“Give me blood and I will give your freedom.” This was the rallying cry of the Indian National Army (“INA”).
James joined the INA in 1943 in Singapore. He held the rank of Lieutenant. His motivations for joining the movement, unlike many other who were fighting for the independence of India, was his anti colonist ideals.
“… I became involved with the Indian National Army and Indian National Independence Movement. And I was a somewhat critical supporter of the Japanese Movement here. For instance, I mean, I got into it purely by accident. I was sitting in my house reading a book. A classmate of mine passed by and he said ‘Oh, there’s a meeting of the Indians. Would you like to go?’ I said, ‘No.’ ‘Oh, come along.’ he said.”
“And so I went to the meeting. The Indian who addressed the meeting was from the Fujiwara Kikan, what is his name? Rathor. [He] claimed to be a Rajput Prince and a dancer, and had gone to Japan. He was supposed to arrive there at 5pm. he arrived there about 7.30 [pm]. And it was under a house. So he came and he said he would like to speak to the prominent citizens of Johor Bahru. So everybody who was anybody trooped up. I and my friends and the ordinary hoi polloi all stayed below.”
“And after a long time they came down and the meeting proper began. Those days I didnt know the meaning of the word “dictum”. He said somethink like this:”
“It is the dictum of my life….”. He said he had decided to nominate the committee of the Indian Independence League, Johor Bahru Branch. That took me by surprise. So when he stopped, I got up and said, ‘ You expect these people to go and die for Indian freedom and you will also nominate the generals and commanders and all the rest of them. But you are not prepared to allow us any freedom of choice for the committee members.'”
“So I had a big argument with him. And he said silly things like ‘Oh, I know of you.” But I refused to give way. And the crowd became more and more with me. They couldn’t see why they should have everybody nominated. So finally he agreed to have a committee elected and the election was held. That is how I came to be elected into the committee as a little more than a boy of 19. I was warned by my father and some of his friends – you know the Kenpeitai will come and take you away for opposing this man. So I went and saw a doctor friend of my fathers’ and asked him for help. I was afraid of being tortured by the Japanese. So I said, ‘Won’t you give me some poison I can keep?’. He said so I went home.”
“I went to the office of the Johore Bahru branch which was at the Johore Military Force Hospital in Jalan Tuas (?) and worked at the office. Every day I used to go the Indian Independence League, and worked there. And we started a Volunteer Corp and the rest of it. Then I fell foul of the older me who ran most of the activities.”
“Anyhow, after a lot of difficulties at the end of the year, I joined the army and went off to Burma.”