို့ဗမာအစည်းအရုံး, ''Dóbăma Ăsì-Ăyòun'', meaning ''We Burmans Association'', DAA), commonly known as the Thakhins ( my, သခင် ''sa.hkang'', lit. Lords), was a Burmese national ...

Ba Cho Ba Cho ( my, ဘချို, ; 24 April 1893 – 19 July 1947) was a Burma, Burmese newspaper publisher and politician who served as the Minister of Information in Myanmar's pre-independence government. Ba Cho and six other cabinet ministers ...

Abdul Razak ʻAbd al-Razzāq (ALA-LC romanization of ar, عبد الرزاق) is a male Muslim given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd'' and ''al-Razzāq'', one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to ...

Ba Win Ba Win ( my, ဘဝင်း, ; 10 June 1901 – 19 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, and Minister of Trade in the Interim Government of Burma. He was the eldest brother of Aung San, and was assassinated together with his youngest broth ...

Mahn Ba Khaing Mahn Ba Khaing ( my, မန်းဘခိုင် ; 26 October 1903 – 19 July 1947) was a Karen politician who served as the Minister of Industry and Labour in Burma's pre-independence government. He was assassinated on 19 July 1947 an ...

Sao San Tun Sao San Htun ( my, စဝ်စံထွန်း, ; 30 May 1907 – 20 July 1947) was the hereditary chief of the Shan State of Mongpawn, and Minister of Hill Regions in Myanmar's pre-independence interim government. He was a signatory to the ...

Ohn Maung Ohn Maung ( my, အုန်းမောင် ; 2 February 1913 – 19 July 1947) was a Burmese politician who served as the Deputy Minister of Transport in Myanmar's pre-independence government. He, along with seven other cabinet mini ...

and Ko Htwe—all of whom were assassinated on that day in 1947. It is customary for high-ranking government officials to visit the

Martyrs' Mausoleum The Martyrs' Mausoleum ( my, အာဇာနည်ဗိမာန်) is a Mausoleum in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), located near the northern gate of Shwedagon Pagoda. The mausoleum is dedicated to Aung San and other leaders of the pre-independence ...

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

in the morning of that day to pay respects.

Myoma U Than Kywe Myoma Than Kywe ( my, မြို့မ သန်းကြွယ်, ; 26 December 1924 – 22 September 1983) was a Burmese politician. He was one of the negotiators of the historical Panglong Conference. The signing of Panglong Agreement ...

led the ceremony of the First Burmese Martyrs' Day on 20 July 1947 in Rangoon.

History

On 19 July 1947, at approximately 10:37 a.m., BST, several of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

's independence leaders were gunned down by a group of armed men in uniform while they were holding a cabinet meeting at the

Secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...

in downtown

. The assassinations were planned by a rival political group, and the leader and alleged mastermind of that group ''Galon''

U Saw U Saw, also known as Galon U Saw ( my-Mymr, ဦးစော or my-Mymr, ဂဠုန်ဦးစော, lit. Garuda U Saw, ; 16 March 1900 – 8 May 1948), was a leading Burmese politician who served as Prime Minister of British Burma dur ...

, together with the perpetrators, were tried and convicted by a special tribunal presided by Kyaw Myint with two other Barristers-at-law, Aung Thar Gyaw and

Si Bu The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. E ...

. In a judgment given on 30 December 1947 the tribunal sentenced U Saw and a few others to death and the rest were given prison sentences. Appeals to the High Court of Burma by U Saw and his accomplices were rejected on 8 March 1948. In a judgment written by

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Justice

E Maung E, or e, is the fifth Letter (alphabet), letter and the second vowel#Written vowels, vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worl ...

(1898–1977) on 27 April 1948, the Supreme Court refused leave to appeal against the original judgment. All the judgments of the tribunal, the High Court, and the Supreme Court were written in English.The judgment of the tribunal can be read in ''A Trial in Burma'' by Dr

Maung Maung Maung Maung ( my, မောင်မောင် ; 11 January 1925 – 2 July 1994) was the seventh president of Burma, and a well-known writer. Early life and career Maung Maung was born on 11 January 1925 in Mandalay, Upper Burma, British ...

(Martinus Njhoff, 1963), and the judgment of the High Court and Supreme Court can be read in the 1948 Burma Law Reports. Then- President of Burma

Sao Shwe Thaik Sao Shwe Thaik ( shn, ၸဝ်ႈၶမ်းသိူၵ်ႈ, ''Tsaw³ Kham⁴soek³''; my, စဝ်ရွှေသိုက်, ; 16 October 1895 – 21 November 1962) was a Burmese politician who served as the first president of the Un ...

refused to pardon or commute the sentences of most of those who were sentenced to death, and U Saw was hanged inside Rangoon's Insein jail on 8 May 1948. A number of perpetrators met the same fate, while minor players, who were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, also spent several years in prison. The assassinated were: #

, Prime Minister #

, Minister of Information #

, Minister of Industry and Labor #

, Minister of Trade #

, Minister Without Portfolio, unofficially considered as Deputy Prime Minister of Burma #

, Minister of Education and National Planning #

, Minister of Hills Regions #

, Secretary of State Transport # Ko Htwe, Razak's bodyguard

Tin Tut Tin Tut, CBE ( my, တင်ထွဋ်, ; also spelt Tin Htut; 1 February 1895 – 18 September 1948) was the 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Burma, and the Minister of Finance in Aung San's pre-independence government. Educat ...

, Minister of Finance, and

Kyaw Nyein Kyaw Nyein ( my, ကျော်ငြိမ်း; ; 19 January 1913 – 29 June 1986), called honorifically U Kyaw Nyein ( my, ဦးကျော်ငြိမ်း;), was a Burmese lawyer and anti-colonial revolutionary, a leader in Burma’ ...

, Minister of Home Affairs, were not present at the meeting. Additionally, one of the assassins, Ba Nyunt, went to the office of

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

Speaker

U Nu Nu ( my, ဦးနု; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as U Nu also known by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the pr ...

, who was not present because of a leave of absence due to minor illness. Ba Nyunt could not find U Nu. Later Ba Nyunt became the government witness in the trial process. Many Burmese believe that the British were somehow involved in the assassination plot; two British officers were also arrested at the time and one of them charged and convicted for supplying an agent of U Saw with arms and munitions. A large part of the stockpile, which was enough to equip a small army, was recovered from a lake next to U Saw's house in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Soon after the assassinations,

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Sir

Hubert Rance Major General Sir Hubert Elvin Rance (17 July 1898 – 24 January 1974) was a British politician who was the last Governor of British Burma between 1946 and 1948, during the transition from Japanese to British colonial administration. Later he ...

, the last British

Governor of Burma The colonial governors of Burma were the colonial administrators responsible for the territory of British Burma, an area equivalent to modern-day Myanmar. As a result of the Second Anglo-Burmese War, Burma was initially setup as a province o ...

, appointed

to head an interim administration and when Burma became independent on 4 January 1948, Nu became the first

Prime Minister of Burma The prime minister of Myanmar is the head of government of Myanmar. The post was re-established in 2021 by the State Administration Council, the country's ruling military junta, to lead its nominally-civilian provisional government. The provis ...

. 19 July was designated a public holiday known as Martyr's Day.

Commemorations

Poem for Martyr's Day

Notes

References

External links

Who Really Killed Aung San?

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