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Unlike Mahatma Gandhi, fellow Indian pro-independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose advocated taking up arms against the British. WWII presented a golden opportunity for this, and in an "enemy of my enemy" move Bose escaped from arrest in India and headed for Nazi Germany. But despairing of a German invasion of India that would overthrow the British, Bose turned to the Japanese. This controversial Indian revolutionary died in Taipei in 1945, leading to decades of speculation and conspiracy theories. Here's the story of this complex figure and his final fate in what was then still Taihoku, Japanese Formosa.
Cover image: Left: Subhas Chandra Bose featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in March, 1938 (via TIME archives). Right: A colorized photo showing a meeting between S.C. Bose and Adolf Hitler. Via Quora
Below: Subhas Chandra Bose photographed circa 1930. Via Wikimedia Commons
Below: A memorial to Subhas Chandra Bose in the Renkōji Temple, Tokyo. Bose's ashes are stored in the temple in a golden pagoda.
Below: The flight path of Bose's final journey and the Mitsubishi Ki-21 twin-engine heavy bomber that Subhas Chandra Bose and Habibur Rahman boarded at Saigon airport around 2 PM on 17 August 1945. Via Wikimedia Commons
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
