| Village council organises grand centenary celebrations of heritage building; residents recall attacks | ||
| ZODIN SANGA | ||
Aizawl, June 3: A
government hospital in North Vanlaiphai, a village in eastern Mizoram
near the Myanmar border, has withstood the test of time, including
Japanese air strikes during World War II.
Legend has it that the heritage
hospital is also a silent witness to an attempt on the life of Lt Gen.
Sir William Slim, a British officer commanding Burma Corps.
As the hospital
celebrated its 100th birthday today, the memories of the upheaval it had
gone through came flooding back to a few surviving witnesses.
“There was a
thunderous sound in the sky and six Japanese jet fighters appeared from
nowhere. Heavy objects fell from the sky and exploded,” an 87-year-old
villager recollected. The date was March 28, 1944.
Though the entire
village suffered from the Japanese aerial attack, the hospital and its
adjacent quarters bore the heaviest brunt, according to R.L. Buatsaiha,
66-year-old retired headmaster of a government school in the village,
who interviewed witnessed and documented the incident that failed to
figure in history books.
Buatsaiha interviewed a number of people, most of whom have now passed away.
“Six bombs were
dropped, which meant that each jet fighter dropped a bomb each. The
fighter aircraft also swept the village with machine guns,” Buatsaiha
says.
“Smoke billowed, darkening the sky. The villagers ran helter-skelter while many prayed to God for help,” he adds.
Miraculously,
except for a few persons who suffered injuries and a pig that died, not a
single person died in the attack despite the fact that there were five
patients on hospital beds at the time of the attack, he said.
The hospital’s
quarters were damaged beyond repair. Luckily, the doctor was on a
holiday at that time, otherwise, he would surely have died, says
Buatsaiha.
Till recently, the
ground near the hospital had craters following the bombings. It was
later discovered that the hospital bore no Red Cross mark. “But, the
craters have now been filled by the owners of the land. The bullet holes
in the hospital and the doctor’s quarters are the only remaining
testimony to the forgotten attack during World War II,” Buatsaiha says.
Even though no one
knew the motive behind the Japanese surprise attacks, it was believed
that Lt Gen. Slim was the target. But no one knew if the British army
officer was actually in the village at the time. All that the villagers
knew was that a British army official was staying at the inspection
bungalow near the village.
“Located near the
Indo-Myanmar border, North Vanlaiphai was a strategic place for the
British army. It had an inspection bungalow and British soldiers
occasionally camped in the village. This was enough reason for the
advancing Japanese to attack,” he says.
North Vanlaiphai
branch of the Young Mizo Association has preserved the craters and
bullet marks. Even though the hospital, commissioned in 1913, had
completed 100 years last year, the celebration was postponed because of
the Assembly elections.
It is one of the
few surviving buildings built by the British and it has been declared a
heritage building by the Mizoram government.
The grand
centenary celebration, organised by the village council of North
Vanlaiphai today, was graced by chief minister Lal Thanhawla. He said it
was a matter of great pride that the centenary of a British-era
hospital was being celebrated and congratulated the people of the
village. Health minister Lal Thanzara, who attended the function as
chief guest, promised that the hospital would be upgraded with modern
technology without infringing on its heritage value.
|
