20 December 1938
In memory of Bo Aung Gyaw
room Myanmar
On 20 December 1938, University student "Bo" Aung Gyaw was killed by police on Sparks Street (now Bo Aung Gyaw Street), while dozens of other Burmese demonstrators against colonial rule were wounded as they attempted to march around the Secretariat. Bo Aung Gyaw was the first martyr of the nationalist movement and tens of thousands of people attended his funeral a week later - the route was so thick with mourners that it took four hours for the cortege to travel the half mile from Rangoon University to Kyandaw cemetary (now Junction Square mall). Burmese nationalism was taking a radical turn. Elsewhere in the world, Europe was veering towards World War Two (Adolph Hitler had just been named Time magazine's "Man of the Year") and Japanese armies were advancing across China, forcing Chiang Kai-shek to withdraw his capital to Chungking. Within two years the war would come to Burma, with devastating consequences.