I Kikan

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The Iwakuro Kikan, or I Kikan, was an intelligence mission and liaison office for the Imperial Japanese Army and Indian National Army during the Second World War in the South-East Asian theatre. Headed by Colonel Hideo Iwakuro, it succeeded the F Kikan in liaising with the Indian Independence League and the Indian National Army under Captain Mohan Singh. After the revival of the Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose, the Hikari Kikan replaced the I Kikan.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">F Kikan</span>

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The Bidadari Resolutions were set of resolutions adopted by the nascent Indian National Army in April 1942 that declared the formation of the INA and its aim to launch an armed struggle for Indian independence. The resolution was declared at a prisoner-of-war camp at the Bidadari in Singapore during Japanese occupation of the island.

The Hikari Kikan was the Imperial Japanese liaison office responsible for Japanese relations with the Azad Hind Government that replaced the I Kikan. It was initially headed by Colonel Bin Yamamoto, later replaced by Major General Saburo Isoda.

The First Indian National Army was the Indian National Army as it existed between February and December 1942. It was formed with Japanese aid and support after the Fall of Singapore and consisted of approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 Indian prisoners of war who were captured either during the Malayan campaign or surrendered at Singapore. It was formally proclaimed in April 1942 and declared the subordinate military wing of the Indian Independence League in June that year. The unit was formed by Mohan Singh. The unit was dissolved in December 1942 after apprehensions of Japanese motives with regards to the INA led to disagreements and distrust between Mohan Singh and INA leadership on one hand, and the League's leadership, most notably Rash Behari Bose. Later on, the leadership of the Indian National Army was handed to Subhas Chandra Bose. A large number of the INAs initial volunteers, however, later went on to join the INA in its second incarnation under Subhas Chandra Bose.

The Farrer Park address was an assembly of the surrendered Indian troops of the British Indian Army held at Farrer Park in Singapore on 17 February 1942, two days after the Fall of Singapore. The assembly was marked by a series of three addresses in which the British Malaya Command formally surrendered the Indian troops of the British Indian Army to Major Fujiwara Iwaichi representing the Japanese military authority, followed by transfer of authority by Fujiwara to the command of Mohan Singh, and a subsequent address by Mohan Singh to the gathered troops declaring the formation of the Indian National Army to fight the Raj, asking for volunteers to join the army.

Prafulla Kumar Sen, also known as Swami Satyananda Puri, was an Indian revolutionary and philosopher. Puri, had in his youth taught Oriental philosophy at the University of Calcutta and later at Rabindranath Tagore's Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan. Encouraged by Tagore, he arrived in Thailand in 1932, and in 1939, he founded the Thai-Bharat Lodge, a cultural forum. Arriving in Thailand, Puri was appointed a professor at the Chulalongkorn University, lecturing in ancient Indian and Thai languages, and is said to have mastered the Thai Language in six months and went on to translate a number of Indian philosophical works and biographies, including the Ramayana and biographies of Gandhi to Thai. His literary work eventually was more than twenty volumes.

The Indian National Council was an organisation founded in December 1941 in Bangkok by Indian Nationalists residing in Thailand. The organisation was founded from the Thai-Bharat Cultural Lodge on 22 December 1941. The founding president of the Council was Swami Satyananda Puri, along with Debnath Das as the founding secretary. Along with the Indian Independence League, it came to be one of the two prominent Indian associations that corresponded with I Fujiwara's F Kikan on the scopes of Japanese assistance to the Indian movement.

The Tokyo Conference was a conference held between March 28 and 30, 1942 at Tokyo by South-East Asian Indian Nationalist groups including the Indian Independence League, the Indian National Council, and smaller local Indian associations and clubs. This conference led to the decision to establish an all-unifying Indian Independence League. The conference was held at the invitation of Rash Behari Bose who was instrumental in persuading the Japanese authorities to stand by the Indian nationalists and ultimately to support actively the Indian freedom struggle abroad. Bose was also elected the leader of the Indian movement in South-East Asia during this conference. However, the Tokyo conference failed to reach any definitive decisions due to the differences between various regional factions, and also because of differences both with Rash Behari especially given his long connection with Japan and the current position of Japan as the occupying power in South-east Asia, and also because many were wary of vested Japanese interests. The Tokyo conference however, did agree on the decision to meet again in Bangkok to establish an all-unifying IIL at a future date. Rash Behari arrived in Singapore in April with the returning Indian delegation.

<i>The Springing Tiger</i>

The Springing Tiger is a historical account of the Indian National Army published in 1959 by Col Hugh Toye. The book was published in London by Cassell Publishers, and is considered one of the first Sympathetic Western accounts of the army.

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