http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/aljazeeracorrespondent/2011/08/2011828135228487172.html

so many nigerian names.

I've started watching. Very interesting!

Seen it. Too many made for TV moments. Touching story nevertheless

I can't remember the last time i shed tears!
This documentary just renewed my hope in humanity, even in wars, love and kindness conquers all!
This is our own SAVING PRIVATE RYAN!
To the family of Shuyiman, i pray God will show you kindness for the love shown by your father and to mr. fadeyebo, i could see you had made it count!

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My friend father fought in the war,the man grew old before he died. He told his son lots of story about the war. Many Nigeria died in Burma,I hope to write about the war some day, i have written about Darfur in Sudan.

tubolancer:

My friend father fought in the war,the man grew old before he died. He told his son lots of story about the war. Many Nigeria died in Burma,I hope to write about the war some day, i have written about Darfur in Sudan.

were u in the war? or what do u want to write?

This is the kind of stuff to show Nigerians to show who we are and how strong we are, but nowadays we are cowards! (myself included) The British owes us a lot and yet we are still been treated like monkeys! I swear nextime some edddeaaayyyattt oyinbo man talk to me.  I will tell him to go watch this movie.   i have always wondered what Nigeria looked like in the early 1900s and now i have a glimpse. Thank you for this link.  I am a Nigerian and will remain a Nigerian forever.

ayusman16 i have an aidea for a great movie if you are interested! could be a blockbuster!

I watched this video, and i was moved, so many unsung Nigerian heroes. May their soul rest in peace.

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@donrichie, what a $hitty website. my grandma can design a better website than that, whats the purpose? everything about that site is wrong! don't quit your dayjob> you can downlaod free dreamweaver or flash templates , stop using office98 frontpage to create website.

My grand uncle fought in Burma.
I dont know if He's still alive.

ayusman16:

were u in the war? or what do u want to write?

dem say story!

i swear down , i love this documentary! makes me so proud ! I bet Mr Fadebayo regerest what Nigeria has turned into. They fought for our independence becaus if the japs had conquered asia, believe you me, africa would have been next to face their samurai swords!!!! Thank you to all our great fallen heroes!!!

God bless all the African war heroes and their entire family

Even pupils from Kings College Lagos were conscripted and fought in Burma and some were killed in action.

See "Burma Boy" by Biyi Bamidele on http://www.amazon.co.uk/Burma-Boy-Biyi-Bandele/dp/0224076825 and "Lest You Forget My Father Fought in Burma" by Michael Chima on http://redroom.com/member/chima-ekenyerengozi/blog/lest-you-forget-my-father-fought-in-burma.

We really need a war film on these Nigerian heroes. It is going to be challenging to do this movie. But it must be done. I have been toying with the idea even before my father passed on.

Ayusman you do not have to be in the war to write about it,the reason why i am different from you. If we are on the same wavelength you will understand what i am saying.

It's unfortunate our stories are not being told by Nigerians. It's amazing how little people both in and outside Nigeria know about us. My colleagues (blacks) here in the US never knew we had tarred roads until I showed them where I lived in Lagos using google maps because all they are showed are hungry children in Africa.
I wish there could be plenty more stories like this being told.

really sad indeed!

My grand dad fought in Burma and he came back alive. Though late now may his rest in peace.

good stuff. thanks for sharing. , There's something very organic about Nigeria, i miss,

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I just remembered my Grandfather too fought in Burma. lol

Shit!! Now I cant wait to get home and watch this darn movie!!

I hope im impressed by what I see, Some sweet Nigerian war hero movie, Awesome!!

Someone need to make an Hollywood blockbuster out of this, i swear!

Japanese are kind of impressive. To rise in such a short period of time where you are nearly able to kick British @ss (and would have without US intervention.)

Hmm, would be nice to accomplish the same

For all those ethnophobic people out here that keep bashing Yoruba people. I want to point out that the only living detail from and Africans soldiers perspective of the Burma war, was written by a Yoruba man. Many tribes fought in the war, where is their written recollection of the war Now we all want to revel in the stories of our heroism, but two topics down from this forum, you can witness people bashing Yoruba people. I'm not Yoruba, but can we please stop the tribal bashing?? See what we can accomplish when we come together in solidarity.

I saw that documentary and was proud of the Burma Boy, how he survived the gunshots and was protected by the villagers, its a pity his rescurers are late, but the family acknowledged the story.

this are the authentic heroes, not those that fought in the nigerian civil wars who are only genocidal killers on both sides. i remember late Marshall Kebby was in Burma, their heroism was not recognised by the British and Nigerian Army that emerged after independence.see an excerpt below

The Burma Front 1943

When the Japanese almost ran out the Europeans from the entire continent of Asia durning the world war II, it appeared that the European powers were truly doomed at least in Asia. The Japanese war machine was unstoppable.

It was only in Burma, in the year 1943, that European powers were able to contain the enemy. The secret weapon used was the force of the west African soldiers mostly from Ghana, and Nigeria, who fought, overcame and destroyed the Japanese war machine after more than two years of continous warfare in the Burma jungles.

Nigerians made up more than half of the total force of 90,000 West African soldiers deployed to South East Asia after 1943 as part of the British Army’s 81st and 82nd (West Africa) Divisions. Their contribution was never adequately recognised.

The role of Indians and Gurkhas in the field of battle was widely aknowledged. But the Africans were simply ignored by a racist and ungrateful beneficiaries of their sacrifice. For example, when the European Allied commander General William Slim thanked his 14th army at the end of the campaign, he appeared to have forgotten that African soldiers were the bulk of the fighting force that defeated the Japanese. He did not even mention the Africans soilders in his vote of thanks!

The contribution of West Africans was played down in official versions of the Allied war in Asia. Their sacrifice remained unrecognized by the defunct and ungrateful British Empire, and until now, their story is largely unknown even in Asia which they saved.

In fact, it must be emphasized that only two in 10 of the soldiers who fought in Burma against the Japanese were white.

African Marksmen

Japanese soldiers were trained well in the art of jungle warfare, where the first rule was concealment. White soldiers could not operate in the type of terrain which the Japanese dominated. As such, the British sought the help of Africans who were already acknowledged as tough as nails and brave like lions in battle.

Soldiers from Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt were deployed to Eastern Asia in 1943, as part of the 81st and 82nd airborne division of the British Army, West African Division. There were about 90,000 of those soldiers and half of them made up the Nigerian Regiment or the 4th Battalion.

Officer positions were reserved for the few white expatriates from Britain and other parts of the empire, with only one notable exception: Lieutenant Seth Anthony from the Gold Coast was the British Army’s first African officer.

The African soldiers were instrumental to the defeat of the Japanese and by doing so, save British India from the occupation and rule of the determined Japanese soldiers who had almost driven the Europeans completely out of all Asia.

This was achieved through a gruelling campaign of sacrifices, death, injuries, mutilations, jungle marches, battles and ambushes, in which supplies were delivered entirely by air.

From Soldiers to Political Force

The war demonstrated to the Africans for the first time, the real nature of the Europeans. As a result of earlier defeats in wars, and later colonial policies, young Africans of that period actually believed in their own inferiority status as compared with the natural superiority of the Europeans.

But the war theatre of the second world war Burma ended all of that delusion. There for the first time, at close quarters without the props and curtains of colonial powers, the African boys realized the cowardly and gutless nature of their so called colonial masters.

Despite the hierarchy established between the few white officers and the brown African soldiers, the war in Burma played a key role in breaking down the race barriers of the era.

They developed a reborne sense of self and a new race pride founded on their baptism of fire deep inside the Burma jungles where they saw the white boys crumble with fear, where they stood their grounds and destroyed the Japanese war machine.

“Initially I saw the white man as someone better than me. But after the war, I considered him lesser…” recalls former infantryman Dauda Kafanchan.

It was boys like this who became the mass supporters of Pan-African nationalists like Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, and so many others, who later went on to win political independence for most of those countries.

They were the hard-edge of the new African nationalism. They had forged a new identity, a new consciousness, a determined objective. And they spread continent-wide.

The colonial governments were afraid of those veterans and did all they could to neutralize or frustrate them. In post-war Nigeria, the colonial government gave some veterans land to begin new lives as farmers. The project was also a scheme to reduce their potential impact as a new political force.

Nigerian soldiers who chose to continue their military careers went on to form the core of independent Nigeria’s national army, which retains the 81st and 82nd Divisions to this day.

Many of them later served as a peacekeeper in the Congo and Chad. Unfortunately, they were key resources in the frontlines of Nigeria’s tragic and bloody un-civil war 1967-1970.

Maybe thats the reason Gadhafi chose Black (West Africans) to protect him, cause he new we are natural born warriors. According to reports he was being protected by the blacks when he was cornered and killed.

But Japanese people are the worst people to fight a war with. Those guys have honor. No matter how short they are. Who because of injury or cant keep up with infantry will use grenade to blow themselves up? . In a war between just the British and Japanese, Britain alone would have been destroyed, They would have even gone to England to chase the royal family away. . The thing is, how would Japan have been, if they were victorious. Japanese soldiers are the original bad guys.

This is one of the best stories I have about Nigeria in recent times. It narrates man's capacity to do both evil and Good. Isaac and Muyima and embodiments of man's capacity for compassion in the face of evil.  You see, those who beat the drums of war do not understand that war is a "symphony of destruction, orchestrated by a few and paid for by many."  I believe that man is generally good- it is the vocal minority that usually cause the mayhem all over the world.  As Edmund Burke said: "evil triumphs when good men do nothing."  Muyima and his family are rare breeds of those who can in a subtle way confront evil.

Yinkay's talk about the Nigerian (un) civil war is apt here.  It reminds me of my mom's younger brother who survived the first wave of pogrom against Nd'Igbo in Sapele. In the bedlam that was unleashed against the Igbo, the Urhobos joined the fray by declaring "operation wey Ejoor" in 1967 and were just killing every Igbo they could lay eyes on.  However, my uncle's landlord-an Urhobo stood by the door of his house with double barrel gun in hand and said that none of his Igbo tenant's would be taken away by the angry mob that was going from house to house in search of their Igbo prey.  It is pertinent here to mention that I am Anioma Igbo and we've had long term relationships with Urhobos as neighbors from ancient times. This still did not deter the Urhobos.

The mob circled the building where my uncle's landlord single handedly kept all of them at bay with all his Igbo tenant's saying their last prayers.  In the interim they had massacred all the Igbo in sight in the neighborhood but my uncle's landlord with a double barrel gun and his wife with a pistle(as in mortar & pistle) stood in defense of their Igbo tenants from about 9 am till almost 10 p.m. when most of the mob dispersed promising to come back in the morning with more reinforcement to mow down the landlord and his tenants.

Fearing their threat, the Landlord gathered all his Igbo tenants and told them that he was going to smuggle them out that night.  He took all his tenants, young and old and walked with them for about 5-10 miles at night towards Obiaruku the nearest Igbo enclave. After he directed them towards Obiaruku, he then walked back alone.  This was how my uncle eventually made it home to my town.