The Japanese occupation of the Andamans is perhaps one of the least talked about episodes of the Second World War. Japanese forces landed in South Andamans on 23 March 1942 and in the next three to four hours gained complete control over the area.
The mid twentieth century is fondly recollected in India as the time when she realised nationhood, freeing herself from the reigns of European power. However, the time at with the country was overflowing with the ripe forces of nationalism, an East Asian country had also forced its exploitative control over one of the country’s territories, much to the astonishment of both the natives and the British. The Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Eastern shores of the country is the only part of India to have been occupied by a non-European power, that being the Japanese.
Until 1938 the British government used them as a penal colony for Indian and African political prisoners, who were mainly put in the notorious Cellular Jail in Port Blair, the biggest town (port) on the islands.
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