Located in the heart of the Assam capital, the Guwahati War Cemetery where over 500 graves of soldiers from at least five countries – India, UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada – lie buried, hardly had any significant visitor on Friday, the 70th anniversary of end of the World War II. Some college students did visit, but that was more to pass time by bunking classes then to remember the historic day. But Salew Pfotte, Northeast India regional manager of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGM) has no regrets. “How many people today are bothered about what happened 70 years ago? Yes, the cemeteries in Kohima and Imphal do get a lot of visitors any given day. But the Guwahati cemetery is hardly known to people outside,” he said. Despite the lack of publicity, the Guwahati War Cemetery however gets about 100 foreign visitors every year. “Throughout the year we get about 100 foreign visitors. There is no mechanism to keep a count of domestic visitors because entry to the cemetery is free. But tourists, particularly from West Bengal do come in good numbers during the puja holidays,” Pfotte informed. Guwahati incidentally was the only Commonwealth cemetery of the World War II that till 2012 had graves of Japanese soldiers too. “No other Commonwealth cemetery is known to have had graves of soldiers from both sides, the victors and the vanquished, except Guwahati,” Pfotte added. Eleven graves of Japanese were dug up in January 2012, and whatever remains available was flown back for a formal burial in their native country. “We get lot of visitors for Kohima and Imphal, but there are very few people who want to specifically visit war cemeteries in Guwahati and Digboi. Kohima and Imphal in fact received a major fillip last year when the two battles were declared as the greatest battle fought by the British,” said Ashish Phukan, whose Jungle Travels brings several hundred foreign tourists to the Northeast every year. There are altogether 10 Commonwealth cemeteries belonging to the World War II across India, of which five are located in the Northeast. These apart, there is a Japanese war cemetery and memorial in Imphal, and a newly-discovered cemetery in Jairampur in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, the latter having several hundred graves mostly of Chinese soldiers and labourers who died while constructing the historic Stilwell Road. This 1736-km World War II road that runs from Ledo in Assam to Kunming in China through Myanmar, was renovated and reopened by union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari only on April 30. The Guwahati war cemetery located adjacent to the Navagraha cremation ground in the Chitrachal foothills, also has graves of 24 Chinese apart from 25 unidentified burials and two non-war graves. While no battles were fought in and around Guwahati, the cemetery here was started during the War for burials from several military hospitals in the region. Later other graves were brought in by the Army Graves service from military cemeteries in Sylhet and Amari Bari and civil cemetereies in Nagaon, Mohachara and Guwahati for permanent maintenance. Some graves were later also brought from isolated sites in present-day Mizoram, Coochbehar, Darjeeling, Shillong, Dibrugarh, Lumding, Dinjan, Dhubri and other places. Units whose men lie buried in the Guwahati cemetery include the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, Royal Corps of Signals, Gloucestershire Regiment, Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, Royal Artillery, Sottish Rifles, Royal Welch Fusiliers, Essex Regiment, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, South Staffordshire Regiment, Burma Hospital Corps, Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment, Royal AMC, Bengal Civil Pioneers, Royal Deccan Horse, Indian EME, Royal Indian Air Force, to name a few.
