Interview with Thingnam Anjulika Samom, journalist and independent researcher

How did you become involved in this documentation project?
 
When I was growing up, I used to hear many stories from my grandmother. She would tell us fairytales and folktales, but we also heard her mention the Japan War. The elders in the community also used the Japan War as a marker of time. They would say, “that person was born before Japan War or after the Japan War,” or “this house was built before Japan War or after the Japan War.” Within my own locality, we used to have many ponds that provided water, and the elders would tell us that those ponds were dug by the bombs.
 
Even though the Japan War was mentioned by the elders, people in my generation didn’t have a proper understanding of the Japan War and its impact. At school, there were chapters in our textbooks about the First World War and Second World War, but our connection with the war was not made clear to us and we didn’t understand how these events were important in Manipur.
 
After I became an adult and got married, I started thinking that there are many of these kinds of stories that need to be recorded. My grandmother passed away before we could hear the full story from her, so I planned to meet with my eldest aunt, who also experienced the Second World War. While I was making my plans, my aunt also passed away.
 
At that time, I came across another book also written by Khuraijam Nimaicharan about his experiences, titled The Second World War In Manipur And My Childhood. This was the only book available on the subject, and not a lot of people knew about it. I also realized that this book was written from a man’s point of view, and I thought that women must have a different story to tell, because women’s experience is always different from that of men. This is where my dream of recording Second World War stories, especially from a women’s point of view, began.

Why is it important to highlight the narratives of women? 

In a patriarchal society like ours, women’s experience is different in education, literature, and many other areas. The dominant narrative would be that of the person who has more stories to tell. If you go back to the Second World War, that brings us nearly 80 years back, obviously women were not allowed to move around as much as now, so their experiences were different from men, who could go out into society. As a result, the narratives of women had always been hidden or suppressed.  

I was so happy when this project could begin with the support of SPF. We started to think where we could go to interview women. I reached out to my friends and asking them if they could let me know if their grandmothers or aunties of these age groups are still alive, and there was a huge response. I also went around asking people who were already involved in the recovery of Second World War stories. Some of them were kind enough to point me in the right direction, suggesting areas where the war was more significant or battle sites, and I started looking for people with help from local NGOs. 

Once we started finding these women and talking to them, I started to realize that there are different layers of narratives of women. When we talked to people who belong to the more elite families or richer families or people with connections to the royal family, their narrative is very different than the typical experience. When they fled from the war, they fled all the way to West Bengal to accompany the queen who was fleeing as well. Some of those women stayed there for a long time and had access to education. 

For women who were poor, the war added to the hardships and difficulties that they were facing. Many people died not directly because of the war and fighting, but because they became ill and could not access medical services. Regarding education, I think schools had started for women, but not many women were going to school or being sent to schools. At that time, it was thought that you shouldn’t send girls to school because if they learn how to read and write, they are only going to use it to write letters. That was the narrative, so girls were not encouraged to go to school.  

What was the direct impact of the Battle of Imphal on the women in the community, and how did their experience differ from the men? 

For many of the women, when they saw the Allied Forces they didn’t interact as much as the men because they were not allowed. The fear was that these women would be taken away by the soldiers. I remember that one grandmother told us that many young girls at that time were married off hurriedly, even without a ceremony. There was fear in the community that an unmarried girl might be taken away.  

Some of the young girls would dress up as married women. Among the Meiteis, the dress and haircut of married and unmarried women are different. For unmarried women and young girls, they cut their fringe, while married women tie up their hair.  

In our interviews with women, we also tried to find out whether there were any instances of sexual violence or harassment toward women while they were fleeing from the fighting. There were some moments where we think that they are referring to some instances, but they were not very open about it. We also heard stories in areas like Moirang or in Shangshak or Ukhrul, where they had closer contact with the Japanese soldiers, about how the local community had closely interacted with these soldiers in a more friendly way. 

When we talk about the memory of women, especially in Manipur, women carry the memories of two places – one of the place where she was born and brought up, and the other is the place she is married into. Women were also the ones in charge of the food, and they were the ones who were in charge of looking after the children, so we found that the women had a different perspective to share. For me, those stories are equally as important as the ones the men were telling.  

Did you get the sense that this was the first time these women were getting the chance to tell their stories? 

Yes. Most times when we went to meet these women, they would start the interview by giggling and being very shy, looking away from the camera. They would tell me that they didn’t know if they had a story to tell. Even their family members would say that although their grandmother was present during the war, she wouldn't know much.  

We would start by talking about their family to gradually get them comfortable talking to us. Then we would start talking about the war, and slowly they would begin to tell us their stories. By the time the women would finish telling her story, often even her family would be surprised she experienced so much. This is why documenting women’s narratives is important. Women have many stories to tell. It’s just that nobody comes to them asking for their story, and nobody is willing to listen. 

Your narratives premiered as part of the third anniversary celebration for the Imphal Peace Museum. At the same time, a team of filmmakers led by Sesino Yhoshü also premiered a collection of narratives from the Battle of Kohima in Nagaland. How did this collaboration come about, and what is the significance of bringing the experiences and stories from Manipur and Nagaland together through this project? 

As I began working on the documentation project in Manipur, I learned from Yui Nakamura from the Asia and Middle East Program at SPF that Sesino Yhoshü, a documentary filmmaker in the neighboring state of Nagaland, had already started a similar project looking at the Battle of Kohima. We realized that Sesino and I need to connect because we were doing the similar thing. We would talk on the phone and through messages every now and then to check up on our progress and share problems we were encountering.  

I met her for the first time at the Imphal Peace Museum anniversary event. I had already read about her, how she is an award-winning filmmaker, and I have heard from Nakamura san and other filmmakers in Manipur about the work she has been doing. When I saw her films, I thought this is how you tell a story, how you use not just words, but also visuals. As a journalist, for me the word was more important. Then I realized there is more than the word. I am so impressed by her work and what she has done, and I am so happy to have finally have met her. 

Talking about significance of this project – when my grandmother and I talked about the Second World War, we thought that this was only our memory or experience. But by learning about the experience in a nearby place like Kohima or Nagaland, and the fact that those two stories came together, it’s like learning there are two sides of a coin. Bringing these two narratives together, the coin becomes whole.  

What’s happening in Manipur might be different from what was happening in Kohima, but when you hear those two stories together, the story becomes balanced. It was very interesting to know how it happened in that place and how it happened in our place – how different it was, but at the same time how similar our experiences were of having suddenly an influx of people you have never seen before, and how it changed our lives.  

What do you hope will be the lasting impact from recording and sharing these narratives? 

I am very grateful to SPF and The Nippon Foundation for allowing me to listen to my ancestors and elders once again through this project. The knowledge of these generations can only be passed on if we sit down to listen to and record the narratives.