The ambitions and fanaticism of officers all too often imperil the men they lead into battle. The story of Imperial Japan's invasion and occupation of colonial Burma in World War II reveals just how many soldiers were sacrificed as little more than cannon fodder in battles that made no sense in a war already lost.
Gen. William Slim, a British officer who defeated the Japanese in Burma, expressed his admiration as follows, " Whatever one thinks of the military wisdom of his pursuing a hopeless object, there can be no question of the supreme courage and hardihood of the Japanese soldiers who made the attempts. I know of no army that could have equaled them."
Lt. Gen. Renya Mutaguchi was the man who overruled the objections of his advisers and pushed for the liberation of India, using Burma as a base of operations. It was sheer folly and of no strategic value, but he would have his "March on Delhi."
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