Bo Let Ya ( my, ဗိုလ်လက်ျာ, ; also spelt Bo Letya; born Hla Pe; 30 August 1911 – 29 November 1978) was a Burmese military officer and a member of the legendary

Thirty Comrades The Thirty Comrades ( my, ရဲဘော်သုံးကျိပ်) constituted the embryo of the modern Burmese army called the Burma Independence Army (BIA) which was formed to fight for independence from Britain. This was accomplishe ...

who fought for Burma's independence from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. He also served as the 2nd Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Union of Burma (now Myanmar) and Deputy Prime Minister of Burma.

Early life

He attended Myoma High School in

Rangoon 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 ...

Career

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he was Chief of Staff of the Burma Defence Army (1942-1943) and as Deputy Minister of War in the Japanese puppet-state, the

State of Burma The State of Burma (; ja, ビルマ国, ''Biruma-koku'') was a Japanese puppet state created by Japan in 1943 during the Japanese occupation of Burma in World War II. Background During the early stages of World War II, the Empire of Japan in ...

(1943-1945). After the war, he replaced Aung San as Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister when the latter was assassinated on 19 July 1947. He was later made to resign from the post by

AFPFL The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), ; abbreviated , ''hpa hsa pa la'' was the dominant political alliance in Burma from 1945 to 1958. It consisted of political parties and mass and class organizations. The league evolved out of ...

Government. He was involved in the 1947 Let Ya-Freeman Agreement. He also founded the Patriotic Burmese Army in 1969, an exile rebel army based in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. During the 1950s and 1960s, following his resignation from his political and military posts, he founded Martaban Fisheries and became a millionaire businessman. Throughout his career, he served the following posts: * Deputy Minister of War Affairs (1943–1945) * Defence Councillor (July 1947 – 1948) * Deputy Prime Minister (January 1948 – 1952) * Minister of Defence Following the 1962 coup d'état, Bo Let Ya was imprisoned by the

Union Revolutionary Council The Union Revolutionary Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော်တော်လှန်ရေးကောင်စီ), officially the Revolutionary Council of the Union of Burma ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာန ...

from 1963 to 1965.

Death

On 29 November 1978, he was killed by

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic la ...

troops during a battle following a split in the

Karen National Union The Karen National Union ( my, ကရင် အမျိုးသား အစည်းအရုံး; abbreviated KNU) is a political organisation with an armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), that claims to represent the Ka ...

's leadership.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Let Ya, Bo 1911 births 1978 deaths People from Mandalay Region Burmese military personnel 20th-century Burmese businesspeople Government ministers of Myanmar Deputy Prime Ministers of Myanmar Defence ministers of Myanmar Burmese collaborators with Imperial Japan