Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Kohima Educational Trust trustee Dr Robert Lyman talks about the UK publication of "The Road to Kohima" by Charles Chasie and Harry Fecitt MBE, TD
Available to purchase on the Kohima Educational Trust website:
kohimaeducationaltrust.net/shop#books
About the book:
A unique collaboration between a senior Naga journalist and a British historian, looking at Naga involvement in the Second World War Battle of Kohima, which was instrumental in halting the Japanese invasion of India. The book illustrates the ordinary civilian experience, details the military events in Kohima and explains the Naga participation as soldiers.
In April 1944, while the UK was getting ready to launch D-Day, 6,000 miles away, the Japanese invaded the jewel in the British crown – India. Approximately 15,000 Japanese soldiers travelled over the hills of Nagaland to be met by a small garrison of 1,500 British and Indian soldiers who held out for fifteen days, before the British 2nd Division arrived to help push the Japanese into retreat. Over 3,000 soldiers died during the Battle of Kohima and no house was left standing when the armies left.
Now, for the first time, we can hear this story from the Naga perspective. The people whose home was Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. They acted as porters, stretcher bearers and combatants, and many British said afterwards that they owed their victory to the Nagas. Through personal stories, this book tells how their lives were affected and how village life was pieced back together once the war moved on.
Kohima Educational Trust trustee Dr Robert Lyman talks about the UK publication of "The Road to Kohima" by Charles Chasie and Harry Fecitt MBE, TD
Available to purchase on the Kohima Educational Trust website:
kohimaeducationaltrust.net/shop#books
About the book:
A unique collaboration between a senior Naga journalist and a British historian, looking at Naga involvement in the Second World War Battle of Kohima, which was instrumental in halting the Japanese invasion of India. The book illustrates the ordinary civilian experience, details the military events in Kohima and explains the Naga participation as soldiers.
In April 1944, while the UK was getting ready to launch D-Day, 6,000 miles away, the Japanese invaded the jewel in the British crown – India. Approximately 15,000 Japanese soldiers travelled over the hills of Nagaland to be met by a small garrison of 1,500 British and Indian soldiers who held out for fifteen days, before the British 2nd Division arrived to help push the Japanese into retreat. Over 3,000 soldiers died during the Battle of Kohima and no house was left standing when the armies left.
Now, for the first time, we can hear this story from the Naga perspective. The people whose home was Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. They acted as porters, stretcher bearers and combatants, and many British said afterwards that they owed their victory to the Nagas. Through personal stories, this book tells how their lives were affected and how village life was pieced back together once the war moved on.
