The Tokyo Cadets or the Tokyo Boys, was the name given to the group of forty five youth recruits of the
Indian National Army who were sent to the
Imperial Japanese Army Academy or
Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Academy
The was the principal officers' training school for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. The classrooms of the academy were located in the city of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo. An airfield was added in 1937 and used by the IJ ...
to train as fighter pilots in 1944 by
Subhas Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...
.
The cadets were captured as prisoners of war after
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
surrendered, but were released in 1946 after the end of the
INA trials. The cadets became officers in the
Indian force
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...
s,
Burma Navy
The Myanmar Navy ( my, တပ်မတော် (ရေ); ) is the naval warfare branch of the armed forces of Myanmar. With 24,000 personnel on duty, the navy operates more than 150 vessels. Prior to 1988, the navy was small, and its role in c ...
,
Pakistan forces, and private pilots.
Some of them became
general officer
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
s.
Notable members
* Air Cmde
Ramesh Sakharam Benegal
Air Commodore Ramesh Sakharam Benegal MVC AVSM (9 October 1926 – April 2003) was an ex-officer of the Indian Air Force and a recipient of Maha Vir Chakra, India's second highest gallantry Award and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal.
Early life
Ram ...
,
MVC,
AVSM (Retd),
Indian Air Force.
References
Sources
* Ayer, Subbier Appadurai, ''Unto Him a Witness: The Story of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in East Asia'', Thacker, 1951
* ''The Contemporary'', Society for Contemporary Studies, University of Michigan, v.14, 1970
Further reading
*''BURMA to JAPAN with Azad Hind: A War Memoir (1941–1945)'' Ramesh Sakharam Benegal, Lancer Publishers, New Delhi 2009
*''Bhargava M.L. Indian national army Tokyo cadets'' 1986. New Delhi
* Subhash Chandra Bose Academy
External links
The list of the Tokyo Cadets, Subhas Chandre Bose Academy (Japanese)
Indian collaborators with Imperial Japan
Indian independence movement
Indian National Army
Military history of India
Youth organisations based in India
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