Letters, articles, speeches and statements, 1933-1937

On 18 August 1945, a Mitsubishi Ki-21 heavy bomber belonging to the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service crashed upon take off from Taihoku Airfield in Taihoku Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan, present day Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan. Out of the 12 or 13 passengers on board, two passengers; Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose and Japanese Lieutenant General Tsunamasa Shidei died in hospital in the immediate aftermath of the crash. The bomber crashed three days after Japan announced its surrender, and three months before the return of Taiwan to the Republic of China. Bose, who had become soaked in gasoline before exiting the burning bomber, was transported to the Nanmon Military Hospital south of Taihoku, where his extensive upper-body burns were treated for six hours by the chief-surgeon Dr Taneyoshi Yoshimi, two other doctors, Dr Tsuruta and Dr Ishii, and half a dozen technical staff and nurses. Bose went into a coma and died between 9 pm and 10 pm Taihoku time.