23 December 1941 - March 1942
World War Two came to Rangoon before Christmas
room Myanmar
On 23 and 25 December 1941, the Japanese Empire attacked Rangoon for the first time. Over 80 Japanese Mitsubishi Ki-21 bombers escorted by 30 Nakajima fighter planes flew from bases in Thailand and Indochina. Tomahawk and Buffaloes planes of the UK's Royal Airforce and the US Army's "Flying Tigers" attempted to intercept the Japanese invasion force with only limited success. The Japanese used high explosive and incendiary bombs over Rangoon's entire downtown from Pazundaung to Ahlone, destroying around three-fifths of all the wooden buildings in the area. Rangoon's docks, oil refinery and the Mingaladon airfield were utterly destroyed, but much of the city itself was spared (unlike Mandalay, which by May would be left a blackened ruin).
During the Japanese bombing of Rangoon, an estimated 2,000 civilians were killed, and many more injured (out of a total population of around 400,000). Over 100,000 people tried to flee by sea or air, including on sea-planes taking off from in front of the Strand Hotel. Hundreds of thousands of civilians (Indians, Burmese, Anglo-Burmese, Europeans, Chinese, Karens, and others) fled the city over the following weeks, headed for India, and tens of thousands died along the way. It was one of the greatest and most horrific refugee exoduses in history.
The land invasion began two weeks later, with Rangoon falling to the Japanese Fifteenth Army of Lt. General Shōjirō Iida on March 1942.
This very rare photograph taken from a Japanese plane shows the bombing of the area south of Government House, around St. John's College and Lady Dufferin Hospital. The old prison is clearly visible near the centre.