Eastern Windows
Burma under the Japanese. By Thakin Nu. (Macmillan. 12s. 6d.) THESE two books will appeal to very different groups of readers. The narrative of Thakin Nu, the present Prime Minister of Burma, is undoubtedly for the specialist, and Mrs. Roosevelt's humdrunh day-to-day jottings of a recent five-month visit to India and Pakistan can be of interest only to the general reader, and he is unlikely to find in it anything new or even illuminating. Certainly those who have read and enjoyed The Lady in the White House will be disappointed by this further instalment of her autobiography. Invited to make 01,e visit by the Prime Minister of India, she was everywhere escorted Wit great care on a series of inspection trips. She saw what one woule expect, the Etawah community development scheme, the Khybej. Pass, the Taj (by moonlight), ,and she makes the kind of remarl one has come to expect. Perhaps of most interest to British readers will be her passing comments, for the most part ill-founded, uts the British record in India. - Leaving Mrs. Roosevelt's crisp jottings for Thakin Nu's drearni conversation pieces is like plunging from a well-worn track into the heart of the jungle. It is much more exciting but one does not gel far unless one knows the jungle lore. Thakin Nu rfiakes no effort at presenting a detailed or balanced study of Burma under the Japanese. He roughs out quite casually a number of vignettes, illuminating to those who know their Burma but no doubt puzzling to those who do not. For Burma he looks not backward, net forward, not outward, but always inward. For himself he poses questions. Is he to become a monk or a man of affairs, a politician or a playwright? One has the impression that both he and Burnie always rest at the calm centre of whatever cyclone may be blowing. In 1942 Thakin Nu allowed himself to be drawn out of prison t° join Ma Baw's government under the Japanese. As Foreign Minister and then Information Minister he took part in unending discussione and nothing appeared to get done. Unintentionally, perhaps, he and his colleagues must have broken even the hard hearts of the Japanese High Command. At the critical period in 1945, when the Japanese were deciding to withdraw, Thakin Nu spent his "whole time reading books that I borrowed from the Moulmein Library," and when the Japanese surrendered, he records, "I was thrilled with delight at the thought that the war and all its dangers had come to an end. 1301 then my thoughts turned to thirty resistance leaders who had bee! executed only some ten days ago and I was very sad to reflect how very nearly they had escaped." Awakening East, indeed! This book is essential reading for all ambassadors newly appointed not only to Burma but to other South-East Asian countries; perhaPs for Foreign Ministers, too. C. H. PHILO
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