75
years ago today - University student "Bo" Aung Gyaw was killed and
dozens of other Burmese demonstrators against colonial rule wounded by
police on Sparks Street (now Bo Aung Gyaw St) as they attempted to march around the Secretariat.
He was the first 'martyr' of the nationalist movement and tens of
thousands of people attended his funeral a week later (so many lined the
route that it took four hours for the cortege to travel the half mile
from Rangoon University to Kyandaw cemetary (now Junction Square mall).
Burmese nationalism was taking a radical turn.
Elsewhere in
the world Europe was veering towards the Second World War (Adolph Hitler
had just been named Time "Man of the Year") and Japanese armies
advancing across China, forcing Chiang Kai-shek to withdraw his capital
to Chungking. Within two years the war would come to Burma.
75 years ago today - University student "Bo" Aung Gyaw was killed and dozens of other Burmese demonstrators against colonial rule wounded by police on Sparks Street (now Bo Aung Gyaw St) as they attempted to march around the Secretariat.
